Cold Springs Campground

This is a nice, quiet little campground near Sisters, Oregon. When I pulled in on a Saturday in mid October there were only 3 other campers. I stayed for the night on my way from the Oregon coast to home in Utah. The water was already shut off for the season. Sign says the campground will close October 24th.The sites are mostly (all) shaded with tall pine trees, so solar might be a problem. Some sites can be reserved and some are first come first serve. Looks like about 1/2 and 1/2. Several pull through sites and some back-in. Room for big rigs, but the campground road is very narrow in a couple spots, so just be careful. The sites are large and well spaced. Very clean pit toilets.

It has a narrow road between the trees, you have to ignore the blacktop and focus on avoiding the trees, which we did successfully. Site #6 is a loop off the forest road, which I wouldn't have been able to get in forwards, but was able to back into fairly easily.

The pine tree cover made a 100F day rather pleasant. The dogs had enrichment saving us from the mass chipmunk attacks! With the spacing between the sites being good it was nice and quiet. We loved our stay and I'd happily stay again. We sometimes stay in Sisters Creekside, but they only have 2 sites where we can fit, so Cold Springs will be one of our regular visits.

Price reflects 50% discount for National Park lifetime old guy pass.

Reserved and paid for site online. Site #12 was a back-in on outside corner so easy straight back in and easy out. There is a small creek running down the middle of campground. I think there were 20 sites. Not far from Santiam Pass and the small town of Sisters. This was stopover enroute to CA and a bit of a deviation off Hwy 97 but one of the few spots available. I would definitely stay here again and would have been nice to spend time exploring Sisters. No hookups and we had to do a bit of leveling.

The campground was perfectly situated for Mike to ride the McKenzie pass. Clean, no frills, beautiful, camp with some trails nearby. Get site 8 which was on a “corner” with a lot of space and privacy. Five minutes from a market and gas station, 10 min from Sisters, OR.

No services, pit toilets, dishwater disposal, and barely any Verizon service (could surf the web but you’d get a random text now and again. They usually have water available but not now due to COVID.

Watch out for GPS, it had us turn too early coming from the east on HWY 242. Look for the sign!

I stayed here during the Sisters Quilt Show in July. Everything else in the area was booked, but a friend of mine who lives in Bend suggested this campground. I booked apprehensively ... but was VERY pleased with my stay and would not stay anywhere else when in the area again. Zero hookups with pit toilets and no showers, but heavenly tall trees and peaceful quiet. Upside to the trees is that I did not need my A/C on the 95 degree days. Only downside to the trees is that there was not enough sunny area to use my solar panels for any length of time ... don't like to use my generator but will if I have to. Nice walking for the dog and small creek for her to play in. The $7 price reflects my Senior Access pass, but even at $14 / night it is well worth it. Only 4 miles from the nearest grocery store and other shopping in Sisters. Pit toilets could have been cleaner, but they were attended to at least once per day by off-site camp host. Noise from the road was minimal.

We stayed here the week of the 4th of July. It was the perfect choice for a quiet campground on a holiday week. With only 22, very widely spaced, sites it didn't feel crowded even when all the sites were full. I think the lack of amenities (aside from vault toilets and hand water pump) combined with no lake or river, helps to keep the vacationing masses at a minimum.

Aside from the peacefulness, the best thing about this campground was the location. Smack in the middle of a unique volcanic wonderland filled with cooled lava, towering volcanic mountains, and scenic forests, there is no lack of amazing things to explore within a short drive. Cold Springs is also only a few miles from the town of Sisters where they have a grocery store and large selection of places to eat, drink, and shop.

One note about the cell service. We got adequate bars of both Verizon and AT&T but needed to use our booster to help the speed along. The AT&T, in particular, was on the weak side.

If you love to hear the breeze rustling through towering Ponderosa pines and getting away from the maddening crowds, this is it. There are no electric or water hook-ups here and no dump station. There are only vault toilets and one hand- pump. The trade-off is large campsites, the tranquility of this place, and the easy access to the amenities of Sisters about 3 1/2 miles east of the campground and the scenic drive up to up to the McKenzie Pass, the lava flows, and the "stone" observatory to the west. The price reflects our senior discount. This campground seems to fill up quickly so it would be wise to reserve your spot if you are planning on spending the weekend here. Oh yes, if you look closely, there are raised receptacles for disposing of dish-water.

Update 06/01/2019
I stayed here a second time. Everything is still the same as my first review. Quiet and relaxing campground. I am editing this review to update my cell reception information. I have Verizon and AT&T. AT&T works best at the campground. Verizon works but data is slow and phone call quality is marginal and calls are sometimes dropped.

Boosted:
AT&T: 12.2 Mbps download, 3.3 Mbps upload
Verizon: 2.6 Mbps download, upload test did not complete

Not boosted:
AT&T: 5.9 Mbps download, 3.7 Mbps upload
Verizon: download and upload test did not complete

This is a National Forest Service campground on the McKenzie Highway approximately four miles west of Sisters, Oregon.
There are no RV hookups, but there is well water from a hand pump. We saw toilet facilities, but didn't use them. I'm guessing that they are vault toilets.
The parking pads are dirt with lots of spacing between sites. Some sites had tall grass close to the site.
Most sites are close to level, but we did use the levelers at our site, number 9.
Our site was quiet with infrequent road noise.
The sites are large and include picnic table and fire pit.
Most of the sites are partially to mostly shaded under tall pine trees.
Reservation are accepted for about half of the sites through recreation.gov.

The campground is named for a spring that flows out of the ground at the west end of the campground. The spring splits into two small creeks that run through the campground. Sites 1, 2, 4, 6, 8 are closest to the creek.

There are lots of places to hike around the campground. Walking a short distance in any direction will lead to single lane forest service dirt roads that run through the area. The roads make great hiking trails. Approximately a half mile west of the campground, one of the roads intersects with the Metolius/Windigo trail. This 150 mile trail parallels the Pacific Crest Trail from the Metolius River to Windigo Pass.

We had a usable cell signal with our AT&T phones and also with our Verizon hotspot with external antenna and amplifier.

This is a wonderful campground. You can really stretch out and relax with the large sites, tall trees and ample spacing between sites.