Forest Road 260

I lived in Bend for 15 years and when I return I almost always stay in one of the dispersed camping areas just west of town out Skyliners Road.

This particular spot works well if you don’t mind the dust. You should be aware that the road is pretty rough and that bringing a trailer, fifth wheel or Class A would be a challenge.

Also, cell service is sketchy. Lost Verizon service altogether off and on through the day but was good enough after dark that so was able to stream Netflix and YouTube.

Only one really good reason to stay here- Bend.

Dusty as crap, lots of trees so bad solar, and not the easiest road to maneuver.

I and my biz partner both got our 24' travel trailers down close to the end in a somewhat sort of a pull-through site. Decent solar there, not stellar. Trash all up in the woods behind- vagrants clearly have slept there, and also have dumped a lot of clothing for whatever reason.

Can't recall internet, but I never stay where I can't stream/work, so I did fine with Verizon and likely ATT.

Not my favorite spot, just because the dust is SOOOO bad. It's pulverized to the finest dust imaginable.

Makes it pretty gross to stay.

Put up with it, and you have a free place to stay while exploring Bend. I didn't even take photos here apparently. Not pretty enough?

Didn't stay very long.

The first few sites coming in the road were taken (5 or so sites) on a Monday evening, I did find a decent one further back. The road isn't terrible but I wouldn't take an RV back here or come when it's wet. The biggest downside is the TRASH, goodness people clean up after yourselves! It's mostly contained in the fire pit but 1) there's a fire ban & 2) you shouldn't burn your garbage, especially all this plastic. There's also some random scraps scattered about. I appreciate the convenience but probably wouldn't stay here again if I could help it. I'm going to clean up the site I'm at but I wish I woulda brought gloves- ick.

Since there weren't any reviews yet for this site, we first checked out Forest Road 300: That site was full of parked vehicles of cyclists enjoying the area, and the road going further into the forest was definitely unpassable to most vehicles -- so we turned around and came to this site, Forest Road 260.
Google does not have this road on it's maps, but the GPS coordinates will guide you to the correct spot.
[It's about 10 minutes west of Bend and incredibly convenient.
There is a dump station in town at the Shell station on Galveston -- free to use with the purchase of 10 gallons of fuel, otherwise dump is $10. There isn't a separate spigot for fresh water but they said the water at the dump area spigot was potable and we were able to hook up our own hose.]
Back to the campsite:
There are three definite sites as you first pull in, and the road is accessible to pretty much any vehicle. We took the 3rd site down the road, on the right hand side. If all of these sites are taken, it would be a bit difficult to turn around, but there are some less obvious sites that could potentially work to back into and turn. Scouting ahead of time would be a good idea.
After our site, the road goes downhill (short but slightly steep) and while we were there, there was a Class A parked in a site at the base of the hill.
The road then turns left and there are several more sites. We didn't go the full length of the road, but we saw at least 6 camping areas along Forest Road 260 and there are likely several more.

A ranger drove down the road twice during our week stay -- presumably to take note of who was staying and for how long (there is a 14 day limit).

We had decent enough cell service for video meetings and regular internet usage. We did use a booster. The signal wasn't terribly strong but it was fine for working from the RV all day (we have AT&T and Verizon and both signals were about the same)

There was a fair amount of garbage around our camping area (which is the reason for the 4 stars, well, that and the fact that this area is incredibly dusty! It just covers your shoes as you walk around and inevitably comes inside too) but we collected the garbage that we could and were able to take it to the Cascade Lakes Welcome Center -- this is a ranger station that also has maps of the Forest Roads which indicate were there is dispersed camping allowed!
For the larger garbage at our site (vacuum cleaner, old VCR, and roofing materials -- what is wrong with people!) we filed a report with the rangers so they could send a vehicle to come get it.

All in all this isn't an incredibly scenic spot but it's in the forest, the air is fresh, it was quiet even though there were a handful of other campers using this road and loads of cyclists enjoying Skyliners Rd (the main road into town). It's a close drive to get into Bend, and if you go further west up Skyliners Road it will take you to Tumalo Falls which is well worth the visit (free parking if you have a National Parks pass, otherwise I think it was $5). After checking out Tumalo Falls (which is visible from the parking lot and then a short hike to be standing at the top of the falls) you can hike the trail about a mile in to see another waterfall (Double Falls). This area is really beautiful but can definitely get busy -- best visited on a weekday if possible.

We have a video posted on YouTube of our week-stay in Bend, showing this campsite and some of the great things to do in the area.