Little Lava Lake Campground

Once on Lava Lake Road/ NF 500, off of the Cascade Lakes Byway, you have the choice of three campgrounds. The first one being Little Lava, the second being Lava Lake, and the third being Lava Lake RV Park. The RV park had a little general store, hookups, potable water, and a dump station ($7 fee). We chose Little Lava because there were two sites with views of the lake and the backside of Mt. Bachelor.

We arrived on October 4th, the day the campground was closing. We had talked to employees of Hoodoo Recreation (the managers of the campground) and they told us that because the campground had a boat launch, they would not be gating off the entrance to the campground, and we were welcome to camp there for free. (Many of the campgrounds along the Byway close at the end of September, and had gates prohibiting access. Should also mention that they close the Cascade Lake Byway altogether after the first snowfall.)

The campground was quiet and empty during our stay, with kayakers randomly using the boat launch during the day. Site 11 and 12 both are along the lake, but we chose site 12 as it had more privacy and a large outdoor space. There is a little path from site 12 that takes you right to the lake and you can view Mt. Bachelor, South Sister and Broken Top from the water. There are several hiking trails you can access from the campground that take you to the Deschutes River and Elk Lake.

We had great Verizon cell coverage and had 34 mbps download and 5 mbps upload speeds.