Lava Lake Campground

This campground made for one of the best all-around family camping experiences we've had, and after traveling for 15 months in a travel trailer, that's saying something! The lake makes it so special, whether swimming or paddling or hiking along the shore, you can while away the time with ease. The distant mountain views are superb. Some have said the mosquitos can get pretty bad but they weren't a problem for us. We didn't use the bathrooms much, they were pretty standard for a national forest campground, we used our camper bathroom and paid for the dump station across the road at the private campground.

It's a beautiful campground and the lake is absolutely gorgeous, fish are abundant and the amenities are all right. Shower tokens are $1.50/3 minutes. The toilets are tall plastic seats over holes in the ground, but they are kept well clean. Gosh do they stink, though! Dont bring your phone in the bathroom, cause you will never see it again if it falls in. The convenience store is filled with lots of things from beer to marshmallows to board games and towels, etc. The prices are a little wonky, $8.50 for a bottle of bug spray that lasted a day, just as an example. The trail around the lake is clean and lovely. However, the mosquitos sucked me dry, even with bug spray and a net for my head, they were absolutely ruthless. I got bit 6 times within the first few minutes of stepping out of the truck! There were some drunken unruly camping neighbors who were scream-laughing well past midnight, keeping everyone in my campsite awake, and I'm sure other campers were kept awake too. The camp host was useless to help, so we had to confront them ourselves. If you are allergic to bees, beeware (joke kind of intended!). All in all, it wasnt a bad trip. The bugs had us going home a day early, though, we were so itchy! My dog was being sucked dry by the mosquitos even more than us humans, she was going nuts! Oh, one more thing, PLEASE enforce the dog leash rule, my dog was approached by so many unleashed strange aggressive dogs I thought I would have to hide her in the tent for the rest of the trip.

We really liked camping here, it was peaceful at night and our neighbors were all polite. The grounds were fairly well kept, but the vault toilets were pretty gross and smelly. The dock and *small* beach area were fairly crowded the whole time we were there, lots of kids all over the place. So we were glad to have paddle boards and to be out on the lake, the swimming was great out there! Lake seemed pretty clean and not too cold in early July. Beautiful views of the nearby mountains made this place very picturesque. For $32 a night though I would expect better bathrooms and maybe a shower as well. Mosquitos were a major nuisance and didn’t seem to care about the bug spray we used. We also didn’t have much service as this was a fairly remote location. Overall, probably wouldn’t come back for the camping again but the day use area isn’t terrible and would return for the views.

The campground was well kept and the camp host cleaned the toilets pretty clean. Beautiful view of the lake and Mt. Bachelor. However the lake had algae and was not safe for dogs or kids to swim in it. There were some boaters. We drove a few miles to swim in Elk lake everyday instead. There was a rustic resort with a store and shower (might need to pay) right by the campground.

Absolutely great place for camping! Our kids had a blast fishing and playing in the water. Nice size trout in the lake. Gorgeous views of Mt. Bachelor, Broken Top Mountain and South Sister Mountain. Though, like I always say, I love the forest especially the Deschutes National Forest so i guess my opinion in a bit bias lol. But even though I can come back over and over to enjoy Lava Lake as the only thing that changes there is the seasons the campgrounds doesn't always have the same camp hosts. With this camping trip my family and I just had this past weekend at Lava Lake we had the pleasure of meeting the new camp host for Lava Lake and Little Lava Lake. Steve and his wife have been the host for these two campgrounds for just about a week now. It was an absolute pleasure to have them as our camp hosts. I've camped at many many different campgrounds across the Pacific Northwest and this couple was, by far, the best camp hosts I've come by. Our first day there we felt so welcoming by them. Any issue we might of came across or and thing we needed we knew we could count on them. Very friendly, and was very down to earth. The campgrounds were completely full the first two nights and at night time it was so quiet that you felt like you were the only ones for miles. I've, unfortunately, had some hosts in the past that made you feel uncomfortable and like you were not welcomed but that was definitely not the case with these wonderful people. The lodge at Lava Lake has great prices for boat rentals, paddle boards ect. Very friendly people to find out everything you need to know about fishing the lake, such as what the fish are biting on or what part of the lake has been a hotspot more so than other spots. Only problem I came across was that they didn't sell my Mt Dew by the cases 😭. But that's ok because it's just a little over 30 minutes to the beautiful town of Bend. If you like to explore then you can't go wrong here because from the Lake Mt. Bachelor is just 15 to 20 minutes from our campsite as well as countless other lakes in the Cascade Scenic Byway. Overall, my family and I took our four hour drive back home to the valley completely satisfied that we achieved our goal of adventure, fun and relaxing that we desperately needed. Thank you Deschutes National Forest!