Do We -- Or Don't We

The campgrounds in the Deschutes National Forest, like many other forests, use outsourced management firms. We know someone, who knows someone who has a leadership position in said firm. But much of what we experienced the past three days wasn't because of the management firm.

The sign might be clearer, but the same information is posted on the board where people pay their camping fees. Apparently the dog owners are as illiterate as the dogs. We had six different unleashed dogs visit our campsite at least once - sometime several times over the three day period.

The road through this 9 site campground dead-ends at a day use boat launch. The design of the campground is such that there is minimal parking at the launch site. Drive in, find it parked full, and then back your boat all the way back up the hill

because the one loop in the campground is blocked by the people using the loop for camping space in the one multi-site location. The design of the road and the site access angles requires that people play nice. Turns out, it's the same people that don't leash and don't pick up after their dogs that are the most likely to block the road or use a campsite for daytime parking while out boating on the lake.

We loved the easy access to go out for a moonlight paddle, but with over 15 NFS campgrounds along the Cascade Lakes highway, I'd think twice about staying at Point unless you walk in first to confirm you'll have maneuvering room.

We didn't check out all the various campgrounds, but found that in addition to the two NFS campgrounds on Lava or Little Lava Lakes, (Little Lava would be our first choice next time)

there is also a private resort with full hookups at Lava Lake if that's your desire. For us, it was their RV dump ($7) and large, hot showers ($1 tokens for 3 minutes) that made a stop there worthwhile.

The whole Cascades Lakes area from Sparks Lake to Davis Lake was beautiful! We'll be back.