Detroit Lake State Recreation Area

In a area devastated by wildfires in 2020, this one survived and is pretty much the only option in these parts

It’s LARGE, and this crowded

Flush toilets, hot showers

$19 for a site with no hook ups

It IS right next to state hwy 22 and the traffic noise can’t be ignored

Works well in a pinch! I’d rather not stay a week at a time like some of the visitors were doing but each to their own

This park is older, it’s been around a while, so don’t expect perfection in the amenities. That said, it was comfortable and great family park. Sitting on the edge of Detroit Lake, you have water’s edge access everywhere. Several boat ramps are within the park. The east side loops are RV sites, the west side loops are mostly tent sites.

Roads are on the narrow side and RV sites very greatly. DO YOUR RESEARCH, some sites have difficult entrances but most are fairly standard. The site we stayed in was easy and long, but the outside area was on the smaller side. No room for a pop up shelter so the awning was it. Most sites have plenty of room. We had great internet.

There are two cons to this park. The first is hwy noise. Get a site on the water side if you can, the other side is 100 yards off the hwy. you can hear it plainly throughout. Traffic during the week was manageable, but if you are sensitive to such noise, it will be an issue. Log truck jake breaks at 3:00 AM are not uncommon.

The other issue is power. It’s an older grid, but there is a sign at the entrance about it. We did not have any issues during the week at the time of this review, we will see com Saturday when the park is full. It has been 90 degrees most days. Generators are not allowed. I will update if we have issues.

This campground is huge and one of the only campgrounds in the area with cell service and lake access.

During the fall they sometimes have discounts, so we were able to stay on a lake side campsite for $25/night FHUs! Some of the sites are small and others are uneven to get into, but I would say that most of the sites are quite large. Especially ours. We had a huge outdoor space with fire pit and picnic table. Some are slightly close but you can get a pretty good feel on their website because they show pictures of most of the sites. I particularly liked our loop, G and our site 39. Some sites are close to the road which will get road noise, but we only heard it a little. The site was clean and for all the dogs I was pleasantly surprised that there was no dog poop in the site or garbage.

During the summer I am sure that this campground is packed with boaters, so we were happy to be there during the fall when it's quiet and the fall colors are in full effect. During the fall only F & G loops are open but they do allow campfires and the campground sells wood.

The campground also has THE BEST garbage and recycling system. I wish they all had what they had.

Good data, bathrooms, lake access, close to town, decent quiet hours and dog friendly. They have a ton of campground hosts too. Like 2 or 3 per loop.

This campsite is also relatively close to a lot of beautiful hikes. Marion Lake and Bocca Cave.

We stayed here Sept. 23-25, it was pretty quiet. There were still lots of camp hosts but the main check in was unstaffed, it was a self check in process. The had a list with names and sites on it of those that had reserved site, you just check your self in. If not you could pick a site that did not have a tag on the site number post. This is an excellent park right on the lake. Its about a mile long camp ground along the lake. The lake was down quite a bit, but still beautiful. Many of the sites in G and H loop on the lake side had a green belt and a path along the lake, which was not part of your site but next to it. Some folks were able to set up their satellite dishes at the more open sites, we picked up some OTA channels. The rest were mostly in the trees.

The hosts told us that in summer the place is hopping all summer, lots of boaters and fishing. There's a small store/gift shop, you can get ice and firewood. Our site was a back in right up to the green belt, great views lots of room, neighbors not too close. mostly level side to side but front to back was not. I had to extend the jacks pretty far to be able to lower the front of the rig 10", the pin box was the lowest I can remember. Other sites were not as much of an incline. We would definitely stay here again, likely a different site.

We found this campground to be beautiful in that the lake was nice and the trees and greenery were plentiful. The fishing in the local streams, creeks, rivers was amazing.
The sites were pretty close together- but I imagine when this campground was built no one had slide outs and huge rigs.
We chose this campground because after traveling and dry camping we needed a break from the heat (100 degrees) and needed electric hook ups. We were dying to run the AC so we could sleep better at night and also wanted to cook a few meals in the Insta-pot.
We booked a 5 night stay here so we could cool off, cook and rest.
We have an EMS on our rig to protect our appliances from too high or too low of voltage (we once lost a refrigerator to bad voltage.) Once we settled in we closed up the rig and turned on the AC and our power immediately shut off. We tried several times and each time the power shut off. (Now, my hubby is a retired (40 yrs) high voltage electric lineman/electrician for our local gas and electric company so he knows and understands electricity. He went out and checked our voltage which, over the course of 5 days, ran constantly at 101-106 (um.... we paid for 120). We had everything turned off in our rig and tried to use the Insta-Pot, but every time we tried to use any electricity it would shut off. This was so frustrating.
We went to the check-in booth to discuss the issue when we noticed a sign in the window which read "Electricity users, please only use what you need as too much usage can cause issues" so they are aware there is a problem. They sent a couple of Rangers over who had no idea about electricity- but they came to apologize for the inconvenience. They said the park is old and the new rigs all use so much more power than the old ones that it has become an issue. They said our circuit is just overloaded because it is so hot everyone is running their AC (everyone but us thank you very much). We were at the end of the line and the power was just too low to be usable. It was frustrating because we saw rigs with 2 ACs going and we couldn't even run our one. We asked for a refund of the price of full hook ups since we were unable to use it at all (all 5 days) but they said only the Park Mgr. had that authority. We left him a message as well as a 3 page comment card and never heard a word from him. What does he care? He obviously didn't.
It was very hot during our stay and we were very disappointed and are even more disappointed that Bob, the Park Manager never bothered to contact us.
We have Verizon and had very spotty cell service. We could text words only- no photos and no email or online capability at all.

What can I say, this is simply another amazingly beautiful Oregon State Park. Our site backed up to the lake with awesome views. We only stayed one night but wish we had planned a longer stay.

There were ducks and a few pair of Canadian Geese with about a dozen chicks. They walked right up to us in our site grazing on the grass. Photo opportunities around every corner at this campground.

Locals staying here were very friendly and a large group next to us came over and apologized for getting loud, even though they weren't even close to "campground" loud :)

They even invited us over for food that evening. They offered a near endless amount of local knowledge each having a different opinion of what we should "definitely" see while in Oregon. We had a great time visiting with them and learned a ton about Oregon from coast to coast.

Park rangers were very friendly and there is even a little souvenir shop at the campground. Firewood is available for sale as well. There is a gravel path that runs almost the full length of the campground along the water's edge which was very nice. There is a restroom/shower house in each loop. We didn't use them but they were very clean.

Cell signal here was great on Verizon and AT&T, T-Mobile was good but not great.

Regarding my nightly stay at only $8 - Oregon State Parks Dept offers Disabled Veterans a special pass which allows 10 nights per month of free camping, plus the $8 online reservation fee. Disabled Vets can go to the Oregon State Park website for more information on how to get your pass.

We highly recommend this campground. Did I mention it was amazing?

This is a huge campground, with over 300 sites. And no dump station. What's that about? I know some of the sites have sewer, and maybe the goal is to push folks toward those more expensive sites, but it seems irresponsible to have so many campsites without a dump station.

Our campsite was on the water...or at least with nothing between us and the water. The water was far away, however, given the current levels of the lake. The way it's set up, if you have a campsite on the water, you have lots of beach-goers between your site and the water, so it's not too private. Fortunately, the night we were there (4th of July) there were open sites on both sides of us providing more privacy.

We loved that there were no restrictions keeping the dogs off the beach (we always clean up after them, so we appreciated that there was no ban -- the dogs appreciated it, too). With such a large campground, it's not surprising that there was a fair amount of noise, but at least people toned it down later in the evening. No generators are allowed at all, and that helped with the noise issue. It was cool at night, and we were able to keep our windows open without being kept up by noise.

Again, our only complaint is the lack of a dump station. What would someone who was staying longer than a night do?

I'd been eyeing this lake up for years. Every time we'd migrate from the coast to the eastern Cascades we'd driven by, but it was never actually on the agenda.

It was big and beautiful from the road, crossing the bridge that separates the state park from the quaint mountain town of Detroit the vista opened up, the valley parted and a river with a name too difficult to pronounce had been dammed to create Detroit Lake.

Nothing like its Michigandian namesake.

Alas, upon trying to make reservations—like everywhere summer weekend Oregon—there was little availability. We could only score a Friday night.

After climbing through the grandiose swirving through Doug-fir forests that is the drive here from the west (or east, that's even better), I pull up to the entrance.

"Just staying one night?" The plump man smiled as he entered my reservation info.

"Yeah," I sighed, "I thought that was all that was available."

"We've had some cancellations, so you could stay longer," he revealed. Bonus.

"I'll take two more nights if I can."

"Two nights?!" He chuckled. "Your weekend just totally changed."

He put us in G43. It is the absolute best spot in the entire campground, massive, as far from the highway as possible (other sites are right on that road), separated by the campground loop road by trees, a big field behind it.

But I wasn't here for the spot. I was here for the lake.

I set us up in record time, donned my swimming trunks, and ran for the water. Doing my best Fred Flintstone I jumped skyward, positioned my hands in the prayer's dive, and prepared for the cool blast of relief from the 100 degree weather.

Bam! Face first into the dirt. My body cartooned into an accordion shape and I shuffled along back to my campsite.

The lake is drastically low. It didn't stop us eventually from getting in the water, and it did keep the mosquitoes a quarter mile away from our should-be waterfront site.

Renee, my baby's mama, went on and on about how awesome our site was. Like, 40 times a day. If she says it again, though I agree, I'll have little recourse but to contact the Pope for a royal annulment.

I can imagine how epic this place would be with a boat. Tubing. Water skiing. You could ride across the lake to town for drinks and some great BBQ at Connors.

As state parks in Oregon roll, this one is a classic rock tune with just the right amount of cowbell.