Ochoco Lake County Park — Attraction in Oregon

Camping at this location was one of the worst camping experiences I've ever had. When we arrived, we found that the park hosts had set up a sprinkler in our site to water the grass, soaking the area where we would have placed our tent and the restroom code that they gave me in the email was changed due to the homeless coming in off the highway to use their facilities. When I say coming off the highway, I mean this campground is RIGHT off the highway, like 300 feet away. While we were setting up the tent, the Crook County Sheriff had three units respond to domestic violence happening in the park. There were motorcycles leaving the state park revving their engines unnecessarily loud at all hours, just to operate them normally once they were on their way. We were hoping to swim in the lake, but the stench coming off the lake was unreal and the muck in the lake made it unsuitable for anything but boating. I spent more on firewood bundles than I did for the two day stay, and the wood had too much moisture in it to make for an enjoyable campfire. Found a discarded drug baggie in our site as well. The only positives to mention were that the restrooms/showers were clean, the park hosts were friendly and it was in close proximity to a BLM Rockhounding site where you could...

This was a fantastic campground, probably one of the best I've been to (and I've been to a lot). I was worried, since it's first-come first-serve, but we arrived around 6 pm on a Friday, summer night and there were plenty sites to choose from. It's only $16 a night (more for an extra car), and they offer water, bathrooms with showers, and firewood. The bathrooms were very clean, heated, had warm water, and hand soap! There are about 25 sites, and from most of them you can see the lake. The sites were very clean and spacious and they each had a nice table and fire pit. We were only tent camping, so the lack of electricity wasn't a problem for us. Even though it's close to the hwy, we didn't have a noise problem. If anything, it was convenient. The nearest grocery store is in Prineville and only about 10 minutes away. It's about 40 minutes from Smith Rock State Park and about an hour from the Painted Hills. We were very pleased by our stay here and we will...

So, having visited Steins Pillar approximately 10-12 minutes from the Ochoco Lake, we decided to stop by the campground to get some aerial footage along with getting an idea of what the park offered. I was told that at one time there were structures or cabins of some sort on the campsite pads, some with concrete in place still, but now was only for tents. There was restrooms available throughout the campground with potable water available, a million dollar view of the lake & the peaceful environment of the forested shore with mountains as the backdrop. This is a nicely laid out campground with Beautiful surroundings, recconemnd it to anyone visiting the area who...