Tumalo State Park Campground — Hotel in Bend

I'm hoping it was incompetence, but sadly I think it was racism that I experienced. I was on a 3 week RV road trip from California and booked over 10 campground sites for my trip. I left a few days open to check out Bend, so I didn’t have reservations there. It was suggested that we check out Tumalo State Park campground for first come first serve sites, or cancellations. We were able to get the first night but the host said there was nothing available for the next night, he suggested we talk to the ranger in the morning. Long story short, ranger Sam Hough (which I believe is the racist one) said there was no site available, then less than an hour later, gave away a site to a couple that drove in…even though she knew we were waiting for one. In the meantime, I had spoken to ranger Justin Burns and he didn’t know of availability but would get back to me when he was done fixing the aerator in the faucet. I made him aware of the open site (because I kept checking the online reservation system on my phone), and he said he’d get back to me within half an hour. I had walked by the open site and it was vacant. By the time Justin came to talk to me, he said that it had been taken (by the people I saw drive in). I was quite upset, because Sam knew we were waiting for a site and I had told Justin a site was vacant, yet the site went to the white couple that was tent camping. I walked over to the couple (they were quite nice) and asked if they had made a reservation or if they had just got there. They told me they just drove in and got lucky because the site was available, somebody had told them they could take it. I told them we had been waiting for a site and they felt bad and offered to share it with us. I wanted to find out who “okayed” them taking the spot since we had been asking about staying another night, so I flagged down Host Steve. Steve likes to hear himself talk and contradicted himself, so I feel like he is rude and might have something against Mexicans too. The other host (there are three sets of them at this campground – which I think is ridiculous because they don’t communicate amongst themselves) all said Steve was the person who would know about open sites… but supposedly he didn’t know about that one. I dealt with 3 sets of host, and 2 rangers, they all have a different procedure on how to occupy a site. At the end of the day, we didn’t stay a second night, but very disappointed that I experiences this type of treatment from San Hough, Justin Burns, and Steve. We are in 2023, get over people not being the same...

July 2016: I had planned to stay seven days at Tumalo State Park. But when I checked in, the ranger told me I could only stay three days – this was a complete surprise to me. I had called ahead and mentioned that I was planning on staying a week, and asked how bikers can camp there. At no time during the phone call did the park ranger mention the three day restriction. I had checked the state park website for rules/restrictions prior to my planned trip. The state park’s website had no mention of a three day camping limit for hikers/bikers. Neither was the unpublished rule posted on the park’s signage. The state park website allows car campers to book reservations more than seven sequential days.

There were many extra camping spots at the hiker/biker area of the camp. I explained all this to the park rangers and I requested special dispensation from the rangers. But the park rangers seemed to be more bureaucrat types, less customer service oriented types (a typical government operation), fond of stating the unpublished rule (a rule found nowhere on their website, not on the park’s signage, and not mentioned on the phone when I called ahead to plan the trip), and apparently the park rangers seemed unmoved by reasonable logic.

Having such an unpublished rule, and then repeatedly refusing to extend grace to a camper who asks for an exception to the unpublished rule is not a particularly helpful way to treat guests.

I asked the rangers to update their website to inform hiker/biker campers of the unpublished three day limit.

So I broke camp. I was the only person in the hiker/biker camp and had to leave, according to the ranger bureaucracy, leaving zero hiker/biker campers at the campsite (leaving the hiker/biker campsite completely empty). I packed up, loaded all the gear on my back, and rode my bike the six miles into Bend, loaded down with gear. There are no other campsites around Bend, so I checked into a Motel 6.

December 2017 update: In July 2016, I had asked asked the park rangers to update the Tumalo State Park website to inform hiker/biker campers of the unpublished three day limit. Upon writing this review 18 months after my trip, the park website had not been updated to inform hiker/biker campers of the three day limit. This lack of action and lack of customer service is indicative of government bureaucrats posing as...

Maybe kid friendly but not dog friendly.

The lower loop is very nice- as a full time vanlifer, definitely would revisit that area again when I’m not feeling up to boondocking. The upper loop is geared more towards families with children and retired folks who are looking to camp surrounded by other people.

We got reprimanded a few times by park staff for our dogs barking at passersby in the middle of the day, so I chose to leave before my second night at the park. Never had an issue an any other campground in all of my years of travel- dogs bark, I was actively making an attempt to distract them and it was 4pm. This place is run more like a private campground- where noise is frowned upon (ironically screaming children in the background the entire time this exchange was occurring wasn’t a problem).

The lower loop was much nicer, quieter, more privacy, and the park staff aren’t breathing down your neck. We stayed there the first night without any issue and will book any future stays at that end of the park.

You can hear the road nearby, though I didn’t think it was too loud. Good walking area for dogs across the street, lots of riverfront to play in. Overall a decent park, but I didn’t feel welcome with my dogs in the upper loop.

Also they made a comment about dogs not being allowed on tie outs, but most of the dogs I saw were tied out. No tie outs for dogs at a campground is a weirdly restrictive rule (that isn’t listed anywhere that...