Morgan Lake

Pristine lake fishing, picnicking, swimming, camping and non-motorized boating, just a short drive through the hills above La Grande. Paved jetties provide wheelchair access.

Closed due to fires as of 9/11

I called into the parks and rec office of La Grande to confirm this was open since the last review was 2020. It is!!
Previous reviews are right: it is a steep and washboardy climb to get here, but I was able to do it in 2nd gear at about 20MPH with my diesel SUV and 4k lbs travel trailer. It was well worth the drive up!!
Such a beautiful location. Quiet, cleanish lake- I wouldn’t swim in it but the dogs had fun! Keep an eye out for toxic algae blooms in the summer time though.
There is also a short, easy hike around the perimeter of the lake!
I was also able to work off of my hotspot without issue. Service seems to come and go for my phone though.
Overall, I would totally stay again! In fact, I can’t wait to come back :)

Steep grade getting up here (sign said 17%) but manageable in dry weather, 21’ 2WD van…. I have 4 bars off Verizon towers. Few campers so plenty of sites ?12 total? I stayed in #10.

Driving thru Idaho towards Morgan lake in La Grand Oregon sounded like a perfect stop for the night only to find it was closed for season. The website didn’t indicate this so beware, which left us to try a further site up the freeway towards the pass. Which proved to be still full of snow so pushed on.

We stayed on a Monday night. We drove up in a Mercedes Sprinter van. There were other here in Class C RVs (about 24 ft) and people in tents. Each site has a fire ring and picnic table. There is one set of pit toilets. No hookups. The lake seems popular with anglers and paddlers who visit for a few hours. The camp sites are fairly level. It might get a little noisy on weekends if you get groups who play loud music. There is a gravel road with a 17% grade to get to the lake, but seems very doable when dry.

The road leading up to this little lake is steep and unpaved so it was slow going up and recommend 4WD vehicle. Camping is only allowed on the northeast side of the grounds. Sites are very well spread out, perfect for social distancing. A few sites were larger in an open space clearing, a few were right next to each other, good for bigger parties. We stayed on tuesday august 11th at site 7, a small spot nestled between trees overlooking the lake. It was beautiful, peaceful, everything you could ask for from a FREE site! Restrooms were pit toilets and cleaned/sanitized daily (we saw someone out cleaning them and removing trash first thing in the a.m.). There’re no gas or electric vessels allowed on the lake keeping the area quiet from boat noise. Town of La Grande close by for supplies. Picnic tables and Fire pits at each site but fire ban in effect during summer months so we didn’t use the pit. We were camping with an SUV tent and found the ground hard/difficult to drive our tents spikes so we had to weigh tent down with nearby rocks.

While stopping to get diesel in town pulled up the app and found this nugget about 5 miles away. After driving windy roads all day from John Day National Monument it was a welcome stop. We drove our Chevy 3500 with the heaviest of truck campers up what they say was a 17% grade- our truck said 10%. Granted there were some potholes in the road but completely manageable. Can’t believe FREE!! If you’re near- check out this gem! *But be sure to check the season dates.

Stopped here for the night between Salt Lake City and Seattle. I got there about 7:30 and found a nice flat spot for the vw euro van. Pretty steep washboarded road to get up there but was a perfect stopover. Most other sites were tents.