Ochoco Divide Campground

This campground is located in an old growth ponderosa pine stand just off scenic U.S. Highway 26. An unused forest road on the far side of the campground provides an excellent, easy stretch walk after a long day of driving. Most visitors arrive late in the evening and continue on their trip the following morning, so the area is very quiet during the day. Marks Creek is nearby, and the Bandit Springs Highway Rest Stop, (one mile west) is the jumping off point for a network of trails. Although designed and marked with blue diamonds for winter X-Country ski touring, these trails invite summer exploration by hikers and bikers as well.

The sites include potable water, tables, fire pits, vault toilets, and a level parking spur or tent site. There is a separate 'walk-in' site for hikers and bicycle riders.

Pulled in a few hours before sundown to stay the night. Nice campground with about 25 sites. There is no water at the taps for some reason but it can be purchased from the host. There is some road noise but it diminishes after sunset and if you’re in a site at the back of the loop you won’t hear much. The only issues I had were the host finding it necessary to start up and drive his big diesel truck around the loop twice at 11pm and again at 6am and the vault toilets could’ve been cleaner. If I had to stay in the area again I’d go to one of the other campgrounds.

Space for some pretty big rigs.
Good Verizon reception.
Many level sites that are reasonably spaced.

Date Stayed: July 9th & 10th 2019
Campsite: #8 needed 3 inch left side lift to level
Price: $13 no electricity
Dump Station: No
Altitude: 4730 ft
Camp Host: Caroline was attentive and very friendly. She collected and handed out free firewood that had been left behind by other campers. Or you could buy forest service wood for $6.
Ease of Access: Right of hwy 26, our 28 ft travel trailer easily fit with room to spare. Easily circled campground once to find a space.
Weather: Days sunny low 80's nights upper 50's
Noise: Could hear occasional vehicle climbing hwy 26 grade from the rest stop.
Activities: Geocaching cache three within a couple of miles. John Day Fossil Monument 30 minute drive away.

Wife and I enjoyed the campground, sites were surrounded by pines.

We were intentionally taking the crooked 2 lane roads as we worked our way across Oregon. This campground was one that we'd identified as a possiblity because of the elevation. The nearby snow park was another possibility but it was locked off for the summer. This campground loop is clearly marked one way, but some of the sites (both pull-through and back-in) were aligned backwards to the flow. Aspalt loop road with gravel or aspalt parking pads. Six dedicated tent sites towards the back of the campground. Trash cans were full and a number of bags of trash had accumulated near the trash can nearest the host site.

With judicious use of some lego blocks, we were able to get leveled enough to avoid unhitching for our overnight stay.

Overnight road noise was limited to an occasional truck working hard to pull the grade.

Just spent a night here on the way to the Painted Hills for an early day visit. Lots of spaces mid day on Friday but completely full by dinner time. No water or electricity. Pit toilets which were some of the cleanest I’ve encountered. In these COVID times, it was pleasant to see clean pit toilets, lots of TP and hand sanitizer. Camp host cleans them regularly. A bit of road noise at night but it dropped off after dark.

Good location. Minimum cell phone reception for data but enough for a call.

What a beautiful and perfect campground located in the Ochoco National Forest at the 4,700 foot elevation. This small forest service campground featured 29 easy access sites, pull through and back ins, with over half of those sites able to accommodate a 40 foot rig. First come, first serve only, we would recommend a mid week arrival as all site were occupied over the weekend. Lovely, grassy meadows and thick ponderosa pine forests surround the park and there is no lack of shade. There are many opportunities for mountain biking and hiking within the forest surrounding the park and off the US Forest Service roads. You can hear road noise from Highway 26 during the day, but each evening the road noise subside.

The five vault toilets within the campground were kept immaculate by our excellent and friendly camp host. There is no water in campground, so make sure you are well stocked. Each campsite has a picnic table and fire pit and firewood is sold at the host site. We were able to use our Golden Age Pass for the 50% discount. Our Verizon cell coverage was weak at our site, but on the opposite side of the campground were able to get Verizon 3LTE.

Great sites, clean vault toilets. Water available since end of May. First come, first served.

We camped here in early July of 2022. Great spot to base from to visit John Day Painted Hills. We had a nice pull-thru site - the bushes in front of our site could have used some trimming in order to easily access the picnic table / tent area. A few of the sites are "backwards pull thrus" where your trailer door would face the road, not the site. Several very long nice back ins. A bit of road noise during the day, but it quieted down at night. Cool tent sites too! Campground review / info video: https://youtu.be/O97YN1PSu1I