Palisades Campground

A fly fishing buddy turned me onto the BLM portion of the Crooked River. As we drove up river, it was private ranches and 'no trespassing' signs everywhere. But then we crossed into the BLM area and are glad we did.

There are a half dozen or more riverside campgrounds along the way. At $8.00 a night, they are simply an amazing value. There's a variety of options, from open space to tighter spots, most with fire rings and picnic tables. The campgrounds have vault style toilets and central faucets in season, as well as kitchen water dump stations.

Due to time of year, we did not see another soul for our stay, other than fellow fly fishermen. The Crooked River is a must see for its ancient walls. It's a geologists dream.

Nights can get a bit chilly, and you're far from Prineville, so make sure you are we'll stocked ahead of time. And there is zero cell phone coverage in the canyon.

We have camped here twice, both times in October. Our site was right next to the water ( most are), with a very level site. Most of the sites are pull throughs, but there are some back-ins.
This time of year there were very few campers and Sunday night there was only one other small trailer in the whole campground. It is so beautiful and quiet here. Fun fly-fishing. There are quite a few campgrounds on this highway. This one is nice because it is much lower than the road so you don't have much traffic noise. It is a quiet highway anyway.It is one of our favorite places to go. No water or hookups, so put water on in a close town, like Bend, Prineville or Redmond,

BLM sign shows this campground as ' Palisades " NOT lower palisades .

Loved sleeping along little rapids in the river and away from/below highway - unlike other CG’s on this stretch. There is turnaround loop above so you can walk down to reconnoiter sites if needed. Bathrooms were “not cleaned to OR State Health standards” (posted sign) and had no TP until our 3rd day. Otherwise would rate 5 star.

While this is not a free campground, it's pretty close to being so at $4 a night with the Golden Age Pass, and $8 a night for all of the young people.

This BLM campground is located on the Crooked River, about 15 miles south of Prineville, and has 13 designated sites, and some would accompany larger rigs.

The campground is accessed by a short one-lane 6% to 7% gravel road coming from the Hwy and is well marked by a BLM sign that reads: Palisades. The gravel road does have a few ruts in it and needs to be taken slowly by RVs. Once you reach the campground at the registration kiosk, there will be a gravel road going to the right and one to the left. There are 8 sites to the left, and 5 sites to the right, with a turn around at the end of each road. It was dark when we arrived and we took the road to the right and was delighted to find #11, next to the river. #6 on the road that goes to the left is another really nice site. There are some Juniper trees that cover the campsites, and will need to be dodged to squeeze between them for parking.

Most of the campsites are right next to the river, and all sites have a picnic table and metal fire ring. There are 2 vault toilets with trash cans located in the campground, but there is no potable water. A dump site is located in Prineville near the Fairgrounds at the RV park, for $10, and $5 for water, unless you pay the $10 to dump, then the water is free.

We stayed here in early November and there were only 2 other parties there. Both of them were at the end of the turn arounds. About 2200, when it was all quiet, a vehicle drove down our road turned around and left for what I believe was the other end of the campground where they 'partied'. Although they were far enough away that we didn't here them, they left their marks in the one of the campsites. I suspect they may came from Prineville.

The $4 fee reflects our senior pass. We really enjoyed our stay here. It's on a nice little river, lots of birds to see, some folks fishing but not catching. (It is catch and release for redband trout.) The sites are on or close to the river. You are also right on the dusty road, but everyone was careful to go slow. The road in is a bit steep with some potholes but no problem for our truck/camper. I would not have believed a larger rig could get in there but we saw a trailer about 26' pulling out. I would def check it out first. If you go to the right at the bottom of the hill there is a decent turnaround at the end. It's dry camping but there is a clean vault toilet. We were here in late May and the weather was warming up to the 70s, but in the summer I know it can get into the 90s. There were a few juniper trees to provide a bit of shade, and a nice breeze blew part of the time. There is some noise from the highway but that became negligible after 6 pm. There are quite a few campgrounds in the area to check out. We really enjoyed the Chimney Rock hike, about 3 miles round trip, easy to moderate with a good leg workout (take water). We had no cell service with US Cellular, no booster, but we didn't care.
EDIT: Stopped for a night in early October and what a difference. The river was very low, no fishing (how could they even survive in such low flow?), the terrain was dry and almost arid. Would only return here in the spring!

Beautiful little spot right by Crooked River. There was no one else in the campground of course it was only 30° and in February!