Lava Lake Resort Campground

Lava Lake is a favorite stop for us if we’re up on the Cascade Highway and need full service. After six days at Smiling River we were ready to do laundry and get caught up on household chores, like vacuuming up the pummy dust! We also needed to fill up the water tank, as we planned several days at Hosmer Lake, a dry camp just a few miles away.

View from Lava Lake Lodge

Mysterious waves in the lake!

Lava Lake has a fantastic view of Mount Bachelor, though the famous mountain is less showy than usual as it has far less snow on it this year than I have ever seen before. All the lakes and streams around here look like they're well fed, but with the little snow pack remaining we're anticipating a dry fall in the mountains.

Lava Lake is great for small boats and fishing. We usually just hike around it and enjoy the view. Shiner enjoyed hopping over the many logs that have fallen over the trail, sniffing in the crevices, and watching the birds but she's still not too sure about all that moving water. The evening breezes kick up some pretty sizable waves and the noise they made slapping the shore startled her a bit.

There is a Forest Service campground here as well as the resort. The resort has a small shop with necessities and gifts, and is managed by some really friendly folks.

Shiner was again tempted by multitudes of chipmunks, and at this stop you can add deer to the list of temptations. They pretty much run the place, and wander at will through all the campsites. In the photo below the white spot in the dark shadow between the trees is the back end of a white-tail deer. Shiner wanted very much to go say "Hello" but unfortunately we wouldn't let her socialize this time.

Picture of a disgruntled dog and his owner

The deer in this camp have been hand-fed by campers for generations so they routinely walk around begging, just like dogs. Unfortunately, many people feed them whatever they have at hand which is usually NOT what deer should eat – potato chips and bread for instance!

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife urges people not to feed deer and elk at all. (brochure) I suppose it’s too much to hope that people would resist the chance to hand feed a wild deer, but at least they could feed them something healthy, like a small bit of carrot or apple. Many people feed corn, which in the winter can cause an imbalance in the deer's digestive system and make them sick. Deer are designed to eat grass, brush and twigs, not donuts and potato chips. Their digestive systems just can't handle "people food". (OK, I'll get down off my soap box now)

While at Lava Lake we thought we'd do a bit of exploring and see if we could find the boondocking site where we stayed about 15 years ago. We headed out, exploring this logging road and then that one. Every possible site was "occupied", their little paper plate signs said. So, no luck, but, we did have a souvenir of the trip.

Compliments of the outing, we have a brand new tire, obtained a mere 45 minutes away in Bend.

We stayed at Lava Lake only one night. We'll move on to Hosmer Lake, one of our favorite camping areas along Century Drive in Oregon's Cascade Mountains.