Agency-listedBLM · dispersedUnpriced · confirm
Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
Drive-up · Bureau of Land Management · OR · 43.85039, -120.73294
Ask an AI about this campsiteOpens Grok already loaded with this site. It reads the same records this page is built from, and links whatever it tells you.
Ask about this camp →Bureau of Land Management lists this site. On most of their ground you can camp away from developed sites pretty much anywhere — so treat this as a known-good spot, not the only one allowed. The unit sets stay limits and how far off road and water you must be. What changes is conditions — roads, gates, closures, fire rules. Check those with the unit before you commit to the drive.
USGS topo — contours & terrain
Aerial — USGS / NAIP
Weather outlook — at Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
Loading the latest forecast…
Live NWS area forecast (~2.5 km grid, not elevation-corrected). Camp sits at 4,391 ft.
Fire & smoke — around Lower Crooked River Back Country BywayNIFC · AirNow
Checking active fires & air quality…
Active wildfires from NIFC (within ~50 mi); air quality from AirNow. Always confirm current fire restrictions with the managing office before you go.
Everything you need — measured from Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway · Bureau of Land Management · OR
▲ your camp. Rings are 15, 30 and 60 straight-line miles; bearings are approximate and roads run longer.
Nearest of each
- ShShower19 mi
- DDump19 mi
- WWater20 mi
- FFuel21 mi
- GGrocery21 mi
- RxPharmacy30 mi
- +Urgent care30 mi
- LLaundry30 mi
- AAir-up30 mi
- OOutfitter30 mi
- MMechanic30 mi
- @Mail30 mi
- EVEV fast charger30 mi
- HHardware30 mi
- PPropane31 mi
≤30 mi30–4545+water
The read: water's a short hop out, fuel & food sit about 21 mi out, the nearest EV fast charger is a 30-mi run (and back).
One dot per need — the nearest of each kind, straight-line from camp. Places from OpenStreetMap (© OpenStreetMap contributors); the EV fast charger from the US DOE station locator. Open in Google Maps ↗
The site — Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
Access
Drive-up
Land
Bureau of Land Management · dispersed
Elevation
4,391 ft
Ground slope
1.7% · flat
State
OR
Coordinates
43.85039, -120.73294
Cost
Unpriced — no source gives a price; assume it may cost something and confirm before you go
Nearby & resupply — around Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway · Bureau of Land Management · OR (OpenStreetMap)
- Water featureDry River · ~0.9 mi · USGS: intermittent river
- Drinking waternone within 10 mi
- FuelAlfalfa Store · ~21.2 mi
- Propane / LPGnone within 31 mi
- Dump station~19.1 mi
- GroceriesAlfalfa Store · ~21.2 mi
- Hospital / clinicBend Healing Laser Therapy · ~29.9 mi
- Rail & highwaynone mapped within 10 mi
EV charging — from Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway · Bureau of Land Management · OR — nearest public DC fast & Level 2 (US DOE station data)
- Nearest public DC fast charger30.2 mi straight-line NW — THB TEAM HYUNDAI 1, Bend, OR · ChargePoint Network · CHAdeMO, CCS · 1 fast port listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily · directions
- Public DC fast stations within reachnone within 25 mi · 18 within 50 · 40 within 100 · 223 within 150
- Nearest listing NACS (Tesla)31.4 mi — Bend, OR - Tesla Supercharger, Bend
- Nearest public Level 2 (J1772)19.4 mi — Prineville Reservoir State Park (at a public site) · RIVIAN_WAYPOINTS · J1772 · 2 Level 2 ports listed · listed open, last confirmed by AFDC 2026-09-16 · hours: 24 hours daily
- Pricing at the fast chargernot listed
- Power (kW)not listed by AFDC — “DC fast” spans roughly 24 to 350 kW, so ask the network.
- Read this honestlyStraight-line miles, like every distance on this site. Roads run longer than this, and you have to get back. We know where a charger is listed. We don’t know if it works today, how fast it is, or the road miles. Check the network before you commit.
Snapshot 2026-09-16 · AFDC record 346111 · US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center
Nearby restrooms — around Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway · Bureau of Land Management · OR — pit toilets, restrooms & rest areas (government data)
- Highway rest areaBrothers Oasis · ~7.1 mi E
- Vault / pit toiletPine Mountain · ~11.3 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRd 2510 (Ohv Trailhead) · ~14.1 mi W · USFS
- Vault / pit toiletRd 25 (Ohv Trailhead) · ~15.2 mi W · USFS
Coming out here — Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway · Bureau of Land Management · OR
- Surface water mapped nearby: USGS maps Dry River as an intermittent river, ~0.9 mi from the pin (National Hydrography Dataset, data refreshed October 2022). Mapped as intermittent — expect it dry for part of the year. Nobody has checked it for you. Filter or boil anything you drink.
- Ground slope around the pin: about 1.7% — flat. Measured on USGS's 3DEP elevation model (10 m data here), sampled every 10 metres around the point. That is the hillside, not the ground under your wheels — a graded pullout or a bench a few metres across is too small to show up at that spacing, and nobody has checked this one for you.
- No rail line and no interstate or US route is mapped within 10 mi of the pin. Checked against the FRA/BTS North American Rail Network (data updated Jul 21, 2026) and the Census's TIGER/Line primary roads (TIGER/Line 2025, released Oct 2025). Both are national files and both are maps of what is built, not counts of what moves on it.
- Assume no services at all. Most dispersed camping in a national forest has none: no tap, no power, no dump, often no toilet. Everything you need, you bring.
- Power: Dave carries his own — batteries or solar. A generator will run your rig and it is also the thing everybody camped near you can hear.
- Getting online: Dave recommends Starlink. He has had it since SpaceX introduced it, used it for four years living on the road, and it delivers as promised — several hundred nights out, and he can count on one hand the places he could not connect. The cable on his unit runs 150 feet, which is usually all it takes to find enough sky. Starlink → Referral link — Starlink pays Dave $100 in cash if you sign up through it, and that money funds this site and the next trip. It costs you nothing and does not change the recommendation.
Open Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway elsewhere
Other camps near Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
If this one is full, gated or washed out.
- Pine Mountain Campground~11.3 mi
- USFS dispersed camp — Crook County, OR~15.9 mi
- USFS dispersed camp #7 — Crook County, OR~17.0 mi
- USFS dispersed camp #5 — Crook County, OR~17.1 mi
The unit that manages Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway is in the Deschutes Field Office, Prineville District, Bureau of Land Management. Stay limits, permits, road closures and fire restrictions are set there, not at the campsite — check before you go. Its page maps every camp in it.
How we know this — Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
Fee note
The BLM page names both free use and fee camping, read 19 Sep 2026: "No fees. // Camping is $8 per night single site/$16 per night group site; $2 per extra vehicle (tow vehicles excluded) with a maximum of two vehicles allowed per site." https://www.blm.gov/visit/lower-crooked-river-back-country-byway
Source
Bureau of Land Management recreation data
Confidence
Likely — The record is good enough to put a pin on, but thin in places. Treat the details as a starting point, not gospel.
How it was placed
USFS/BLM authoritative: free & dispersed. Access not field-checked (assumed drive-up). | Mixed 2026-09-19: "No fees. // Camping is $8 per night single site/$16 per night group site; $2 per extra vehicle (tow vehicles excluded) with a maximum of two vehicles allowed per site." Source: https://www.blm.gov/visit/lower-crooked-river-back-country-byway (worker_W, statement verified on that page).
EV chargers
US DOE Alternative Fuels Data Center station locator, snapshot 2026-09-16. Straight-line miles to the nearest public, open, unrestricted station; restricted and planned units are shown but never counted.
Field check
On the agency's books. The land manager inventoried this site, so its existence is not in question — current conditions are. Nobody from here has camped it recently.
What we don’t know about Lower Crooked River Back Country Byway
A land record can put you within a few meters of a spot. It cannot tell you any of this — so check it yourself, and treat anything below as the open question it is.
- Road surface & last-mile access
- How many rigs actually fit
- Cell coverage by carrier
- Seasonal & winter access
- Current fire restrictions
- Whether any water here is drinkable
- Shade & wind exposure
- Noise and who else shows up
- Whether a listed EV charger works today, or the road miles to it