Victoria was looking for a boondocking spot near Bend Oregon using the Days End Directory and was having trouble finding something that sounded good. So I broke out my Oregon Benchmark Topo Map book to look up the National forest and BLM land in the area to see what they have for primitive campgrounds or even dispersed camping. I found an awesome sounding spot called Bulls Bend Campground in Deschutes National Forest. They said it would fit up to 50 ft trailers, had excellent cell service, was rarely used, and was beautiful as it was on a particularly tight oxbow in the river so we would have water on three sides of us.
We first stopped in at La Pine St Park which offered free dumping and fresh water. I can’t rely on the gauges since they have never worked but I can now kind of tell how much water we have (70 Gallons) based on the sound of the water pump but nothing I can do about the grey tanks (20 gallons each), the black tank is huge (70 gallons I believe) and we can go weeks so we don’t worry about that one. It’s no fun to run out of water or fill up your grey tanks when you’re out in the middle of nowhere. We conserve our water, shower every few days or wash off in the river or lake if we’re by one. Sometimes we will use that water for washing the dishes. We honestly probably could have made it but why chance it when it’s free, and pretty much on the way?
Then it was time to head down to the campground. There was a nice large gravel road that we turned on, but wait a minute they have it gated off… I talked to someone else who was doing the same thing and he said they lived there and came out all the time and the gate was never closed. He however did mention there was another way in and he didn’t want to try it in his 4×4 Toyota and 20 ft bumper pull. So after several very awkward turns around (I’ve gotten much better at least) we found the road in. It was very narrow, just wide enough for our trailer and we had no way to know if we could make it. Was it tall enough? Was it wide enough the whole way? Did the turns have enough space? Was it all hard packed or were we going to find soft sand? We tried to call the ranger station to ask these questions but conveniently they are closed on weekends, very helpful…
We sat there for a good five minutes discussing what to do. Victoria didn’t want to go, I said screw it I want to stay here and we’ve been looking for this place for an hour. The whole way it was just tall enough that we got a few light brushes on the roof, just wide enough that we on a very light brushes on the trailer, just rough enough that we weren’t sure if our dishes would still be in the cabinets and the turns just wide enough that if I was any longer we would have sideswiped trees. But we did make it! We had a beautiful spot on the river and the only visible damage was a plastic piece pulled off the bumper which I quickly screwed back in to space.
There was only one other person staying there in a jeep. We saw some other people drive through all just in cars not another RV in sight much less a 35 ft fifth wheel, lol. The spot was beautiful and the oxbow was so tight that at one spot the river was ten ft away from itself. We thought about getting the kayak out and just floating it, do the 10 ft portage and do it again. Unfortunately we didn’t have a life jacket for Zygi and the current was running strong, so we decided against it (We bought one in the next town so we’ll be ready next time).
So we mostly just hung out on the river and enjoyed the beautiful weather. Even being parked in the woods we got plenty of solar power, no generator needed, as designed (I do have a 2000 watt champion inverter generator just in case, I’ve had to run power tools off the generator before but that’s the extent in 3 years of living on our fifth wheel). We also had excellent cell service as mentioned so we could talk to family and friends, post/work on articles, and plan our next spots. We also walked the closed road. There were four small trees blocking the road. It might take a half day for two rangers to clear. The least they could do was post a warning on the website that the main road is closed and that large RVs are not advisable except for the brave ;).
After a 3 days and nights it was time to move on, we had to get somewhere well in advance of Memorial Day since we don’t make reservations 6 months or a year in advance.
Next, The Columbia River Gorge till the Memorial Day Holiday is over.
- Author: Tim
- Editor: Victoria
- Photographer: Victoria
