The Best of Eastern Oregon
Bend, Oregon, is a van life hotspot. With ample National Forest camping, just a few minutes’ drive from an adventure-driven town. It’s easy to get sucked into the Bend, Oregon, vanlife vortex. This is a great place to begin your Eastern Oregon road trip adventure. There’s plenty to do in the Bend area and we have covered that in other blogs that you can see here. Bend is also a great place to stock up on supplies and take care of all your errands before you embark on a journey that few van lifers have taken.
This Road trip will take you through obscure Eastern Oregon terrain, from geothermal calderas, hot springs, giant holes in the earth, and ancient dry lake beds. This is a road trip off the beaten path that you will not want to miss.
Newberry Volcano - Hot Springs and Camping
The Newberry Volcano is basically a mini Crater Lake with a fraction of the tourists. You’ll find plenty to do at this National Volcanic Monument. While we were here, we hiked along the north shore of Paulina Lake to Paulina Lake Hot Springs. These were some pretty sweet primitive hot springs on the shore of the lake. We were planning on paddling our SUP out to the hot springs, but the water was too rough for paddling. But, taking a watercraft to the springs is always an option. We only spent the day here, but if you wanted to there is a very nice campsite on the Eastern shore of Paulina Lake. Also, the Monument has plenty of hiking; you can also drive up to the top of Paulina Peak for an amazing view of the crater.
La Pine - Hole In the Ground/Free Camping
Drive South on the 97 through La Pine, Oregon, and make a right turn onto HWY 31 and head east. You are now entering The Lonely Oregon Outback. There’s not much to see out here but there’s plenty of solitude. Drive a few miles down HWY 31 to the Hole in the Gound, while it’s just honestly a massive hole in the earth caused by a volcanic explosion. The road in is rough but it’s not terrible and we’ve seen tons of vehicles make it up here. This is also the location of Descend on Bend, a large van gathering. We love this National Forest campsite and since we’ve been here a few times, we can tell you this is the best place for camping around the rim (43.403982, -121.200021). We really enjoy the peace and quiet out here in the Oregon Outback and the night sky is just amazing since there is no light pollution around.
Heart Mountain Antelope Refuge - Hot Springs/Free Camping
When you are on the road and you get advice from the older retiree folks, well you better take it! Because they know what’s up. We had a hot tip at our Bend campsite from our good friend @yoterryh to check out Heart Mountain and we are so glad we jumped on this adventure. The drive up to Heart Mountain is stunning and a majority of this journey is on gravel and dirt roads. You better fuel up in Paisley because you are about to get very remote and there are no services past Plush, OR. The Heart Mountain Camp Ground is way out there and I’m going to leave it up to the adventurous van lifer that you are to find this place yourself. I’ll let you know that there is a pretty nice free campsite with drop toilets and fire rings and an awesome hot springs with a rock shelter and also a primitive hot spring out in the field. We really had an amazing time getting here it was such a beautiful drive and we saw plenty of antelope. We will also note, it snowed on us in June. This is a very special place and is rarely visited by others.
Alvord Desert - Dry Lake Bed/ Free Camping
Our last stop on our obscure Eastern Oregon adventure was also recommended by @yoterryh and others, The Alvord Desert. Getting here from Heart Mountain requires quite a bit of gravel and dirt road driving. So, we recommend lowering your tire pressure, once you hit the gravel on the way to Heart Mountain because you will drive a few hours on gravel from here on out. The Alvord desert is a massive dry lake bed that is situated under the Steens Mountains, which makes it even more of a unique landscape. When we visited the mountains were still snow-capped, it was interesting seeing the snow-capped mountains while you were down on the desert floor. It’s really a magical place. We drove far enough away from anyone and enjoyed a very secluded campsite out on the desert. Make sure you stake everything down because when the winds pick up they can really take your campsite with them. We also recommend bikes to cruise around the “playa” and imagine you are at Burning Man. The silence was amazing and the night skies were some of the best we’ve seen in America. We highly recommend making the journey to the Alford Desert to experience true solitude.
From the Alford Desert, we headed up to Boise, Idaho, to supply up and continue the journey. From here, we will note there is still quite a bit of gravel and dirt roads to go. So, you’ll want to air down those tires for a smoother ride, we recommend keeping them lower. There are plenty of stations once you hit the pavement to fill up the tire pressure.
