Mazama Campground review: Crater Lake camping

A few weeks ago our family went to Crater Lake for the second time. Last time we had only been able to visit for half a day and we knew we wanted more time. This time we rented a trailer and stayed for two nights inside the national park itself. Staying inside of Crater Lake National Park is somewhat limited, especially compared to some other national parks. There is a lodge and just two campgrounds–Mazama Campground and Lost Creek Campground. Only the former allows RVs or trailers. Keep reading for our Mazama Campground review.

Mazama Campground review

Mazama Campground is located right past the southern entrance of Crater Lake National Park at 6,000 feet elevation. It is only open in summer with the exact days depending on the snow, but it typically opens sometime in June. In July, August, and September it takes reservations. If it’s open in June it’s first- come, first-served. I do recommend getting reservations as early as possible because spots fill up–we booked our site for July the September before.

TOTAL SITES: 214
Electric Hookups: 18
RV Only: 75
Tent Only: 121
Walk to/Boat to: 0
Group: 0
Horse: 0
Other: 0

the campground

Mazama Campground features many convenient amenities. On-site there is a camp store, laundry, gas, restaurant and gift shop, as well as a water-fill station and dump for RVs and trailers. In addition to tent sites, RV sites, and walk-in sites, there are also cabins available. For walk-in campers and tent campers there’s the convenience of a charging station near the camp store. The campground itself is beautiful, with lots of trees clear, star-filled skies at nighttime. Keep in mind, that you are near water sources and the bugs are bad. No, actually, they’re BAD. Especially a year like this one where we’ve had lots of moisture. So be prepared.

| Read: Exploring Crater Lake National Park with Kids |

Other than the bugs (which you can’t blame the campground for, because–nature) my only complaint would be the showers. There are showers near the laundry that I believe are coin operated. We did not use those so I can’t speak for those. However, the showers on F loop were bad. I don’t know if we had rude campers who weren’t cleaning up after themselves or if it was the norm–but they were filthy. Yes, I know we were camping, but I’ve never seen such disgusting showers before.** And trust me–I’ve seen some bad ones. Also, the water was COLD. Probably not the coldest shower I’ve every taken, but pretty close. I was thankful they were free, and I was thankful I could get clean at the end of the day. But it sure would have been nice if they were either clean, or hot.

**I actually cleaned them with Clorox wipes our first night. Wiped the walls down quickly and tried my best to clean the floors. By the next night you couldn’t even tell I had done anything.

The Mazama Village Store has all the necessities you need, as well as gifts. This is also where you can find laundry and showers.

Charging station near the Camp Store at Mazama Campground.

Tent spots and sites with hook-ups are available for RVs and trailers.

the campsites

The campsites themselves are pretty nice. They offer tent spots, as well as RV sties with full hook-ups or just electric. There are plenty of trees and most sites that I noticed had a couple of options for tent placement. Our particular campsite had two spots we could put our 4-man tent. However, there was no room for a larger tent with our trailer parked. I did notice other spots that had larger, cleared spaces though.

| Read: Tips for Camping with Kids |

I also appreciated our pull-through spot, although it was a little tight on both sides. If we’d had a trailer with a slide, we wouldn’t have had room for our tent right next to our trailer. This was due to the trees, not the size of the campsite. All campsites also had a bear locker, a picnic table, and a fire ring. With the size of the campsites and all the trees, we didn’t feel like we were close to other campers when we were at our site. There are also lots of water spigots throughout the campground loops, as well as plenty of trash cans. Although, I did notice they filled up fast.