Campground reservation cancellations in the Deschutes National Forest is causing some confusion and safety concerns. Social media users are claiming they made reservations at Cultus Lake Campground, but that those reservations are canceled because it’s not officially open.
The thing is — some people are apparently still showing up.
DNF said reservations were made last weekend and this week. Despite that, the Forest Service says campers were given advance notice that they had been dropped since some of the campsites are not open yet.
“Many campgrounds were impacted by heavy snowfall over the winter and so we are delayed in getting in there to conduct our preseason operations, and that includes both identifying hazard trees and then removing those hazard trees as well as conducting preseason maintenance work on those facilities,” said Jaimie Olle, public affairs specialist with DNF.
The hazardous tree maintenance made camping in the area unsafe.
“We can’t get folks in there to fell those trees if folks are camping under them,” Olle said.
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Cultus Lake Campground is currently closed to see if anyone had pitched their tents there anyway.
The site was empty, except for the hosts Brenda Duwe and her husband Donald. They have already run into campers while the site has been closed.
“A guy just thinking he was going to stay overnight and since I’m brand new to the company, I let him stay overnight and if he was here in the morning, I was going to go say ‘Hey we’re bringing trees down here.’ So he would have to go,” Donald said.
The Forest Service says this will not be an issue for much longer as Cultus Lake, Lava Lake, Spring Campground, Contorta Flat and Contorta Point Campgrounds will all open Friday.
Olle said that people who pitch their tents in closed campgrounds can delay work crews, and that pushes the opening date further out.
