Lake County

The county in brief

A traveler's read on Lake County

Four million acres of basin-and-range desert with the lowest population density of any US census region south of Idaho's Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness — that is the Oregon Outback, and Lake County OR sits at its core. The 8,136-sq-mi county supports only 8,160 residents per 2020 Decennial Census (1.0 persons per sq mi), making it one of the bottom 25 contiguous-US counties by density per US Census TIGER summary. Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge in the northeastern corner of Lake County (US Fish & Wildlife Service, 278,000 acres, established 1936 by President Franklin Roosevelt to protect a pronghorn antelope population then crashing toward extinction) holds the second-largest pronghorn herd in Oregon — 1,500+ animals migrate seasonally between the refuge and Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada per USFWS Pronghorn Population Trend Reports. Refuge Headquarters Hot Springs (a primitive USFWS-maintained free-soak pool on the refuge), Summer Lake Hot Springs (privately-operated 6 miles north of Paisley with overnight RV camping and a 106°F mineral pool), and Hunter's Hot Springs (5 miles north of Lakeview on US-395) form the geothermal soaking circuit.

Goose Lake straddles the Oregon-California border at the county's southern edge — when the lake has water (it dries up entirely during prolonged drought years per OWRD lake-level monitoring), Goose Lake State Recreation Area accepts rigs to 50 ft on 47 electric-hookup sites. Lakeview (population 2,294, the county seat) sits at 4,800 ft elevation — the highest county seat in Oregon. The Outback Scenic Byway OR-31 runs 171 miles from La Pine through Silver Lake, Christmas Valley, Paisley, and Valley Falls to US-395 — designated an Oregon Scenic Byway and routinely cited by Backpacker magazine as the most isolated paved through-route in the Pacific Northwest. Fremont-Winema National Forest permits 14-day dispersed camping across most forest roads with rigs to 30 ft accommodated, with food-storage advisory active May-October for black-bear country per Forest Order 16-2024. BLM Lakeview Field Office administers a 14-day stay limit on all unsigned public lands. Hart Mountain NWR's camping is primitive only — no developed campground, no RV hookups, water self-supplied.