South Sister is the whole west wall from the water at Elk Lake, and the Cascade Lakes Highway keeps that skyline past Sparks, Lava, and Cultus. Broken Top hangs over that chain, and you camp in the trees at the water. The highway itself is the day, paved, lake to lake, with a campground spur whenever you want to stop.
Devils Lake is the South Sister trailhead. The campground is hike-in tent camping only, so the van sleeps at Elk Lake or Cultus Lake after you walk.
Elk Lake has site spurs of about 36 feet and a season that starts in late May. Cultus Lake has spurs of about 40 feet and stays into early October. Soda Creek at Sparks Lake lists 40 feet too, with most sites better for smaller vehicles or tents. If you need more sleeping space, Oregon RV rentals are the longer rigs.
Summer weekends on these lakes go early on Recreation.gov. The pad is the first booking, and the spur you reserve is the one the van has to fit. Lock the site, then lock the van. Mt. Bachelor shares the same road and becomes the reason to come once snow arrives. Deschutes County closes the highway to cars beyond Mt. Bachelor in winter.
Smith Rock State Park
Climbers work the orange rhyolite north of Bend, stacked on the wall above a Crooked River bend. The Misery Ridge walk crosses that bend with the rock falling away on both sides. People drive out for a day on the wall or the ridge, eat lunch with the canyon under them, and stay until the rock loses the sun.
The Bivouac Camp is walk-in tents. The van overnight is Skull Hollow, the Forest Service campground nearby. Sisters, Redmond, and Prineville are the other towns on this plateau if you keep driving.
Newberry National Volcanic Monument
You drop into Lava River Cave south of Bend, the air going cold at the mouth, then walk the black cinder of Lava Butte above the pines. The cave takes the morning and the cone takes the afternoon.
Paulina Lake and East Lake are the nights on the monument, Forest Service campgrounds on the water. Paulina Lake lists spurs up to 90 feet, and East Lake lists about 40. The Forest Service runs a summer shuttle to the Lava Butte summit, so you do not drive the van to the top.
La Pine State Park, farther south, has a full-hookup loop and a short paved trail to the trunk Oregon State Parks calls Oregon's largest ponderosa pine, thought to be 500-plus years old. Crater Lake is a Medford trip.
The Deschutes through Bend
Tubers float the Fish Ladder at Bend Whitewater Park past the Old Mill smokestacks, and river surfers stay in the whitewater channel next to them. On summer weekends the river through town fills with both. There is no camping on this stretch of river. Tumalo State Park is the close first night with full hookups, and some sites stay open all year.