A Rim Drive overlook is the first look at Crater Lake, Wizard Island in that hard blue water and the caldera wall at your feet. The rest of the day is the loop, pullout after pullout. Mazama Campground is the night in the trees below, summer only, with RV electric, RV non-electric, and tent pads. You sleep there and go back up to the rim in the morning.
Reserve Mazama on Recreation.gov before you book the van, typically June through late September depending on snow. July and August go first, and match the pad to the van you book, because a tent site and an RV electric pad are different reservations. There is no camping on the rim in winter.
As of September 2026 the Cleetwood Cove Trail, the only way down to the water and the boats, is closed for a multi-year rehabilitation through the 2028 season, and the rim and Rim Drive are not part of that closure. Boat tours and a swim at the shore wait until that work is done.
Highway 62 is the road up from the valley. When you come back down, the Rogue is the next water, and Klamath Falls is the other town on a Crater Lake week.
The Rogue River
Along the Rogue, Valley of the Rogue State Park is open all year and close to I-5. You sleep in the trees on full-hookup or water-and-electric pads.
Upriver at Prospect the river drops into a lava tube at Natural Bridge and runs underground before it surfaces, then cuts down through black lava at the Rogue Gorge, the rock potholed from the water. You walk that from Farewell Bend Campground, the forest night on Highway 62. Farewell Bend has paved pads and no hookups, and it is open May through October.
From Grants Pass you raft the Wild Rogue, and a Recreation.gov lottery awards the control-season launches from mid-May through mid-October. Without a permit you don't float that Wild section.
Oregon Caves National Monument is marble passages on a guided tour, with no campground at the monument. You sleep at Grayback Campground in the forest, May through October.
Ashland and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Evening light on Ashland's outdoor stage is the other Medford weekend, and the Oregon Shakespeare Festival runs spring through fall. You stay for the play, then drive out to Emigrant Lake for the night.
Point RV Park on the lake is open all year on full hookups. Oak Slope Campground has no hookups from mid-April through mid-October, and trailers over 24 feet are strongly not recommended on that loop, so if you need more length or sleeping space, look at RV rentals in Medford and use the Point pads.
Applegate Lake's Hart-Tish sites sit on the shoreline lawn under the Red Buttes, dry camping with no hookups and no potable water at the site.
South on I-5, Redding is the California handoff. The Cascade Lakes belong on a Bend week.