Festival evenings in Ashland begin on the outdoor stage with daylight still on the set, and by the final scene the stage lights have taken over from the sunset. Afterward the drive runs back up to Emigrant Lake, where the afternoon wind has usually dropped by the time you pull in and the water lies flat under dry hills. Repeat that for every night you hold tickets and you have an Oregon Shakespeare Festival week, with the rig parked above town from the first play to the last.
The motorhome stays hooked up at the Point on the north end of Emigrant Lake for the whole run of plays. Mornings belong to the shoreline and the water, and town becomes the afternoon and evening outing, with nobody packing a bag between shows. The festival's season runs mid-March to late October, so a spring break, a summer week or a fall week all line up with plays on the calendar.
The Point on Emigrant Lake for the festival run
From the Point RV Park the rig looks out on the north end of Emigrant Lake and the dry hills around it. Jackson County runs the Point as the lake's full-hookup campground, with water, sewer and 50-amp service on 14 by 50 foot pads, open year-round (Jackson County Parks). That leaves room to spare for a family-size motorhome or a trailer, and enough power to run the air through a hot valley afternoon so everyone is rested for an evening show.
Festival season is also summer at the lake, so playgoers and the lake crowd are after the same shoreline pads and the same rigs from owners around Ashland. Reserve the site first, then book the RV for the nights you're actually holding.
The county's other campground at the lake, Oak Slope, has basic sites with no hookups from mid-April to mid-October, and the county strongly recommends against anything over 24 feet there (Jackson County Parks). Two adults catching a handful of plays can size down to something short enough for Oak Slope. If the trip is one show and one night by the water, the Medford lander covers Emigrant Lake as the stop after the play.
Howard Prairie and Hyatt Lake on the Cascade-Siskiyou plateau
Above Ashland on the Cascade-Siskiyou plateau, the lakes lie at altitude in fir and pine, and the air at the pad smells like forest. It's the quieter half of an Ashland trip, a parked week with long days on the water and no curtain times to keep.
Howard Prairie Resort holds the rig for the week. The county resort has full-hookup sites with water, electric and sewer, along with water-and-electric and basic sites (Jackson County Parks), and it runs from early April through the end of October, with dates that can shift (Howard Prairie Resort). Lock the pad there before you book the RV, the same order as at Emigrant Lake.
Days go to Hyatt Lake, where Mt. McLoughlin stands across the water. The campground there has three non-electric loops and its own RV dump station, reservation only on Recreation.gov, so a summer night or two of dry camping works if you empty the tanks at Hyatt before rolling back to hookups at Howard Prairie.
Crater Lake makes the one big day out from either base, for that deep blue seen from the rim. The Medford RV page covers taking a rig up there, and summer brings the same crowds to the rim that fill the festival weeks.