Lake Billy Chinook, located just a few miles outside of Culver, Oregon, is an excellent place to enjoy a few days of boating, wakeboarding, ATV riding, or just plain camping.  It’s not far from the skiing and biking mecca of Bend, Oregon, and the water’s warm enough to play without a wet suit.

The lake itself is the product of the damming of three rivers.  Each of the rivers I glacial fed, but since the water is sitting in a reservoir, its temperature is between 60 and 70 degrees year round.  Couple that with the fact that the lake rests in the Oregon high desert, and you’ve got yourself an excellent place to get away from the daily grind of metropolitan Portland, just 3 hours to the northwest.

The lake itself offers multiple marinas and services are plentiful on the water.  When I took a trip there, the water was like glass in the morning, and anyone wanting to wakeboard or water ski in seclusion would love this lake.  The depth of the lake is often over 400 feet, given the fact that its rests in some of the most treacherous and vertically oriented terrain in the state.  Much of the area surrounding the lake is made up of columnar basalt. 

Albeit Lake Billy Chinook is a bit of a drive from anywhere, but it’s natural beauty and all around appeal help to offset the long drive.  If camping is an activity you enjoy, this lake and the surrounding state parks have plenty to satisfy even the most hard core of campers.  Whether it’s car camping or camping in a secluded backcountry hollow, Lake Billy Chinook has a little bit of everything for everyone.

For rock climbers, the Lake Billy Chinook area is an excellent place for everyone from seasoned climbers to beginners to get a grip on some of the best basalt and sandstone monoliths in the area.  While it is no Smith Rock, the plateaus and buttes surrounding the lake are excellent grounds for any climber.  The close proximity to Bend, Oregon makes this lake and the surround state parks a quick jaunt from the central Oregon city.

ATV riders and dirt bikers will admire the fact that Lake Billy Chinook rests in a central location surrounded by thousands of acres of BLM land.  This property is accessible via car or truck and can be used by all ATV or off road enthusiasts.  The scrubby sage and short, squat trees in the area create a surreal landscape around which many off road enthusiast’s play.

The man-made lake is also home to a handful of spectacular waterfalls, some reaching hundreds of feet above the lake’s surface.  Each waterfall is framed perfectly in the canyon walls, which were carved over millennia to form the current canyon and lake that is there today.  The lake reminds me of the Snake River canyons in northeastern Idaho.  Having some of the most unforgiving terrain in the country, both the Snake Canyon and Lake Billy Chinook represent a rare glimpse into the geologic history of the Pacific Northwest.  This lake is a real break from the norm and is a short drive from just about any major city in the Pacific Northwest.