Cottonwood Canyon State Park
Subnational Park · Wasco, Oregon
Eight thousand acres on the lower John Day River in north-central Oregon, established in 2013 and the second-largest state park in the state. It was a working cattle ranch until the state bought it, and it is deliberately underdeveloped - a basalt canyon, sixteen miles of river frontage, a ranch house, a campground and very little else. The Bureau of Land Management holds another ten thousand acres around it, giving a contiguous block of over eighteen thousand.
Wasco-Heppner Highway, Wasco, Oregon, 97065, United States
Open daily, dawn to dusk, year round, with an Oregon State Parks day-use parking fee or annual pass. The small campground and cabins are reservable through the state park system. ⚠ THIS PARK IS DELIBERATELY UNDERDEVELOPED - there is no shop, no fuel, no food and no water on the trails, and the nearest services are at Wasco or Condon. ⚠ SUMMER TEMPERATURES IN THE CANYON REGULARLY EXCEED 100 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT WITH NO SHADE, which makes the long flat riverside trails genuinely hazardous in July and August.
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