Visitors paddle around while exploring South Twin Lake with their watercraft in August 2020.

For the first time in a decade, Renee Berg revisited the Twin Lakes Resort, a small resort on the shores of South Twin Lake next to the Wickiup Reservoir with North Twin Lake nearby.

Aside from the 20,000-year-old lake’s water level being lower than she recalls, the resort is just as she remembered it when she was making multiple trips south from Prineville through the Deschutes National Forest to the lake. Located 40 miles southwest of Bend and a quick drive through Three Rivers on South Century Drive, Twin Lakes Resort has been busy this summer, especially during the weekends where visitors pack the sandy shore and the lake is filled with swimmers, paddleboarders and kayakers.

“We’d come here more if it wasn’t always booked,” Berg said, who was taking advantage of one of the many lodging options and staying for three nights.

“We were lucky this time to find a cabin.”

Along the South Lake banks lies 15 furnished red cabins with modern heating, bathrooms, each within a stone’s throw from the lake. On the banks of the Deschutes River channel into Wickiup Reservoir are 22 RV sites, all with electrical hook-ups, water and sewer. Adjacent to the resort is the South Twin Lakes Campground for tent and trailer camping.

“I’m an outdoors person, and this is really nice,” said Gaynell Thornbrough of Welches near Mount Hood, making her first visit to the Twin Lakes. “This is where we prefer to be rather than to be in the city.”

It was also a popular fishing spot for the 31st President of the United States. Herbert Hoover built a cabin on the resort’s property in the 1940s. Although Hoover’s original cottage did not survive a wind storm, cabin one is on the same spot where Hoover’s cabin sat.

Both North and South Twin Lakes are popular spots to drop a line and catch Rainbow Trout.

On the other side of the resort lies the Wickiup Reservoir, a renowned spot for catching trout, which can tip the scales at over 20 pounds, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Also in its waters are a population of kokanee and coho salmon, rainbow trout, brook trout and white fish.

South Twin Lake is a non-motorized lake where rowboats, kayaks, paddleboats and paddleboards are available for rent and are scattered along the rippling water.

“Today, my husband took the grandkids on the rowboat,” Berg said. “Tomorrow, it will be the paddle boats.”

Hiking trails are not hard to find. The loop around South Twin Lakes is a 1.6-mile flat loop. There is also a half-mile hike to North Twin Lake and a path that circles the lake as well. Located near Three Rivers, some of the popular attractions of south Deschutes County, such as the Fall River hiking trail, La Pine State Park and the Paulina Lake Hot Springs, are a short drive away.

“We just love it,” Berg said. “We love the outdoors and love bringing the grandkids and taking them outdoors and letting them have fun.”