2018-25
Notes from Oregon
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| Ainsworth State Park, full hookups, $26 |
Campground:
Ainsworth State Park. Along the Columbia Gorge, this state park has
mostly full-hookups, 30 amp service for $26 a night. Nestled in a
thick forest of pines and fir trees. Though very close to the train
tracks, most are able to ignore the noise with no train whistles
going off.
Campground: Madras.
Jefferson County Fairgrounds. $20 for 30 amp full-hook and $25 for
50 amp full-hook. They also give a $2 discount for most camping club
memberships including Passport America which is a half/price club,
but they are not actually members so you only get the $2 discount.
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| Jefferson County Fairgrounds |
Campground: Walt Haring Sno-ark/campground. National Forest site, free. Has
water, pit toilets and a dump stations ($5 fee). Basically two large
parking lots with picnic tables and tent sites walk in. Not all
sno-parks permit summer camping, but if they do, you’re bound to
find some boondocking sites near by as well.
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| Walt Haring Sno-ark |
Campground: Klamath
County Fairground. $25 full-hook ups, 50 amp, site are on the side
of the event center. In-town, so close to shops and restaurants.
(no picture.)
Notes from Oregon
After leaving
Washington state I headed for the Columbia River Gorge area as it is
a favorite of mine. Many would would prefer traveling along the
coastal highway, but since it is still high travel season for that
area, I decided the inland route would be best.
A visit to Multnomah
falls is a must for the travel adventurer, and happens to be my
favorite falls (went twice while in the area). I met up with John
and Elaine for an awesome brunch at the NP lodge near the base of the
falls. I was able to travel on only a few miles of the old highway
(which is being restored, some sections for vehicles and others for
the bike and hiking group). It’s been closed since last years
careless forest fires but should be reopened for the 2019 season. A
must for the casual hiker and lots of additional waterfalls to visit.
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| Multnomah falls lodge |
I was able to get
these photos of some old highway buildings which the new Interstate
84 made obsolete. I also crossed back into Washington state over
the Bridge of gods (it was once a natural bridge when native Indians
lived here.) I basically went Stevenson to complete some paperwork
for the purchase on another RV lot in Florida. Took the help of the
local Visitor Center, Public Library and the local Credit Union to
print out the forms, transfer funds, re scan all signed documents
before mailing them off to the Title company in Florida.
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| old historic highway to Ainsworth St Pk |
Mission accomplished
I was ready to continue my trek south via highway 36 from Hood River
to hwy 97 which even though it is only a two lane road, much of it
has a wide paved skirting on both sides of the road and relatively
light traffic most of the way. Basically I’m heading through the
center of Oregon, past Mount Hood, Mt McKenzie, The Three Sisters,
Mt Bachelor and of course Crater Lake NP, which had it’s mountain
top blown off 7,700 years ago. Today the caldera that formed is
filled with a deep blue lake that is 1,943 feet deep (592 meters).
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| this part of Oregon is called high desert |
This was my second
time touring Crater Lake, and I took the entire tour around the
thankfully inactive volcano. The road weaves it’s way sometimes on
the outer side of the caldera and other times on the inside with of
course great views of the lake. This is one of the few craters that
is filled with water and that occurs because of natural rainfall and
approx 43 feet of snow each year. It has no rivers or streams that
feed the lake, nor is there an outlet for the water. Now the day I
toured, there was still a considerable amount of smoke from forest
fires west of the National Park, but with the sun rising over Crater
Lake, the sky was able to clear up to some degree.
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| Crater Lake, |
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| forest fires in area, lots of smoke |
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| Wizard Island in Crater Lake |
I should be heading
into Northern California before crossing into Nevada next.
One of the places
I’ve camped at, the sno-park, was quite a pleasant surprise for my
boondocking attempts. The weather has been perfect for this type of
camping. Lows in the 48-50’s and highs in the 70’s to around 80
degrees. Now why did I enjoy this park so much….
-
it’s free camping
-
has paved parking (keeps most of the dirt out of the camper)
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with picnic tables and fire rings on edge of parking lot type camping area
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all surrounded by a thick forest
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quiet peaceful setting
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water and pit toilets available
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even a dump station ($5 fee)
But mostly it’s an
easy way to enjoy being in a National Forest, surrounded by wonderful
evergreens, with little chance of getting stuck on an unfamiliar dirt
road. And it’s very quiet as well. Sno-parks as you may have
guessed are large parking lots devoted to winter sports such as
snowmobiling, and cross country skiing. During the summers they are
often used as starting points for hiking trails or as my example some
are used as campsites.
Oregon still has
attendants to pump your gas, but some stations do have self-serve
pumps.
Still dealing with
smoke from the many wild fires out west, from Washington, Oregon and
California. Hope to get out of it all by mid week of next week.
My last stop before
heading into California is to Klamath Falls. Since it’s a holiday
weekend, I’ve decided not to try and get into an actual campground
like a state park since they will be completely full for the long
weekend.
Klamath Falls is
noted for their many nature parks which host many migrating birds
including lots of American Eagles during the winter months, white
pelicans, egrets and many more that I’m sure my birding friends
would enjoy seeing.
And they have an
awesome museum called Favell’s Museum. American Indian and Western
art. Over 100,000 historical Native Indian artifacts including the
oldest known Duck Decoys, thousands of years old… wow.
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| well worth the $10 |
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| all these were found buried along river during excavation for the museum |
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