Roving Reports by Doug P: 2018-25 Oregon traveling the center of the state

2018-25

Notes from Oregon

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

Crater Lake,

forest fires in area, lots of smoke

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)
with picnic tables and fire rings on edge of parking lot type camping area
all surrounded by a thick forest
quiet peaceful setting
water and pit toilets available
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.