Columbia Gorge, Oregon

June 14-15, 2008

On a whim one Saturday, we drove up to Portland, then east, looking for a place to camp along the Columbia River. The State Park campgrounds were filling up fast and felt so crowded. But we stumbled across the sweetest little National Park campground with plenty of space: Wyeth.

It had a beautiful waterfall trail, on which we were the only hikers (quite different from the masses of waterfall viewers along the Old Columbia Highway).

 

See also Hood River and Maryhill.

It was a warm afternoon, and the hike along the stream was refreshingly cool.

While we were making dinner, we had a visit from the campground host who invited us to an ice cream social at 8:00. It was a festive event, with lots of kids and dogs. When we got there, the kids were enthralled with storytime, read by a park ranger and acted out by none other than Smokey the Bear.

We also met a neighbor camper, Dan, who had a teardrop he had built himself.