Well we had a lovely anniversary. Matt packed all of our camping gear for day, preparing for our camp out. We were all set heading up to one of our favorite spots, Lost Lake, near Hood River. The spots are 1st come 1st serve so we figured a mid week trip would be great, especially with it being the start of summer when families take camp trips. We were a little lost getting to the camp site, as we are every time we have visited the lake with the horrible website directions, so we stopped at a market at the last town before we entered the woods.
Come to our surprise the lake had 4 feet of snow still and was only open for day use. Oh my gosh, we were so dissapointed. What to do with our perfect anniversary trip that we had look forward to for so long. I decided that we should somehow find another site.
We had passed of course, a WalMart on our way up (the only major store in town) so we tried to find a book or map there. We walked around for ten minutes and nothing. We were headin out the door, when Matt had to use the facility, so I stopped, and what do you know, right at the check out is a giant oversized atlas for 2009. Sweet!
So we found the closest site on the map and headed that way. Here we come The Dalles. Well we arrived about thirty minutes later to a very green and well groomed camp ground. We noticed as we drove through that there were no tents, only RV's. Well there was a small spot for tents in the corner in the very back of this place, and no place for a bon fire. I said oh no we dont want to spend 4 days in a corner with no fire for smores.
The next best place was all the way on the other side of the mountain. Well we did just that, drove through the rolling hills with nothing around for miles, until we started to climb the back side of Mt. Hood. We ended up driving into the first camp site we saw at McXXXXX Gulch, can't remeber the weird name. There were 2 other familes and a lot of ATV's. We had landed ourselves a great spot next to a creek, but with lots of noise and very cold at night( we were up a few thousand feeet). Oh well we unpacked our gear and had a nice dinner.
The next day we decided we are so close now to the Warm Springs reservation, which Matt has never seen, that we should head that way and find another site, especially since there seemed to be a few south of the rez. So we drove throught the desert, unitl we found KA NE TA. We stopped and had a look around and headed further south to Cove Palasades. I have never been there but only heard great things so we keep on going.
Well we drove around a few windy turns and then we saw the lake, Lake Billy Chinook, it was beautiful. You could see the whole canyon nad lake from the top of the driveway into the canyon. We drove all the way down and around the lake unitl we crossed a 1 way bridge that took us to our camp site. The site was a state parks, and for camping a five star resort I might add. Free showers, perfectly cleaned sites, all the water you could want a t each site, and garbages with recycling. WOW. It was very hot so we trecked to the lake for a dip. After and adventurous walk through desert and one steep hill we made it to the lake, COLD! it was so cold, but the view was perfect.
So we had pizza for dinner and stayed the night. They only had one night ope (thurs) since fri-sun all the sites were full. They told us a place about 30+ min even more in the middle of no where that would most likely have some open sites. Ya way in the Middle of nowhere. We drove and drove until we hit another canyon that overlooked a forest of dead burned trees and then connected to a gravel road. We drove and drove until we hit Perry South. The sites were actually very nice and the river was peaceful with a boat ramp. It was a nice place, but probably will never drive that far to get to a freakin camp site again, if I can help it.
The next day we tried for some fishing, uncucessful, everyone in boats caught lots of fish, but were wer off the side of the river, not too many fish there. We packed up for the third and final time and headed out of 2 canyons toward home. Well there was only 1 way to go so we took it, it was long. Through sisters, to Detroit Lake, which looked so pretty, and i would like to visit someday, to Salem. Then we zipped home. It was not the trip we had in mind, but we saw alot, and winged another MOJO adventure.
Come to our surprise the lake had 4 feet of snow still and was only open for day use. Oh my gosh, we were so dissapointed. What to do with our perfect anniversary trip that we had look forward to for so long. I decided that we should somehow find another site.
We had passed of course, a WalMart on our way up (the only major store in town) so we tried to find a book or map there. We walked around for ten minutes and nothing. We were headin out the door, when Matt had to use the facility, so I stopped, and what do you know, right at the check out is a giant oversized atlas for 2009. Sweet!
So we found the closest site on the map and headed that way. Here we come The Dalles. Well we arrived about thirty minutes later to a very green and well groomed camp ground. We noticed as we drove through that there were no tents, only RV's. Well there was a small spot for tents in the corner in the very back of this place, and no place for a bon fire. I said oh no we dont want to spend 4 days in a corner with no fire for smores.
The next best place was all the way on the other side of the mountain. Well we did just that, drove through the rolling hills with nothing around for miles, until we started to climb the back side of Mt. Hood. We ended up driving into the first camp site we saw at McXXXXX Gulch, can't remeber the weird name. There were 2 other familes and a lot of ATV's. We had landed ourselves a great spot next to a creek, but with lots of noise and very cold at night( we were up a few thousand feeet). Oh well we unpacked our gear and had a nice dinner.
The next day we decided we are so close now to the Warm Springs reservation, which Matt has never seen, that we should head that way and find another site, especially since there seemed to be a few south of the rez. So we drove throught the desert, unitl we found KA NE TA. We stopped and had a look around and headed further south to Cove Palasades. I have never been there but only heard great things so we keep on going.
Well we drove around a few windy turns and then we saw the lake, Lake Billy Chinook, it was beautiful. You could see the whole canyon nad lake from the top of the driveway into the canyon. We drove all the way down and around the lake unitl we crossed a 1 way bridge that took us to our camp site. The site was a state parks, and for camping a five star resort I might add. Free showers, perfectly cleaned sites, all the water you could want a t each site, and garbages with recycling. WOW. It was very hot so we trecked to the lake for a dip. After and adventurous walk through desert and one steep hill we made it to the lake, COLD! it was so cold, but the view was perfect.
So we had pizza for dinner and stayed the night. They only had one night ope (thurs) since fri-sun all the sites were full. They told us a place about 30+ min even more in the middle of no where that would most likely have some open sites. Ya way in the Middle of nowhere. We drove and drove until we hit another canyon that overlooked a forest of dead burned trees and then connected to a gravel road. We drove and drove until we hit Perry South. The sites were actually very nice and the river was peaceful with a boat ramp. It was a nice place, but probably will never drive that far to get to a freakin camp site again, if I can help it.
The next day we tried for some fishing, uncucessful, everyone in boats caught lots of fish, but were wer off the side of the river, not too many fish there. We packed up for the third and final time and headed out of 2 canyons toward home. Well there was only 1 way to go so we took it, it was long. Through sisters, to Detroit Lake, which looked so pretty, and i would like to visit someday, to Salem. Then we zipped home. It was not the trip we had in mind, but we saw alot, and winged another MOJO adventure.
