Deschutes River, the campground walk

June, 2024

Almost always, on my first day in a new campground, I walk through the campground to see what there is to see. Years ago, when I first started RV trailer camping, I thought I wouldn’t usually find much to see inside the campground, but I was wrong. There’s always lots to see, people to chat with, things to wonder about and learn about, whether those things are campground things, or plants, animals, birds, or things to learn about other people or their camping rigs. There’s lots to see and enjoy.

The first day in a new campground is just about my favorite day of any camping trip. 🙂

So let me show you a bit of my walk this morning, my first day in the Deschutes River campground. First up, here is a map showing where the campground is. There’s a RED arrow pointing to a RED dot … the dot is where I’m camped. I can see portions of the Deschutes River through the trees from my campsite. Highway 206 is almost deserted at night, just a local road. Right next to 206 are railroad tracks. Trains run through here night and day, fewer during the night, but they still do. The first night I was here, I kept waking up when I heard the horns for road crossings, but they were WAY to the west or WAY to the east. During the second night and thereafter, I had become accustomed to the train sounds and slept like a baby. 🙂 The BIG highway, I-84, a split two-lane each way super highway, was far enough away that I never heard the traffic there at all, day or night.

The small town of Biggs Junction, Oregon, is about five miles to the east. The large town of The Dalles, Oregon, is about 12 miles to the west. There were plenty enough people in the campground at night that I felt safe, and yet it was so quiet and so dark and so removed from most civilization that it was wonderful.

And then there are the walking/hiking trails. There are LOTS of them here. The Deschutes River Trail (red hyphen line) is likely the most used by hikers/walkers, and by people who carry their kayaks up (down? south) the Deschutes River in order to run the rapids further up (south) that river (run the rapids down river, to the north, towards the Columbia River). Obviously, the Deschutes river flows from south to north, into the Columbia River, hence my confusion about up and down and north and south. 🙂 That Deschutes River Trail extends about 12 miles further south (up to the rapids and then past them) than is shown on the image above.

Local towns hereabouts have nice names … Rufus, Locust Grove, Gooseneck, Wasco, Klondike, etc. All small farming communities.

So … here’s my spot in the campground! 🙂

If you look real close, you can see a tiny bit of the Deschutes River through the trees on the left side of the photo above.

The campground looks deserted. Well, this part of it was fairly empty the first day or two that I was here. Rest assured, as the weekend approached, more campers arrived, nice folks all of them.

Electricity (30am/50amp/household 120v) and fresh drinking water were available at every campsite. I don’t usually hook up to the local water supply because my trailer has plenty of fresh potable water in her tank, and I carry extra gallon jugs of potable water.

In all of these photos, so far, there are lots of trees. But look at the hill beyond the campground in the photo below … there’s not one tree on that hill. Trees here live along the edges of rivers or streams or lakes. Otherwise, nope, not many trees over here in dry eastern Washington.

I love my big red rolling leveling system. It is SO easy to use.

But on another trailer here in the campground, they use the system in the photo below. I do have a second set of the red rollers, but my tires are too close together to get both sets under the two tires at the same time. I’ve heard that some people cut off a portion of the larger red piece, but I hate to ruin it. The system below would be a great alternative … much easier than piling up those yellow blocks that I used to use. On the other hand, each axle on my trailer is rated to carry even more than the full weight of the trailer, so I’m good to go with using just one of the red rollers.

Now let me show you Deschutes River!

Here’s one of my favorite campsites in this campground (A15). My trailer would be backed into that spot, backed up to the river, with a front row seat view of the river and the sunset.

I walked over to the edge of the Deschutes River, right behind A15, for the photo below. In the distance you can see the bridge for the local road 206. Behind that bridge is the bridge for the railroad. In front of the bridge is a green area … it’s an island in the middle of the river … Moody Island. You can see it on the map up above.

But also, did you notice those concrete blocks with steel rods sticking out of them? They were all along the shore of the river. What the heck are they for?

Well, I found out the next day when there were people fishing along the river. You cast your line out onto the water, then you stick the handle of your fishing rod into one of those holes. Then you can go sit and eat or drink or dream or chat, and just watch your line. You don’t have to stand there and hold the fishing rod. That was cool. 🙂

Here’s another photo (below) of the 206 bridge and of Moody Island in front of the bridge. Look at the hills behind … not a tree in sight.

The photo below is looking a bit to the left. You can see the southerly tip of Moody Island on the left side of the photo.

If you look near the middle of Moody Island in the photo above, right down on the edge of the water, you’ll see these folks (below) … Canada Geese.

And, way over to the right side of that photo above, you might be able to pick out this Great Blue Heron (below).

But what the heck is it doing?! Where is its head? Should we not be watching?? Is this private business?

Oh, whew, here’s the head in the photo below. Just preening and cleaning I guess.

On the other hand, once it noticed me, it stared right at me for awhile, then it settled in the position in the photo below, and it just stood there, absolutely stock still with a sour look on its face that said “You did NOT have my permission to take my photograph while I was doing personal business!“

So I apologized and walked on.

I walked the circle road through the entire campground (it’s not large). When I got back to Towhee the Trailer, I noticed another Escape trailer parked not very far behind me. It’s the trailer with the dark green stripe around it in the photo below. I waited until the owners were outside, then I went over for a chat. Really nice folks! They invited me inside the trailer for a brief tour. The trailer was absolutely brand spanking new! They’d just picked it up from Escape Trailer in Chilliwack, British Columbia, that morning. They were staying here just one night, then would be heading on up the road tomorrow towards home.

 

I liked that “belly band” decal, very attractive. Hey, two Escape trailers in one campground at the same time. Cool! 🙂

Then I finally walked back to my Escape trailer, but before climbing inside, I noticed yet a third Escape trailer across the road from me. It’s in the photo below, towed by the red car. When an opportune moment presented itself, I went over and met those folks, also really warm and friendly people. Their trailer is older. They’ve owned it since it was brand new and use it a great deal. They love it. They too would be here only one night, heading off in the morning to their next destination.

I then managed to find one tiny spot in the campground where I could stand and take a photo and get a tiny portion of all three Escape trailers in the photo. The brand new one with the dark green band is on the left … mine (a 2018 trailer with the spare tire on the back) is in the middle … and the older trailer can just barely be seen between the two trees on the right.

The next morning, as they each left, they each honked at me and each other and we all waived to each other. One rig was heading west, the other was heading east. None of us will likely ever see each other again, but we’re friends.

What a great morning walk through the campground!