Roadtrip - The Road Home - Day 1
Having sorted out our travelling speeds and how often we needed to fill up with gas on the way down we had this whole road tripping gig down to a fine art when we bade Kerstie and Thom farewell and started north (coincidentally driving past where we had kayaked on the Rogue and also very close to Crater Lake). We made time. Good time. In fact on the first day of travelling north we covered the entire state of Oregon from south to north. Arriving at the Columbia River again (this time east of Portland) we cast around for a campground. The drive through interior Oregon was a little bit more depressing than the coast drive due to the number of ghost towns, the generally run down roads and houses and the enormous number of prefab homes or trailers on the farms as the homesteads. Obviously the economy of the interior is not nearly as lucrative as closer to the coast. Most of the land is dry and arid and the farming is heavily dependant on irrigation.
Irrigation in the Columbia River Valley...
Of course with not as much wealth in the area and not as much tourist flow through, there aren't as many campsites. In fact there were only about a tenth of the numbers on the coast and our search for somewhere to stay for the night had started a little late. It was pitch black, raining (we'd crossed over into Washington State again remember?), everything was full and we were dog tired after a long long day in the car. Eventually as we'd almost decided to drive to the tri-city area of Richmond, Kennewick and Pasco and try to find a motel or something equally unsatisfying we tried one last possibility and managed to sqeauk through the gates 5 minutes before they closed for the night. We soon realised our mistake and the reason for no openings in any of the other potential layover spots when we saw all the reserved tags on the campsites for the long weekend. Every man and their dog was heading out of the cities and into our countryside, filling up our highways and camp spots! Very rude. Thankfully the masses weren't starting to exodus until the day after, but we did meet one stinky resident already enjoying the action (namely garbage): a skunk. Parking well away from the black and white scavenger, amidst the sprinklers (irrigation is huge in the interior...) we crashed out for the night.
Army Corps of Engineers campsite...
Waking up again the next morning to find ourselves in a campground full of RVs and huge trucks that was run by the Army Corps of Engineers. They sure do run a tight ship and it was a pretty nice little spot, but across the small lake next to it was some sort of huge cement processing plant, the highway crossed the lake just next to the campground across two bridges (built by the Engineers no less). And this campground was fully booked out. People were paying to stay on a man made lake, next to a humming highway bridge across from a rumbling cement plant. It just makes you realise how lucky you really are in Canada to have access to recreation areas so much better than that.
Army Corps of Engineers bridges...(campground just before the bridge, factory on the right)
Irrigation in the Columbia River Valley...
Of course with not as much wealth in the area and not as much tourist flow through, there aren't as many campsites. In fact there were only about a tenth of the numbers on the coast and our search for somewhere to stay for the night had started a little late. It was pitch black, raining (we'd crossed over into Washington State again remember?), everything was full and we were dog tired after a long long day in the car. Eventually as we'd almost decided to drive to the tri-city area of Richmond, Kennewick and Pasco and try to find a motel or something equally unsatisfying we tried one last possibility and managed to sqeauk through the gates 5 minutes before they closed for the night. We soon realised our mistake and the reason for no openings in any of the other potential layover spots when we saw all the reserved tags on the campsites for the long weekend. Every man and their dog was heading out of the cities and into our countryside, filling up our highways and camp spots! Very rude. Thankfully the masses weren't starting to exodus until the day after, but we did meet one stinky resident already enjoying the action (namely garbage): a skunk. Parking well away from the black and white scavenger, amidst the sprinklers (irrigation is huge in the interior...) we crashed out for the night.
Army Corps of Engineers campsite...
Waking up again the next morning to find ourselves in a campground full of RVs and huge trucks that was run by the Army Corps of Engineers. They sure do run a tight ship and it was a pretty nice little spot, but across the small lake next to it was some sort of huge cement processing plant, the highway crossed the lake just next to the campground across two bridges (built by the Engineers no less). And this campground was fully booked out. People were paying to stay on a man made lake, next to a humming highway bridge across from a rumbling cement plant. It just makes you realise how lucky you really are in Canada to have access to recreation areas so much better than that.
Army Corps of Engineers bridges...(campground just before the bridge, factory on the right)
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