Oregon was the last of the western coast states on my ‘to visit’ list. I had come close to the northeast corner previously, but had never quite made it into the state. While I had only a short time to visit, I was hoping to make at least a couple of stops for some boondocking. I was hugging the eastern side of the coastal mountain range to start, with the intension of heading northeast to hit the Canadian border south of Creston, BC. Upper Klamath Lake seemed like a good first stop, it is a large lake close the the Oregon – California border. The spot I had researched was not right by the lake, but I hoped to get at least a good view of the lake. Read on to see what I found.
Highway 97 and Upper Klamath Lake below me
I joined Highway 97 at Klamath Falls, which runs along the east side of the lake. It’s a big lake, you drive along it for a good 20 kilometers. For the boondocking spot I was hoping to use, I had to leave the highway and climb a steep embankment. The road started off paved, but narrow, climbing steeply up the side of the hill. iOverlander had several spots marked along here, but I decided to skip past the view spots, as they were either too close to the road or too rough off the road. The road turns to gravel half way up, but is still decent to the top of the hill. Then the muddy road starts. At least the road is level other than the first bit of mud you need to traverse to get to the top. I spun my wheels a bit but made it up OK.
Road junction camping
I saw another boondocking spot off to the left. The aerial looked like there was a shallow lake up here, but in reality it was just a flat meadow/marsh. The spot was also a no go as the exit off the road had a steep sharp drop I would not be able to climb up again. I was past the view spots now, figuring I’d find something along this muddy road pretty soon. Indeed, I come to a junction where there is a pull off in the grass. With things being wet, I appreciated not having to step out into the mud. I was still a little close to the road, but this spot might do. I decided to walk up the muddy road to the spot marked on iOverlander to see if it was any better. It turned out to be a big area used by shooters. There was a bunch of garbage left behind too. It seemed my junction spot would be my camp for the next couple of days.
Buried cable work
The cold weather I had been running away from in the Sierras had caught up to me here. The forecast was for rain later in the day, with cool weather and rain continuing half way into tomorrow. I planned to stay an extra day, hoping to be able to get out and explore a bit. Had I stayed in the Sierra high country, I would have been in the middle of a snowstorm, so what I was getting was certainly preferable. I managed to explore a bit down the side road I was parked at before the rains hit. It had some spots along it I could get to with the RV if I wanted to be a bit more secluded. Where I was at wasn’t too bad, there was the occasional vehicle going by, and what turned out to be work crews doing something with the underground cable up the road from me.
The woods I was in were nothing special. In my wanderings, I discovered a lot of garbage – it is surprising how far out people will go just to dump their crap. The best feature of the area was the road coming up the hill from Klamath Lake, the view was spectacular. I checked out one spot I deemed too difficult for my RV to get into. It was a good thing I had not tried. I would have had to hack off a lot of trees, plus there was a ton of junk left behind by a perma-camper at the site. That was a real shame, as the view there was really good. Overall, there is a lot of boondocking in the area if you just want a spot in the woods, just be prepared to look at some junk if you are camped anywhere even somewhat used.
Mt Jefferson as seen from east of Redmond
I continued on after my one day rainy stop. The weather was improving now, and I expected better weather pretty much everywhere north of me for the next while. I was driving up Route 97, turning off east at Redmond. “Redmond”, you say, “Isn’t that where Microsoft is located?” No, this is a different Redmond, in central Oregon versus the Redmond that is a suburb of Seattle, Washington. Oregon also has a “Vancouver” on the coast, which is confused with Vancouver, Canada. It’s annoying that two cities not that far away from their larger counterparts occur, but it shows you that no one was paying attention to duplicate names at the time of their founding when the area was an empty territory of States.
Old tyme Dairy Queen
I meet up with US Route 26 at Prineville, the last larger town I was going to see before I headed off into the hills, destination: Umatilla National Forest. I stopped first at Prineville, to get a bit of groceries and grab lunch at the local Dairy Queen. This DQ was a trip to the past, still in the style of the old DQs that were setup before a “drive through” was ever a thing. The outside has been freshened up, but the inside is the same layout as DQs built 50 years ago. There is way more seating than the newer DQs, all in a booth style seating. The local decor adds a nice touch giving some local character to the place. There were few people inside, but a steady stream of cars at the drive through window. It is a car centric country these days.
It’s not about the $5, it’s about the blah spot
I continued down Route 26, turning north onto State road 207, eventually coming down to the John Day River where the highway turns east sharing a number with State road 19. I checked out a couple of spots along the river for potential camping. Yes, you can camp, but they all charge around $5 a night for what is either a spot squished between the highway and the river or a gravel parking lot. It’s good if you intend to use the river, but I was looking for something a bit quieter. There were people setting up to paddle, despite the high and fast water.
Camp version 1.0
I continued on, taking a quick stop at the little town of Spray to verify that their campground was still closed for the season. So, off into the hills I go, following the 207 north again where it branches off the shared Highway 19 designation. The road climbs a bit and starts to wind up the steeper part of hill just as you turn off down a forest road that iOverlander says has a spot. I found the spot, but thought I could do better. The marked spot was right beside the road and not that level. But there was cell service, so I’d not have to start up the Starlink subscription again. I continued further down, eventually crossing a creek and coming to a branch road that looked promising.
Camp version 2.0
Unfortunately, the branch road was gated off, so back I went, selecting a spot that I thought was a bit better than the iOverlander spot. It wasn’t that level and not that sunny, I was thinking I’d not gone back far enough perhaps. I take a walk back up the road and sure enough, there is the spot I’d considered, better in every way other than still being on the side of the road. I packed up my levelers and headed back to this spot – I’d not unpacked yet so it wasn’t too big a deal to move.
Fairview campgrounds spring water source
Fortunately during my stay the traffic was light going by. The road I was on was a side-loop of the main road going further into the forest – not that many people came in this way as the main road was shorter to most camping spots further in, as I found out in an exploratory ride with the motorcycle next day. There were several spots up on top of the hills, with some clearing to give you lots of sun. It was not all solitude though, a couple of people drove by and one was setting up camp at a spot. I explored up the highway to the top of the hills too. It turned out I’d have been find in Fairview campground, just before the top of the hills. It is a small free campground with the added bonus of having a spring, plumped with a spigot to boot. The signs these days all warn about the water being ‘non-potable’ but most of that is just the government covering their ass as they don’t want to bother testing all these sites to make sure the water is clean. You takes your chances – there is always a chance there is some contamination.
Brand new dock at Bull Prairie Lake.
I explored down a few side roads at the top of the hill but didn’t find much other than on the road to Bull Lake Prairie Campground. You can drive off and camp in fields before the lake, or you can pay $14/night (dry camping) at the campground. It’s a nice campground with the lake nearby. There were a few people around here – this looks like a popular spot in the summer and is probably the best campground in the area. I would be out on one of those side roads before the campground – while they were a bit wet in the spring, I’m sure by summer everything would be dry and firm.
I moved on after a two night stay. I wanted to be back in Canada before the end of April, and it was getting close to the end of the month. I planned to have one more stop for a couple of nights, this time heading north into Washington state. While I had been in Washington before, it was only really just inside the southeast corner on the Snake River, which I never did write about as I’d been so far behind on my writing at that point. I headed north out of Oregon on what was another long stretch of empty country, with the hills gradually fading into rolling farmland. I followed the 207 all the way back to civilization where it meets Interstate 84. I needed gas again, something I had made sure I had plenty of before I had headed into the hills. But it was back to regular traffic and civilization signs everywhere as I drove north into Washington.
I passed over the Columbia River twice, as it makes a big loop back as I meet up with Route 395 again heading north. The river area quite developed, with me passing through Kennewick on my way north to less populated area. I was happy to be out of the area – I wasn’t used to the heavy traffic anymore. My plan was to get reasonably close to the border so I could cross earlier in the day. Anything close to Spokane would do. I was first going to check out a bit of BLM land called Fishtrap Recreation Area. From the maps, it looked pretty promising, there seemed to be several areas you could boondock there.
One of the nicer spots
I drive in, and soon see RVs parked near the gravel road. I’m a little worried that all the spots are taken, but it was only the usual people who take the first decent thing they see. Driving in further yields many more spots of which several were not taken. However, I’d not count on any good spots being available on a summer weekend. You could see some of the spots were perma-campers. From reading the reviews it looks like people (try to) live there, probably commuting to Spokane which is about an hour away. I saw one guy car camping – he was in there both nights at sundown and off again in the morning. This is not the way you want to be boondocking, but with what rent is these days, I get why you’d be doing this.
Hog Lake boat launch
It was a nice informal campground otherwise. There is even a porta potty put out by the parking for the day use trail parking – which I’m sure the car campers appreciate. There are scattered trees about – the low area is treed, rising out to mostly grassland. The road I was camped beside went down to Hog Lake, which you can’t camp at, or even close to – that is only day use. There is another pit toilet down there though. There is no cell signal down there, so considering I was only planning max two night stay, I’d not camp down there even if I was going to risk it.
Folsom Farm
I did take the motorcycle off the rack and go for an exploratory ride. I really wanted to see what other camping there was in this BLM area. It turns out there is not as much as I thought. The road to Folsom farm has a bit of informal camping on it, but it’s not as nice as the Hog Lake stuff. There were people there too so it’s not like you’d have solitude. If I was coming in just looking for a spot for the night, I’d stick to Hog Lake as there are way more spots with a better chance of finding something when it’s busy. I went further southeast past the Ranch house. There wasn’t anything for boondocking, although there was a shooting area that was very popular that weekend I was there. I’d definitely not camp there. I could see from the maps another section of BLM land, but I was out of time to check that out.
Inside the barn. You can see the new timbers above.
There are quite a few walking trails in the area. I just did the one near my camp to the Hog Lake falls. The falls are only running in the spring according to the locals. I thought the stair step arrangement was quite pretty. My timing for sun sucked though, The sun was shining as I approached the falls, but just as I got close enough for a good picture, the clouds rolled in. After I left the sun came back out. The picture I got is OK, but only a bit of diffuse sun was left so it doesn’t have the contrast and colors it could have. Oh well, there at least is motivation to return someday and get a better picture. I certainly could come back and walk more trails.
My time in the States was done for the season. I’d be crossing back into Canada from here, with another snowbird season under my belt. Join me next time as I visit a favorite area, and explore a new area nearby.
