Central and Northeastern Oregon
October 1st– 18th, 2021 (17 nights)
Fall is one of our favorite times of year for Scamp travel as campgrounds and small towns tend to quiet after the busy summer months. As long as one doesn’t go too late into the fall, the weather can be very nice and the fall colors spectacular. We had a great coastal trip to Oregon in Fall 2020, so this October we decided on central and northeastern Oregon. We left earlier in October this time to minimize the chance for bad weather. And, as a hedge against costly last minute cancellations due to weather or fire smoke (which is very common this time of year), we booked most of our stays through Boondockers Welcome and Harvest Hosts (no charge for stay overs other than annual membership and easy to cancel plans last minute). Because we had a lot of one night stops on our previous Oregon trip, which at times became tiring, we made sure to schedule two night stay overs every few days to break up continuous travelling. In turn, this was our longest trip in our Scamp 13’ to date.
When going north, we have a couple of usual stops we like to make to see family. The first is my cousin Jon’s house to see him and his family in Santa Barbara (about a 4-hour drive from our home in Carlsbad, California) followed by a stay with my sister and her family in Oakland (6-hour drive from Santa Barbara). This trip was no different and we enjoyed seeing my cousin and his family briefly before heading up to Oakland the next day. We had a nice fajitas lunch with my sister and her family and did some walking along the canals. There was a very loud party behind our Scamp (parked in my sister’s driveway) at night, so we listened to white noise of water and animals in our earphones to block out the party and go to sleep. The next morning we had time to hike in one of the many forests in Oakland before heading to our next stop, Lake Siskiyou.
We arrived at the private Lake Siskiyou Camp Resort on Lake Siskiyou at around 4 p.m. (after a 6-hour drive from Oakland). This would be our last California stop before heading into Oregon. Lake Siskiyou is near Mt. Shasta and is a beautiful lake with hiking, biking, fishing, and boating. Although we usually stay at State campgrounds, there really wasn’t much else around and this private resort looked nice (although more expensive than State campgrounds). We had a great campsite (REC2) with full hookups adjacent to the lake. The campground wasn’t busy as their season was pretty much ending, although the weather was in the 80’s and they were still serving soft serve ice-cream in their general store when we arrived! The highlight of our stay here was riding our bikes around the 7-mile Lake Siskiyou Trail Loop. The lake and pines make a beautiful location to bike. We had so much fun stopping and exploring on the ride that we lost track of time and had to rush to make the 11 a.m. checkout time to avoid getting charged for another day! We set an all-time record in how fast we were able to get our Scamp set up to leave (less than 20 minutes)! Since we left before lunch, we set up camp on the side of the road outside of the campground to eat (and even captured some drone images of Lake Siskiyou and Mt. Shasta!).
Our first stop into central Oregon was the town of La Pine (about a 3-hour drive north from Lake Siskiyou); the town is very close to Bend, Oregon and is in the valley of the Little Deschutes River. The main road, the 97, which runs all the way to the top of Oregon, also runs north-south through the entire city. We were fortunate to be able to stay at Red Oak Farms Alpacas, a Harvest Hosts location. The farm is run by a husband and wife team and has a small number of Alpacas. When we arrived, Ken showed us their alpaca fiber and explained the ways and economics of alpaca farming (the fiber currently sells for $4/ounce). Ken’s wife, Nancy Lee, let us be amongst some of the alpacas and pet and walk a few. Being at over 4,200 feet elevation, the weather was noticeably colder in La Pine, with morning temperatures around 30 degrees. We parked our Scamp on one of their fields. Fortunately, the Scamp’s furnace kept us warm all night. After a quick overnight, we headed a bit north to Bend, Oregon (only a 30-minute drive away).
After a short drive from La Pine, we set our Scamp up in the driveway of a nice home in Bend, Oregon (a Boondocker’s Welcome location). The hosts were away travelling but instructed us to park in their pull through driveway. The weather was sunny and we set up our solar panels since we didn’t have any hookups here. After lunch in our Scamp, we drove over to the Old Mill District close by and walked the Deschutes River Trail (while one of our bikes was being serviced at REI). The area is very scenic and well developed with nice paths and parks along the water. We also walked from the Old Mill District to Drake Park and then up to downtown Old Bend where there are plenty of fun shops and restaurants. Bend has grown rapidly over recent years due to its attraction as a retirement destination and gateway for outdoor sports.
After spending the night in Bend, we continued north for 3 hours to the top of central Oregon and stopped at the Deschutes River State Recreation Area Campground. The location is where the Columbia and Deschutes rivers join on the borders of Oregon and Washington State. The site (A05) we stayed at has water and electric hookups. Other than hiking and fishing, this location is pretty remote with not too much going on. It was cold at night in the 20’s and the furnace came in handy again! The deal breaker for us about this campground is that trains run all night long close by the campground and blow their loud train horns at all hours! We did a long hike in the morning along the river and up on some of hill trails with scenic views over the entire area. We saw another couple with a Scamp 16’ from Boulder, Colorado who we talked to a while, as well as seeing some other fiberglass trailers. It’s the first time we’ve seen another Scamp in a campground. After lunch, we were ready to move on.
Following the 84 Freeway east along the Columbia River and Oregon-Washington border, we made our way to Pendleton, Oregon (a small city best known for its major annual rodeo called The Pendleton Round Up). We were headed to 5H Ranch, a 20 acre farm (Boondockers Welcome location) right outside the city. The hosts offered us a great parking spot next to their blue barn with both water and electric hookups at no charge! After setting up, we spent the afternoon walking around the farm and country roads. The next morning, we set out and explored the small historic downtown of Pendleton. The historic area has some nice Queen Anne Victorian homes built in the 1800s. In addition, we learned about the Pendleton Underground – a vast network of tunnels that was once a hidden city underneath Pendleton built in the late 1800s by Chinese immigrants to provide safety from persecution.
We reached our main destination on this trip, Joseph, Oregon, a few hours after leaving Pendleton and spent four nights here. Our campsite was at the Wallowa Lake State Park campground (site C55). Wallowa Lake is a short drive from the quaint little town of Joseph and is in an area known as “The Little Switzerland” of Oregon. Snowcapped tall mountains surround the lake, making it a uniquely picturesque destination. Our campsite had full hookups, but since nights were forecasted to be below freezing, we didn’t hook up the fresh water hose (instead we relied on our interior fresh water tank). We also poured RV antifreeze into our shower drain to protect the pump and left our hot water heater on at night. Additionally, we kept our furnace set to 58 degrees each night so everything inside the Scamp (including ourselves) would stay warm. In the morning, when getting ready for the day, we usually let the furnace pump hot air for a while to make the Scamp nice and toasty inside. We took a pedal rail car tour on our first full day in Joseph at Joseph Branch Railriders! The tour goes from Joseph to Enterprise and returns passing through farmland with stunning views of the mountains along the way. The entire journey takes about 2 hours and is 11 miles round trip. The pedal rail cars have electric pedal assist, so travelling back up hill to Joseph was an easy pedal (I even flew my drone and took pictures while we pedaled back!). On the days following, we enjoyed hikes in the hills above the lake and walks through the campground and lakeside. We did our laundry one morning at a coin-op in downtown Joseph and shopped along the tree lined streets until our clothes were washed and dried! The tree leaves were mostly bright red as Fall had decisively set in up in this mountain town. We even enjoyed some snow flurries a couple of the nights in our Scamp! Joseph was our favorite stop on the trip because of its natural beauty and scenic town center.
To make up some time after the long stay in Joseph, we headed directly to Madras which took about six hours as we retraced our steps back along the 84 and then down through central Oregon on the 97. Madras is a small city about an hour north of Bend and home to the Erickson Aircraft Collection, a privately owned collection of airworthy vintage aircraft. This is a fantastic aviation museum located on the tarmac of the Madras municipal airport. This airport used to be the home of a B17 bomber base during WWII. We had the great fortune of being able to stay on the tarmac at this airfield and tour the museum (Harvest Hosts location)! There are some notable WWII airplanes, including a B17, P38 Lightning and Corsair, among many others in the hangar – most of them kept in flying condition. When we were there, the hangar was open and planes were being moved out onto the airfield so one plane could be taken out for flying. The museum also has a great shop with some really awesome aviation related t-shirts. There was only one other RV staying overnight so we each had plenty of space in the large lot adjacent to the runway. After the sun set, air traffic stopped and it was very quiet all night. We really enjoyed our stay at this historic stop.
The next day we drove only ten minutes to stay on a farm in Culver, Oregon (Boondockers Welcome location). The area is extremely flat with wide open plains and mountains in the distance. The owners of the 100-acre working potato farm put us up at the side of their barn and supplied us water and electricity at no charge. We launched our drone and took some aerial images of the farm which we shared with our hosts (who later requested additional images). In the wee hours of the next morning it became very cold inside the Scamp; the furnace had stopped because we ran out of propane in tank 1 (it was in the 20’s at night). Fortunately, a quick flip of the propane tank selector and we were on tank 2 and getting warm air again! An important point is to never travel on long trips in cold climates without two full propane tanks. We enjoyed going for a walk in the fields the next morning with one of the owners, Karen, and her dog Zeke. She told us about what life is like on the potato farm and gave us a tour of her home and garden. Life on the farm sounds like a lot of hard work!
Our next stop was Train Mountain Railroad Museum in Chiloquin, Oregon (about a 3-hour drive south from Culver, between Crater Lake National Park to the north and Klamath Falls to the south). This is the largest miniature railroad in the world! The trains are small, but still can pull carts carrying people! There are over four miles of tracks that weave through the surrounding pine covered hillsides. The longest loop takes over four hours round trip! On top of a fantastic location with a nice outdoor full scale train exhibit (you can go inside most of the trains on your own self-guided tour), Train Mountain has several great campgrounds. We stayed at the free campground provided to Harvest Hosts members. Although there are no hookups, we did find a water spigot. We enjoyed the fun self-guided train tour the afternoon we arrived, the highlight being the mega beast radial snowplow train. The next morning, we were lucky enough to be offered a free tour ride by a member volunteer. We spent about half an hour on the train touring some of the park and hearing about how these little trains work and the hobbyists who run them. This is a must stop for anyone with even a remote interest in trains!
After travelling over two weeks and a couple of thousand miles, this fantastic journey was finally coming to an end. We made our way through Klamath Falls and then into California. We could tell we entered California on our 4 ½ hour drive from Chiloquin, Oregon to our next stop in Corning, California when we noticed the price of gas jump over one dollar per gallon! We stayed in the driveway of someone’s ranch home (Boondockers Welcome location) in the small city of Corning, a farming community with many olive tree farms (known as the Olive City, with an olive festival every Fall). We had a nice walk down a flat farm road at sunset and a quiet overnight stay. The next morning we continued to head south for three hours to Oakland and stayed over once again at my sister’s house. This time we had a nice lunch at one of our favorite eateries, A+ Burger. Now, with the 31st only a couple of weeks away, many homes in Alameda were spookified for Halloween. We had a nice evening walk with my sister and nephew viewing some of these scary displays. The next morning, we headed out early and arrived in Santa Barbara in the afternoon and set up once again in my cousin’s driveway. We enjoyed vegan Chinese take-out that night with my cousin Jon. We arrived home early the next day and washed our Scamp 13’ inside and out along with our tow vehicle to be fully prepped for our next upcoming adventure!
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