Summer Camping

Oh summer I miss you and you've only been gone 1 week! As with every year, a weekend favorite of ours is to go camping. This year we broke in Dayne's new tent down at Moss Creek Campground which is basically across the river and up in the hills from Hood River, OR. This is a long drive for a Friday after work (6 hours with traffic!) but we had a reservation so we didn't worry about rolling in after dark. It did lead to the "I can't wait to see this in the light" situation that we've had so many times in so many places. This turned out to be a very pretty (and quiet as the weather had threatened to be horrible) campground.

 

Saturday was gorgeous so we jumped in the car and headed across the gorge and up to Mt. Hood. We'd never been and were interested in seeing the Timberline Lodge. Built in 1937 the lodge really evokes that rugged PNW feel. The mountain and the surroundings are stunning! Sunny summer day and snow on the ground? Cool!

As we enjoyed a bit of happy hour back at our campsite later we saw and heard an owl in the trees above us and then a deer walked thru the grounds by our site. Yeah! Wildlife spotting :)

Our plan was to visit Mt. St. Helens the next day on our drive home but the torrential rains finally arrived so we skipped the "two mountains, two states" plan.

On our second camping trip friends Matt & Jen came along and we picked the much closer Cle Elum River on a hot sunny weekend. Jen and I went out earlier in the day and landed a nice camp spot right on the water. The boys arrived in time for happy hour.

We spend most of Saturday on the "yachts" floating around the river, spying herons, ducks and huge osprey.

And of course no trip to Cle Elum is complete without a stop at The Brick in Roslyn, WA's oldest continuously operating saloon complete with running spittoon. Roslyn has a little farmer's market on Sunday that we hit on the way out of town also.

Back at our waterfront site we watched the sun set and fended off the mosquitoes, Matt especially put his foot - or should I say thumb- down on those little pests and then watched as the sky filled with stars!

Oh summer! Oh camping! Can't wait to do it again next year!

All camping photos here and here