8/5 The Cove Palisades State Park

This is one of the more unusual state park campgrounds I have stayed in because it is a reservoir in a deep canyon that is located in a high desert plain.  I posted a few photos of driving here on August 2, but mostly that was of the roadway, not the campground. 

There are two reservable campgrounds here--Deschutes and Crooked River.  Crooked River is in a flat area just inside the main road entrance.  Deschutes is four miles inside the park and located in the middle of a peninsula forming the center of an upside-down Y.  You can see the Y in the green area on the map below. 

The state park is very large, but you can see the two branches of the river go a lot farther and have more campgrounds along the way. 

 You enter the state park from about the middle of the Y and then drive down a steep and winding road into the canyon.  No guard rails to protect you from the dropoffs.

Arriving, you cross the bridge below from left to right and then climb up the middle of the upside-down Y. 

Lots of curves and no guard rails, of course. 

I have been here before and this is normally a pretty lake, but there is a lot of smoke in this area because of wildfires in Oregon, Washington, and even British Columbia. Everything looks hazy, but it is really smoke. 

This photo shows where the campground and one of the dayuse areas is.  

I took the next few photos the next day in the morning when the smoke had clearer.  One of the nice things about this part of the campground is that all sites are full hookups, meaning you get electricity, water, and sewer hookups.  Nice!   The back end of my motorhome, by the way, is almost hanging over a steep hill.  Made sure I set my parking brakes and put out one wheel chock.

Some more photos of the campground.  It is about halfway down the canyon, so there are cliffs in the distance, but unfortunately, it is also not near the reservoir.  There is a day use area across the roadway, but you would have a steep slide down a couple of hundred feet to the water, and there is no beach at all.  Best place to swim is three miles away by the marina.  Most people seemed to have boats and a bunch of those huge floats.  I also saw some kayaks and a lot of wave runners!  Since it was 99 degrees while I was there, even I would have been tempted. 

Now, why would I take photos of a recycling center??  Obviously, because they are so rare.  I carried all of my recyclable bottles from Ohio, through Indiana, then Illinois, through Missouri and Kansas, and even through Colorado because none of the state or Corp of Engineer parks had places to recycle!  It was not until I got to Utah that I was able to dump my two huge bags.  This was the best recycling center I have seen so far.