9/30 Plymouth Park, Umitilla, WA

Not much going on with my life lately, so not many postings or photos. It is a nice, quiet time of year, so I have been lazing around, not doing a whole lot, other than prepping things for the online class I teach and doing to cleaning and sorting of stuff.  

After 10 days at LePage Park again, I headed east to Plymouth Park, another Corps of Engineering (COE) campground along the Columbia River, except this one is on the north side of the river and in Washington instead of Oregon.  This part of Washington and Oregon is normally very hot because it is in the rain shadow of the mountains further west along the Columbia.  But in fall and spring, it is extremely nice, with highs in the 70s and nighttime lows around 45-50.  In addition, there is not much smoke right now, and rains are due soon.  There has already been a few sprinkles here and there, but the winter rains will really soak these places, and they badly need rain to prevent winter fires.  

This campground is only about 90 miles east of LePage, and like all the COE campground near a dam.   As you can see, as you drive east, the land flattens down a bit, but there are still hills covered with grass and scrub. 

There are also still big patches of burned areas.  

The campground is down towards the river, but on a lake that was formed by the river, so there is no view of the river itself.  No stores either. 

But there is a very busy train track.  Trains do not bother me even if they are fairly often. 

During the week, the campground has been fairly quiet and empty.  It is a popular spot for people looking for a quiet, cheap place as they head east or west, so a few campers do show up in late afternoon and stay for only one night.  There are no roads nearby and nothing to really bother you other than the distant rumble of the trains, so one very nice couple from Tennessee and another from Colorado I chatted with stayed several days longer than they had planned to.  

I found this place about three years ago and liked that if I got the right site, I could get both satellite TV and good internet access from Verizon. Being a COE campground, the roads are in good shape and sites are paved.  Normally, each site would have electric, water, and sewer hookups, but their sewer system is down and will be for several months, but they had called me a couple of weeks ago to let me know.  I just have to drive about three miles every few days to dump my tanks at a nearby marina. 

On Wednesday, I am headed down south, through John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.  I decided I was getting tired of making the same drives so decided to do some exploring on my way to Bend, Oregon, where I will be at the end of the week.