Trip: May 25th, 2019 - Mt. Hood NF > Pendleton > Emigrant Springs, OR
After work on Friday, Memorial Day weekend, I headed up to Mt. Hood for the first camping trip in the 4Runner. It was a nice camping spot a ways off the road that my friends had been to multiple times before. We got there and the Forest Service had put rocks in the trail to get back to the camp with signs saying there was a problem with people setting up semi-permanent camp sites during summer months. We were only going to be there for a few days, so we hiked our stuff 100 yards back to camp. It was right along a fast-moving creek and had the remains of a large fire pit.
It ended up raining all evening, night, and all day Saturday. We made breakfast, a small fire and chatted about what the plan for the weekend was. It was Sunday morning and we still had two days out and about. We decided to chase the sun and drive the three hours to Pendleton, Oregon. We packed up and started driving east through the Columbia River Gorge, passing a huge storm on the way.
We pulled into Pendleton around 1pm and had lunch at a brewery named The Prodigal Son. They had a super diverse menu from what I expected for Pendleton. I had calamari tacos, my friends had cauliflower buffalo wing and a huge burger.
While waiting for our food we started looking for camping spots, even asking our waitress if she knew anything good. Just about everything that we found said to go up in the hills toward Bingham Springs. We stopped a few times to take pictures of the sky and the rigs.
Just as we were making it into the hills, we could see snow. We checked the forecast, sure enough, 30 degrees and snowing near our proposed camp spot. Not wanting to camp in the snow, nor being prepared for it, we turned around and headed south. We just wanted to explore, and checked out places along the way. McKay Reservoir was a great spot that we hung out and let the dog run until the rain came again.
Farther south, we went over Deadman Pass. The winding and steep highway was beautiful, with a great view out over the valley below. My friend Peter got some pretty cool ‘rollers’ of the 4Runner as well!
After a couple hours of driving, we were going down a dirt road trying to find a spot to camp for the night. By this time it was about 5pm and we were ready to be done searching. Unfortunately we saw No Trespassing signs on the dirt road we wanted to camp down, so we made our way back out to the main road. About a mile from our location, we found Emigrant Springs State Park, which had a campground that was relatively empty for Memorial Day weekend. As much as I dislike paying to camp, we found a good campsite that was big enough to get both vehicles in and still have a great fire and eating area.
We unpacked and got a fire going. No time was wasted getting our sausage, onion and pepper fajitas going on the Skottle, accompanied by a beer. After dinner, we enjoyed the fire and a Hoyo De Monterrey Epicure Especial and an IPA.
The next morning, we packed up and rolled out early, stopping at Paradise Mountain Viewpoint to hangout before the six hour trek home. It was a great way to end the trip.
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