The Yurt campground at Fort Stevens State Park. Courtesy Oregon Parks and Recreation.
With the summer camping season just a few months away, it’s hard to imagine worse timing.
But Oregon State Parks says starting Thursday, you won’t be able to make camping and day-use reservations for two weeks. Not online, not over the phone.
Winter still weighs heavily near Mt. Hood, where many popular campgrounds will be closed this holiday weekend because of snow.
According to the Mt. Hood National Forest, the closed list includes Trillium Lake, Frog Lake, Clear Lake, Clackamas Lake, Little Crater Lake, and Still Creek. If you booked a site at one of these campgrounds, your reservations have been cancelled.
While Timothy Lake will be open, one of the roads into the campground is blocked by snow.
People might consider a change for their Memorial Day adventure due to the unusual amount of snow. Campgrounds in lower elevations such as those located along the Clackamas River east of Estacada will be open with services. Other campgrounds near Zigzag and on the lower east slopes of Mt. Hood are also open.
-Mt. Hood National Forest
It’s highly recommended you check campground conditions on their website before heading out this weekend.
Think you take good photographs? Here’s a chance to find out just how good you are.
Oregon Parks and Recreation’s popular photo contest is back for its third year. The Parks Department is accepting entries from now until August 1st. The rules are pretty simple:
The grandprize winner gets two weeks of free camping at any State Park. Two runners-up win free park passes.
What’s new about this year’s contest is that the public will pick the winners. Parks and Rec staff will narrow down the entries, post them on the web, then the rest of us get to vote on which ones are best.
For more information see: MY PARK Photo Contest.
Meanwhile, take a moment to enjoy the winning photographs from the first two contests.
2007 Winner, Sunset Beach, by Patricia Davidson.
2008 Winner, Cape Blanco, by Alan Hirschmugl
Walk through Oswald West State Park and you’ll soon see why this is one of the most popular spots on the Oregon Coast.
It’s the trees.
This is one of the last places where you can hike through an ancient spruce-hemlock forest. Many of the trees are 200-400 years old. Some are survivors of the great Tsunami that swept the coast in the early 18th Century.
The Trees Of Oswald West State Park. Courtesy Oregon Parks and Recreation.
So here’s the dilemma facing Oregon Parks and Recreation. Many of the trees pose a threat to campers. They’re so old and so weak they could come down at any time. The danger was made clear in June when an old spruce, 11-feet in diameter, fell over and landed across several campsites. Luckily, no one was hurt.
Since then, the campground remained closed while Park officials studied the other nearby trees. They’ve identified 49 of them that might fall into a campsite, building, or high use trail. If the campground is to be reopened, these trees have got to go. If the campground stays closed, only a few trees need to be removed.
Keep the trees or reopen the campground? What do you think?
Before any trees are cut, the Parks and Recreation Department wants to hear from the public.
A few points to consider before you weigh in.
Parks and Recreation staffers favors keeping the campground closed and only cutting a few trees. But it’s holding off until hearing from the public. It’s created a website where you can learn more and provides ways for you to offer comments
Oswald West State Park: Camping Or Trees?
Or if you want, leave comments on this story and we’ll forward them for you.
