Columbia Sun RV Resort in Kennewick was a very well-kept park with level trailer spaces that had little grass strips between them, wi-fi that was exceptionally fast, full hookups, a friendly staff, excellent roads, a beautiful pool, a well-stocked store and a great lodge. Unfortunately, it is located right next to a road used extensively by trucks that utilize unmuffled exhaust braking on one side and railroad tracks on the other. Early this morning we were awakened by a flurry of trucks going to work that were proceeding downhill and running their Jake brakes. The exhaust braking noise was periodically interrupted by the two longs, a short and a long blasts from locomotives passing the nearby grade crossings.
We departed this land of early morning racket and headed further down the Columbia River, crossing the river and the state line at Umatilla, Oregon. We then took I-84 to the point across the river from Maryhill Museum and turned south on US-97, entitled the Dalles – California highway. As we continued south, we were treated to crystal-clear views of St. Helens in Washington along with Mt. Hood, Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters west of us. They are all dormant or mostly dormant volcanoes and all of them were blanketed with snow. We passed through the ancient town of Moro, the almost-town of Shaniko and continued on through Madras, OR, where we got off 97 and headed for an Oregon state park called Cove Palisades.
We stayed at this park in 2014 and were delighted to return. Cove Palisades encompasses some gigantic gorges where the Crooked, Metolius and Deschutes rivers come together. The campground is near the top rim of the canyon and those foolish enough to step over the edge would soon find themselves bouncing once or twice before landing in the rivers several hundred feet below. The two stratovolcanoes, Mount Hood and Mount Jefferson, are the primary features of the western horizon. They are spectacular.
It was a pretty long drive for us to get here – about 4.5 hours. That is about as far as we want to go in one day when pulling the trailer due to our self-imposed rule against long drives when scheduling is not a constraint. We were delighted to arrive at this favorite of ours and we took the rest of the afternoon off so we could drink and loaf.
Some pix of the Gorge can be seen by clicking here