Heading to the Gorge

We've never been to the Gorge before because it's a bit of a hike at 260 miles, but now we've got a great excuse: The Grateful Dead/Doobie Bros/Allman Bros tour!

The entire trip took about 5 or 6 hours because we stopped at the Maryville Museum on the way there.

The drive out there is pretty scenic--once you get past Troutdale and Gresham on I-84, you have all the scenery of the Columbia Gorge (Waterfalls!). Once you get past Hood River and the Dalles, it flattens out a bit, turning into gently rolling hills, and the drier climate of Eastern Oregon prevails.

Then you cross over into Washington and take Highway 97 through the high desert landscape with great views of Mt. Adams, as you go through a bit of state forest and the Yakama Indian Reservation south of Yakima. Once you get down into the Yakima valley, it's all orchards for miles until once again you climb back up out of the valley, and back into the rocky highland desert of Eastern Oregon (and past the mysterious Yakima Firing Center). Near Ellensburg, you pick up I-90, and take it east through some more arid and relatively empty lands until you once again near the Columbia River, and cross a bridge. Just a little further and you're there.

We arrived in the mid-afternoon and set up camp. At the Gorge, you have two options: Standard Camping (random parking in an open lot) or Premier Camping (a soft much flatter area with a bit more space). If you have small children, you're better off in the Premier section because it's less rowdy and a bit more comfortable. There's also a fairly close by private campground down the highway called the Wild Horse that's quite a bit cheaper.

We went with Premier because it's closer to the venue and theoretically there's showers and bathrooms. Actually that's a bit of a misrepresentation--there's like 2 shower stalls for each gender that you have to share with several hundred people, so good luck getting near one, and even better luck with hot water. You should have seen the lines...The women's restrooms were inexplicably locked up the entire time, so there was a total of one unisex toilet, with a long line, and if you weren't too choosy, you could waltz into the men's room and use the stall. There was no toilet paper in either case. I figured out that it was just a lot easier to skip the flush toilets and use the portapoties, which had shorter lines and more toilet paper.

The camping spots were a pretty good size...at least as good as what you get in a state park, only without any hookups. There's plenty of room for a vehicle and a couple of regular two-man tents or one RV vehicle. It's all grass (no pavement) so it's very comfortable. The bad news is they are definitely first come, first served, so if you have any intention of getting together with someone, you have to plan to enter the venue together. We were a bit disappointed because there's no way to save a spot for someone who is coming later, and Brian and Margo weren't there yet, so it looked like we wouldn't be camping together after all. I was so disappointed, but we lucked out, and a couple of hours later, the people in the space behind us decided to move to another location, and my friends arrived just in time to claim it as theirs. Game on!

There is some potable water on site, but due to the heavy demand, you're better off bringing it yourself if you can. I brought some water bottles, but I wish I had brought more water. That way you won't have to spend so much time waiting. If you forget something, there's convenience store (the prices aren't terrible). They do not allow fires, but camp stoves are okay. It gets really cold at night, so you need to prepare for that. I brought lots of blankets and heavy clothes and was really glad I did because we would have frozen!

So after getting situated, we just spent the rest of the day hanging out and looking around, and watching the kids next to us run around and play all day long. It was fairly cool on the first day, and by the time the sun set, rather chilly. I was glad to have my thermoses of tea already made to help ward off the chill, but it was hard to sleep that night both because my feet were freezing, and because people were pretty loud. We lucked out in the sense that our immediate neighbors were quiet people with small children and early bedtimes, but that was by no means the bulk of the other campers.