Milo McIver State Park, Oregon

We're settled here at Milo McIver State Park, on the Clackamas River, for several days. I'm not quite sure what part of Middle Earth we've landed in, but it's very densely forested, and as we walk down some of the trails I really expect Frodo to pop out from behind a bush! If we were having a heat wave we'd probably be really appreciative of the shade, but as it is, it's raining so the cloud cover plus the trees make for a pretty dark interior in the ol' RV.

The location provides convenient access to the Portland airport so Steve could pick me up when I returned from Texas. The park is just outside the town of Estacada, so we have easy access to a grocery store and other services. We stopped there for dinner at the Cazadero Inn on the way home from the airport. We had a window table overlooking the Clackamas River, and great food. . . what a wonderful welcome back to the state of Oregon! Estacada has a variety of large murals and other art work that give the town a nice personality. It's worth a drive around town to check them out.

On Tuesday we drove around all the park loops and investigated the equestrian facilities, the Frisbee golf course, the boat ramps, and the bat trail. This park is home to about 6 different bat species, and the brochure available at the trail head has nice pictures of all of them. There's an old barn on the trail that has the distinction of being one of few nursery colonies in Oregon used by the female Townsend's Big-eared bats (Corynorhinus (Plecotus) townsendii). The mothers and their pups stay here until fall until they are strong enough to fly to their winter roost.

Milo McIver is a large park, and there are some meadows, but the campground is deep forest. We have broadband access, but thanks to the dense trees the satellite dish reception is hopeless. Even the antenna TV reception for local stations comes and goes. Here's the park brochure.

Wednesday we went "up river", south, and checked out a number of other campgrounds. 'Good thing we weren't towing the trailer at the time. Most of them have primarily small spaces, fairly narrow roads, some with curbs that would make navigation difficult, and all were very dense forest. All of the campgrounds are managed by Thousand Trails, so they are reservable and judging by the tags it's going to be a very busy Labor Day weekend. Also, all of the campgrounds in this area will be closed at the end of the holiday weekend, which seems a shame as there's usually plenty of good camping weather through September and October.

While we were browsing campgrounds we also made a quick stop to look at Austin Hot Springs, one of two hot springs in the area. It's on private land and is not open to the public, though it seems the "no trespassing" signs are frequently ignored. The water is really hot, and several people have been injured so it's not really something to take lightly. It is an unusual sight to see the steam rising up out of the river. Judging by the trash left around it's apparent it gets a lot of visitors.

Bagby Hot Spring is a little further south and requires about a mile and a half hike in. It's on public land and has tubs available for those who wish to enjoy the hot water. The original bathhouse burned in 1979, but volunteers helped rebuild. On a not-so-busy weekday, soakers can have their pick of two big plank tubs or one of many hollowed-out cedar logs. You have your choice between tubs on the deck overlooking the forest or private rooms..

In the afternoon we took a short walk to the lake here, where folks were having pretty good luck with the fish. Then it was time to pack up. We're heading for McMinnville, where we will stay with friends for a few days.
Lots more photos of the park and the murals here.