Stevenson WA - Timberlake Campground & RV Park

After leaving Roamers Rest, we had reservations for the Marine Park campground in Cascade Locks, a little town in Oregon in the Columbia River Gorge about 45 miles east of Portland. There is a height restriction due to a 12' train trestle you have to pass under to get to the campground. Results of that test are shown below:

Does it look like it would fit? AKA - Do you feel lucky... well do ya... punk?!

...Sooo we canceled the Marine Park reservations. Now, it's late in the day, and we're scrambling for a place to stay. Based on information from the Marine Park about what's close by, we crossed the Bridge of the Gods into Washington.

The Bridge of the Gods was so named for a massive landslide that created a natural dam of the Columbia River around the year 1450 (still plenty of discussion about the actual date). Click here for some interesting information on this huge landslide and the Native American legend.

Does that skinny thing look like it can hold 26,000 pounds of RV and car?

Personally I think its more likely that the Bridge of the Gods was named because of its narrow and spindly look as it hangs WAY ABOVE the gorge. This has the unsettling effect of giving you a bit of a tingle in the nether regions (if you know what I mean) and can cause folks to invoke their deity. As in "Oh GOD, please get me off of this bridge!"

Once the good spirits of the bridge allowed our safe passage, we found ourselves safely deposited on the Washington side of the gorge. A short drive east and an uphill climb we end up at the Timberlake Campground & RV Park.  There was another uphill climb to find our campsite. The campsites are carved into the side of the hill with some of the numbers posted at the rear of the site, so they were hard to see.

Our site was very narrow with barely enough room to get in and out the door without falling downhill. Well, at least the campground is in the forest and shady as we're hitting near the 100 degree mark. There was one scary moment when someone's pick-up lost traction on the gravel, and their truck and trailer started sliding down the hill.

Our original plan was to spend several days of dispersed (first come first served) camping around the John Day Dam on the east end of the gorge. But temperatures were forecast to reach the century mark, and the east end of the gorge is quite a bit drier with relatively few trees, so that became a much less attractive option. We spent the next day sightseeing and scouting for our next place to stay in the gorge.