Campground Full?

We spent the coldest night ever with Miss Travelaire last night.  It was 15 F when we woke up this morning (thats -9.4 C) to a nice sunny sky.   Miss Travelaire's furnace was going full blast keeping her insides warm.  But we were all very comfortable.  There was still no one around in the campground this morning, we had it all to ourselves.

We were out of there by shortly after 9am, and headed north and west up Routes 97 and 58 to Interstate 5.  We didn't know what to expect of Route 58 that connects between the two north/south corridors, but it turned out to be a great road, very smooth, and although somewhat windy and hilly in places it was very pleasant with not too much traffic.  It was mostly through Pine forrests, and at times it climbed up over 5000 feet, but near the end descended down to almost just 100 feet elevation as we got near Interstate 5.  It travels through the mountains following the Williamette River. This river winds it's way for hundreds of miles, and it is the same river on which our campground for the night is located, just south of Portland.

Once we got on Interstate 5, we realized why coming up US395 on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains is the way to go if it's good weather.  Once on this Interstate it immediately became quite foggy (although it doesn't show up well in the picture), and the traffic was almost bumper to bumper going along at breakneck speed!


We arrived at our destination, Champoeg State Park just south of Portland, OR, only to find a sign at the entrance that said Campground Full!  Well, never believe what they tell you.  We went further into the park to the campground where there was a sign Campground Full.  We drove further to the registration booth, where it said Campground Full.  We drove into the campground area and along the loop road and found a site with no reserve sign and parked Miss Travelaire in the spot.  Then I walked over to the campground host and asked "is the campground full?" To which he said "yes."  I said "I just parked in site 7 which had no reserved sign."  He said "that's the only site available, someone just pulled out.!"  So never believe it when they say the campground is full!!

To prove it, here is Miss Travelaire proudly settled in site 7 (N45 15 07.5, W122 52 30.5)!  I remember this park, we camped here once before, and I believe we had somewhat the same experience of it being full, well almost full.  It is very near Portland, and it is a weekend.