Camping Season 2012 Finally Begins

Finally got the camping trailer out of the driveway this year! The two older grandsons have been wanting to go camping and we finally found a weekend that would work for us and them. Since this was our first trip out this year I did not want to go far and found Hat Rock Campground right next to Hat Rock State Park. Instead of taking Highway 395 up and out of the Tri-Cities we decided to take Highway 12 across the Snake River and then drop into Oregon on Highway 730 since this route follows the Columbia River and doesn’t change elevation much. It is about 6 miles longer but amazingly Google Maps has both routes taking 47 minutes at regular speeds. When I am pulling the trailer I try to keep my speed at 60mph anyway and on this route we don’t have a grade to climb so am guessing this way is actually quicker for us!

Storm clouds loomed ominously overhead as we headed into Oregon but decided to unleash their torrent as we pulled into the park. The office was closed when we arrived but we had a reserved site so it was just a matter of finding it and pulling in. Problem was, I kept driving down the front side of the camping spots and the sites are all numbered from the back side (since any smart person would be driving on the back side so they could pull in to their spot). I got out twice in the rain looking for the correct campsite number (wondering why they were not numbered where a person could see them) before someone in a golf car pointed out my error and our camp site.

Moments later we were in our spot. I unlocked the trailer and we all piled into the trailer and waited for the rain to subside. Once it did, we leveled up the trailer, I got it unhooked and the camping had begun. The boys were already excited for morning to come so we could go geocaching and hike up to Hat Rock.