Camp Creek Campground, Mt. Hood

Memorial Day Weekend, 2012

Who knew that such a beautiful spot was located just 40 miles out of Portland on the base of Mt. Hood – Certainly not us! Camp Creek is a gem of a spot located on on the banks of Still Creek. The pretty little campground was built in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and stone fireplaces from the old buildings still remain in working condition in some of the sites. The largest fireplace is in site 25 – a huge site available only as a walk-in site.

Our lovely and large pull-through spot.

The old camp kitchen – site 25

Old fireplaces in day use area

We arrived at the campground on the Thursday before Memorial Day expecting to see plenty of campers, who, like us were getting an early start on the holiday weekend. We were mistaken…Thursday night we were the only people in the park, and late Friday afternoon one other family showed up. The campground was quiet and was never more than half full the entire weekend! Our site (site 13) was great. It was the only pull – through and it was easy to set the Bambi up! As with all of the Forest Service campgrounds we’ve visited, the site was huge and almost totally private. The tent spot for our site was located over a slight hill and was directly on the river. We can’t wait to bring family back here this summer! I will tell you that there is not a bad site here! A few of them are not located directly on the water, but they are all private, large and scenic. Sites 8, 9 & 10 were our favorites.

The campsites back up to this lovely creek!

A lot of water from glacier melt moving through this time of the year.

Along the trail…

Flowers beginning to bloom in the higher elevations

The weather turned out to be beautiful. Thunder storms were in the forecast for the Cascades, but we had just a passing shower the entire three days we were there! The scenery was breathtaking if you like GREEN!

This is quite a primitive campground with no services beyond a water pump and pit toilets. Our little generator worked just fine running it for a short time each day to give our batteries a boost. I really don’t miss electricity at all for a few days at a time. We brought lots of candles and lanterns and it was beautiful and cozy. We also brought a new little Bodum french press for making coffee! Wow…best coffee we’ve ever had. Somehow everything tastes better when we’re out camping!

Camp Creek is a perfect base camp for exploring Mt. Hood! Fishing, hiking, boating, and exploring historic Timberline Lodge are just a few of the things to fill your time while you’re here…or you can just sit by the river, enjoy the sights and sounds and read a good book like we did all day Saturday!

Our campsite by the fire

Everything is prettier by firelight!

Who needs electricity! French press makes the best coffee, ever!

Relaxing by the creek in a little spot of sunshine!

Todd

Both of us 🙂

Plans are already in the works for a return visit – summer is almost here and I can hardly wait. So many places to go and so little time to get out there! Let the planning begin!