Emigrant Springs State Heritage Area — Attraction in Pendleton

There is not a lot of PROs for this park but the Host Family is one and the amount of trees/shade is the other. Nothing else. We arrived early for our site to discover it was one without sewer. The Park has 16 FHU sites and I was pretty sure I had selected one of those but nope, water and electricity only. While the drive is asphalt, it is deeply rutted. We drove through the Park and hoped to see a open FHU but everything had a red reserved sign. We stopped the Host Family and while trying to be helpful, said all of the FHU sites were reserved. We could use one to dump our holding tanks since the Park has no central dump station. Host added were a site open, a Park Ranger would have to approve first and being Sunday none were available. The three telephone numbers on the Park website had the same message - we don't work the weekends. Nothing to do here but it was just meant to be an overnight stay for us. One bath house with showers and given the number of folks in non-sewer sites, there was a waiting line. The Park is also right beside the main highway so no way of escaping traffic noise. Did a final walk with our dog at 2000 and there were seven open FHU sites. We have been on the road for two weeks and this is only the second Park that we'll chalk up as...

Pros- This campground is beautiful and shaded. The restrooms are clean and there are showers too.

Cons - If you are looking for a place that is monitored and micro-managed by camp hosts and rangers then this is the place for you. We have 2 labs and they had to be on leashes at ALL times. Our dogs have always stayed on our site and are very friendly. We let them off the leash to go to the bathroom and got harassed by the rangers and camp hosts. From first thing in the morning until bedtime they were driving by every 30 minutes. If you take a dog make sure you never ever, not even for a minute take their leash off.

If you have any kids under the age of 16 please make sure if you take a bike or scooter that they have a helmet. If you do not have a helmet the hosts and rangers will not let the kids ride. We normally take a helmet but forgot it on this trip so we told our sons to ride right in front of our campsite and the next one. They were not allowed at all.

We left after one night as we have never been harassed like this before. Then their constant driving by in their trucks and golf carts was just so excessive that it was not quiet or relaxing at all.

We have been to so many campgrounds in Idaho and Oregon.....and this is our first horrible...

We chose Emigrant Springs because ease of accessibility to horse camping for some of Oregon's most colorful fall colors. The horse camp was absolutely perfect for our needs. Water, horse corrals, bathrooms, hot showers, firewood and best of all great personnel! Friday's greetings explained park options for rides and accommodations. Because hunting season was beginning, safety vest were loaned to us for better visibility on horses. Saturday's AM check in by the Park Ranger discussed anticipated weather (snow) followed with a PM check in that our group of nine made it back safely. The Sunday Ranger check in discussed the anticipated weather and road safety. Advice and consideration greatly appreciated since we were new to the area - however, will be back! Thank you for making this such a wonderful...