Lower Falls Campground — Hotel in Hood River

I'm giving this a one star, because my husband and I have come here the last 10 years.It was such a beautiful, quiet place. Unfortunately last year we seen such a change. We always go the third week of July for 5 days tenting it. This WAS our favorite place,I'm going to miss it soooooooo much. This last year when we pulled up,we couldn't believe all the cars parked along side of the road,never have we EVER seen that.We thought what's going on???? We thought a crazy wedding.Lol! NOPE!!! The river was swarmed with a couple hundred people. We couldn't believe it. We always go down to the lower river, it was so crowded, hard to even find a peaceful spot. We were so saddened with all the trash,towels, baby bottles,plastic bottles,beer bottles and cans.Just trash!! We grabbed a huge bag and picked up a bunch of trash,and under my breath I was swearing and angry that our happy place has been invaded.Pure disrespect with trash!! I had seen a worker putting toilet paper in the restrooms and asked him what happened? His response was social media, and that his job was to tend to the restrooms and not the surrounding trash.Boy was I disappointed.He said it all had to do with funding. REALLY???? They can't pick up any trash? Geeze! We were picking up trash,which we didn't mind one or two things,but a huge bag??? I couldn't stand looking at the garbage. So needless to say, Good bye Lewis River Falls. Police should control the park then maybe we would go back,but for this year we will find a new place. Just a warning to everyone, when it's hot out the river will be packed with lots of people jumping,and lots of people that just leave their stuff behind.Its a...

My boyfriend and I visited here last year for the first time as a day trip and knew we would need to plan a camping trip here the following summer. We spent two nights here in late July in the lower loop portion of the campground. The area is beautiful and definitely worth a trip. If you make a reservation (we made one online) you can just pull into your campsite no check in necessary. The campsites themselves are pretty standard. There's space for your tent, a picnic table, and a fire pit. It's just a short walk to the river and the lower falls. None of the campsites have direct access to the river so I wouldn't say any are particularly better than others. The bathrooms are smelly, have no light, no sink, and are often filled with flies. It's camping though so I can look past that. The water source they have is not drinkable. I thought it was, and maybe it technically is, but the water tastes so strongly metallic that there is no way I could drink it and I'm not typically finicky about water. Luckily there is a small store about a half hour away that we were able to purchase water from. The river was flowing pretty strong and was way to cold when we went in late July to do any swimming in. If you want to spend time in the water I would recommend going mid to late August into September when the water level goes down and warms up a bit. There's also a hiking trail that will take you up to the middle and upper falls that is definitely worth it. If you don't think you can handle the full hike you can cheat a little and drive up the road a bit where there is a parking lot that the trail...

One of my favorite places. I'm disappointed that the masses have found it (over Labor Day weekend, a lot of people unprepared for 40F and raining were hacking at downed 10" logs in their sites with small hatchets- or worse, cutting green limbs off trees- hoping to get a decent fire going). Adding to the frustration is the new policy of "reservations" meaning the best sites can be saved months out, and if the site gets canceled, it can't be taken for 3 days after the cancelation.

As of 09/03/15 only the upper pump works for water again, be prepared. Over the 16 years I've been going at least twice a year (usually 4-5 times), one or both pumps have been working. Or not).

The once very satisfactory composting toilets are now tolerable. Barely. I'm wondering how long before the folk ignoring the "No Smoking" sign create a crater when they take their cig in with them. Methane, propane and fire usually don't mix very well.

I still give it 4 stars, because it's a beautiful, magical place that also works as a 'base camp' to explore from. With a little effort, there are some sights and things to do very close. But I'm keep those...