Deschutes River State Recreation Area Campground — Hotel in The Dalles

You may want to sit down . My Job took me to sherman county oregon to the town of Moro oregon just down the road south set in the milddle of no less than a few million acres of "amber waves of grain " and I mean that literally . its a quaint location , very old , and left behind long ago as navigation took to the great columbia river and commerce along with it . the town is still forging on with a very old courthouse that has been preserved and cared for very well by the elected stewards of the county with what little they have had from agricultrue , and now with wind energy being a part of the every day horizon there's alot of improvements from roads to buildings and infrastructures . and I can't leave the amazing old Methodist church out side of town . could have sworn I heard a piano and a tambourine playing in the shadows behind the windowless window frames , it gave me goosebumps , was very odd . anyhow back to my book . This story is about my Stay at Deschutes State park after all , but that lil town definitely needs to be on your check it out list . So back to first night . pitched tent at loop a , all is great until off in the distance we all could hear what sounded like a giant high tone wooden flute . it rang out for over an hour and a half , and began to sound like a jet coming strait into camp but it never did , it just kept ringing out for over 90 minutes during which time coincidentally the wind picked up and was howling through the canyon . The sound grew closer and then a mixture of what was very clear to me was the sound of many , and I'm talking at least 50 locomotives screaming down the tracks out of the canyon of the Deschutes River headed to the portland docks . then out of no where , 10 billion decibels of diesel powered air horns blasted through the river Gorge at the mouth of the Deschutes river . this was not at all nature , this was a horror movie and I was in it for 5 days . every night at 11:00 pm the super trains come through what seems to be every 15 minutes to 45 minutes . Its quite frightening to be jolted out of a deep sleep after being waken every 15 to 45 minutes a deep sleep comes upon you in a matter of a few minutes just to be tortured with screaming diesel locomotives . and folks I'm not talkn regular trains , I'm talkn super trains ! And because of the noise pollution, all the animals have driven out all except for the geese and the piles of disease infeated feces they leave behind Along the park shoreline . back to the trains , every night folks no less than 10 of these super trains pass through . for some reason they dont run as much during the day . anyhow is horrible . the park is amazing though , its very well kept with clean bathrooms and showers and the hosts appear to keep the place in very well working order and very well preserved indigenous plants . so our tax dollars are being well spent for our beautiful park . Theres no fish folks . I think it's a mass extinction of salmon and steelhead its sad . the stewards of our natural eco system have failed us concerning aquatic life beyond steelhead and trout . I'm truly saddened by what I see . our forest stripped and transplanted with PETRI dish bio farm lifeforms that were never ment to be , amd what is called native steelhead and salmon are nothing more than hatchery fish that were not clipped and released to populate and feed Russia and asia as they leave their birthplace of oregon / California / Washington / British Columbia / and Alaska . let's not forget about all the commercial and native nets dropped across the columbia river . the competition for salmon and steel head and aquatic life in general has totally depleted and brought extinction of indigenous aquatic species on our coast , our rivers and tributaries as far inland as 3000K miles . the natural occuring species are gone and we have failed as stewards concering our forests and water ways in the name of progress and capitalism . my hope is that all life become consciously aware and that one day the "Lion actually does lay down with the...

I would not call this a destination park. It is more of an overnight stay park on your way to somewhere else. It is nice that they offer overnight parking for $7.00. what are the biggest issues in my mind? One is the astounding amount of goose droppings. The park is blanketed with it, making it impossible to walk in a where without stepping in something. There is nothing that park service can do to control this but it doesn't improve the park at all. There is a very large meadow adjacent to the camping area, but it is not a place that you would want to sit on the grass and enjoy a picnic because of this issue.

Trains go by continually but those really did not bother us that much. The bathrooms had not opened for the season and they had buck toilets and they were pretty disgusting.

The camping spaces for RVs are actually pretty close together and there is little in the way of foliage separating them. Do not believe the reviews that claim that the RV parking spaces are huge. I have been to many Oregon State Parks and I would have to rate this one on the medium to lower end of others. The campground is a adjacent to the river and if you are a boater, I guess this is a big plus.

If you are a sky dark sky observer, the sky is pretty dark here. Unfortunately, the park service uses some extraordinarily bright lights on the bathrooms which pretty much destroy night vision. I have no idea why they think the lights have to be adequate for airport landings. Please put in some more...

At least in late June, there was alot of insects and we all suffered from insect bites. Although there are a couple isolated spots for swimming here, it's not really convenient access from the campground, at least not for little kids that need a sandy beach area. True, the river runs along the campground, but it's mostly a rocky edge with boat tie-offs. Teenagers could probably jump right in but little kids can't play along the rivers edge.

That being said, there is a small kid-friendly beach on the other side of the river with shade in the late afternoon at Heritage Landing. But beware of boats coming and going and don't let them go out too far as there's a warning about the current carrying kids out to the Columbia River.

If you have a boat or raft, or you're a good swimmer, you can swim out to the island (Moody Island) and explore. Just be sure to buy a boaters pass - there's a kiosk to buy passes at the bathroom at Heritage Landing. Finally, be aware there are strict fishing regulations here in the Central Zone, especially here in the Lower Deschutes River, and especially now with the emergency regulation in place. Only artificial flies/lures are allowed, and only certain types of fish.

Overall, I'd say this campground isn't that great for campers with...