Submitted by Kate Baldus

I don't know how it happens but every three-day weekend my friends like to get together and somehow I am responsible for choosing a location and making arrangements.  (I secretly love planning these kinds of outings 97% of the time!)  However, this year I asked that someone else take charge so that I could just come along, show up and have some fun without fretting over rides, food, reserving sites etc.  Well... it didn't happen.  Tuesday - four days before quite possibly the biggest camping weekend of the year - I found out we did not have a camp site reserved.  We hadn't even officially chosen a location yet either!  To the beach? To the Gorge? Detroit Lake? Mount Hood?  No one could decide!  I have never actually camped much in Oregon, mostly off-road camping during college in Idaho where there aren't nearly the number of people trying to get lost in the woods on Memorial Day weekend.   I quickly began scouring the web for any sites listing open campgrounds.  I actually was surprised to find a few, but none that seemed to accomodate the number of people or location we wanted, plus I didn't know in relation to Portland where all the campgrounds were until I found a great map of sites! 

 I also found a site that let me enter the number of people, location and dates and checked availability of all sites in that area.  The one I continuously heard my friends asking for was Detroit Lake (usually booked out at least nine months in advance.)  After four hours of refreshing the screen to see if there were openings - I had found it.  One campsite popped up and I clicked "Book Now" faster than I could imagine (I had to register to actually book the reservation which slowed me down... tip to you - register before you start searching so that when a campsite pops up you don't risk losing it!)  Even better, the campsite next to it opened up so I booked both - easily able to accomodate 15 people.  I was so excited to email all my friends and tell them the good news.  Two campsites for Saturday and Sunday night, actually located on the lake - you can't get much better than that... one of the best reasons to live in Oregon!  I am so excited for this weekend - I can't wait! 

By the way - some great off road camping about an hour away in Washington is up the Washougal River past Dougan Falls (23 miles up the river's winding road.)  There are usually a lot of people swimming in the falls but the furthur up the river the less crowded and you can find some great spots in the summer!