We wanted to take Stefan's new, custom-built "square drop" camper on its maiden voyage, camping in it for the first time, and I was desperate to go camping - I had been on just ONE short trip since the start of the pandemic (along the Alsea River and the Oregon Coast in 2021). That's not at all good for my mental state.

But camping in Oregon is a challenge - it was before the pandemic, but now it's even worse: state park campgrounds are fully booked nine months in advance, and just-show-up campgrounds often fill up by 3 p.m. Plus, we needed something relatively close to home and on a paved, two-lane road. So we starting looking at county campsites relatively close by to where we live. County campgrounds in Oregon can be quite nice, but they vary hugely in quality - some have bathrooms with flushing toilets and showers, some have just pit toilets, and some can be overrun with locals in RVs, running their generators all night with kids on bicycles everywhere or running through your campsite.

Stefan asked me to book the only available site at Trask River County Campground in Tillamook County (easy to do on this web site). We had never seen the campground - it's not on a road either of us have ever been on, which is surprising, because we have explored so much of this area by motorcycle. I booked it but I was dreading it: from the online map on the county's, it looked like the campground was fully booked, and this last available site looked like it was right next to the road. The reviews of the campground were also not so great - lots about how loud other campers were, particularly out in the big common area.

We got to the campground at about 4 in the afternoon on a Friday and were surprised that it was mostly empty, with just four other campers in three other campsites occupied. We slowly realized it was going to stay mostly empty because the campground wasn't fully booked after all, as the web site had shown; instead, most of the campground is closed for the winter. The web site apparently allows you to reserve just four sites, through a few more are available for one night. I'll get into which those are, and how to stretch your options for camping, later in this review.

We were in A7, the first campsite on the right as you enter, and it was perfect. It's NOT right by the road. It's right by a little parking area for day use, which no one used. With just a few steps, you can look over the North Fork of the Trask River, and the sound of that river drowns out any conversations from adjacent campgrounds - not that the other campers were loud at all.

Stefan backed in the square drop into our reserved spot, unhooked it and, as he stabilized it, I got Lucinda out of the car and took her on a very short walk down to the river. Lucy freaks out for the first hour when we arrive anywhere, and so we go on a hike as soon as we can. She has to stay on the leash at all times, no only because it's the rule, but also because she is so freaked out she might run.

As soon as Stefan had everything stabilized and locked up on the camping trailer, we started walking around the mostly empty campground to get our bearings. Per a plaque, we learned that the area was developed by the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of the greatest programs EVER, one that shows why the government is more than just passing laws and rubber stamping what corporations want. The Tillamook County Historical Society's plaque notes that the CCC was "created in a period of severe economic depression," and that it "provided useful work and vocational training for unemployed single men and contributed much in the development and conservation of our country's resources, from 1933-1942." This site was Camp Trask starting in 1935 with about 200 Civilian Conservation Corps members. There were barracks, a mess hall and outbuildings - all long gone, unfortunately. Camp life meant working an eight-hour day for $30 a month, with most of that sent back home to help relatives through those desperate economically tough times of the mid-1930s. Of the old bridge over the North Fork Trask River that Reilly remembered, a single abutment remains, which was near where we were camping. The Tillamook Headlight Herald has a nice story about the CCC connection, though note that this article may not load the first time you try and you may get an error message - just keep trying.

After talking with a local who was driving by, saw the square drop and had to stop and fan girl over it, we walked through the A loop of the campground, going through closed campsites sometimes to get a closer look at the river, as well as a short trail along the river. We walked back into a tree-covered line of smaller campsites, and there was a gate in front of what looked like a continuing loop of campsites, so we went around the gate to have a look. And, indeed, there used to be campsites here, but they've been abandoned. Old broken picnic tables are piled in one abandoned site, and dug-up fire pits, still attached to concrete pieces, are piled in another (I would LOVE to have one!). This abandoned part of the campground is surrounded by trees and you can't see it unless you go around the gate. The road continues and drops right back down into the campground that is still in use. We walked that loop three times the entire weekend - since there was no one there, it felt like a nice, short, easy remote hike.

We continued across the road to C loop, most of which was also closed off. We hiked through the closed part and went down to the river. Online reviews say C loop is so much better, because it's tree-covered and has landscaping between sites, but, honestly, the only sites I wouldn't want to be in are the ones all out in that circle in the middle of the A loop - the rest of the sites in the A loop campground look really good and abut up against the river or woods.

Note: all the bathrooms are pit toilets. For RV folks, there is a dump station.

We went back to our campsite and hoped that Lucy would be calmer while we cooked and ate dinner. She wasn't. She was happy only when she was walking around or when she was in the camper. And at those times, she was VERY happy. But otherwise, she was an anxious bundle of nerves. She just does not like hanging out outside at a campground, not even on the blanket we bought especially for her, not unless it was unfolded completely. I don't know why. She will lay on the cold hard ground rather than on the folded blanket with her bed on top.

We've decided to not use the same cooking equipment that we use when we motorcycle camp for when we car camp. This is in part because the motorcycle stuff is perfectly packed up and always ready to go and we'd like to keep it that way. I still have unused camping gear from my solo camping days in the USA, before Stefan, and we are we are using that, and buying things that I didn't already have. One thing I already have that we hadn't used is my two-burner Coleman stove, bought in 1994 or so. A friend recently fixed it up for us and said it was working well, and Stefan tried it out before we left and said it was working well, and the first two nights and first morning, it worked well. And then, Sunday morning, it leaked fuel and the burner wouldn't light. We're thankful it decided to poop out then and not any earlier. Stefan will be reading this troubleshooting site to try to figure out the problem. But the first night, it was so great to have two burners and to use my barely used cookware and blue metal dishes I've acquired over the years. For the first night, I wanted to cook (heat up) something different than the usual, so I went with the Tasty Bite brand of Indian madras lentils, vegetable tikka masala, and turmeric rice, with a lot of added chili powder and curry on my part. And the first morning, we used a new but old-fashioned percolating coffee maker for our morning coffee instead of instant (as we do on the motorcycle) and it was HEAVEN. Since we have such a massive cooler on the trailer, we're able to bring milk, meat, cheese and, of course, beer. It's glamping!

As I was serving supper, I looked up at last across the open field and it was full of elk! I hadn't noticed them at all as I cooked on the picnic table, even though I was facing them. I counted more than 20. They are SO big! They ended up running away eventually because of some jerks on dirt bikes (which were not licensed to be on the road and, yet, there they were). The elk came back the next morning, before I got up - Stefan saw them. But they didn't come back for the remainder of our stay. 

Camping so close to the river was heaven. We could hear the rushing river through the vent on the ceiling, and it was a perfect white noise. At some point in the night, it rained lightly, and I liked the additional sound. I did wake up several times, as I always do the first night sleeping away from home, but I always went right back to sleep. I also didn't need my inhaler - there was much less pollen than there is where I live in Oregon.

We use regular bedding on the trailer bed mattress instead of sleeping bags: Stefan bought a foldable mattress, 53 inches or 135 cm wide. It feels HUGE. It folds up into a very comfy couch, which we can use to sit and play backgammon or other little board games when it rains. And when it's folded out for sleeping, my toes stretch just a bit into Lucy's bed, and her feet, if she wants, can spill over onto my feet, which she loves - she is comforted by playing footsie. What I'll change for next time is that I'm bringing an extra blanket - we have a few airplane blankets that will be perfect. We also brought the infamous pink dog hoodie for Lucy and put it on her for sleeping - we were worried she'd be cold otherwise.

The next day, we did the same hikes we did the day before, and this time we also went down to the beach at the river from the day use area on the other side of C loop. It's near where the North Fork of the Trask River and the main Trask River meet. We never ended up on a river bank at the same time as fly fishermen - there were never more than three or four at once, and they were always somewhere other than where we were. They are SO TIDY - there's no indication they've been anywhere on the shore where we were.

We had some lunch: I heated up some black beans and we had them with tortillas, salsa, cheese and chips. Then we headed in the car to the Trask River Peninsula Trail. The traihead is four miles from the campground and has a very tiny dirt parking area - maybe four cars will fit. I would NOT suggest going here a weekend in high season or when it's nice outside in high season - that parking lot will be full, and it's impossible to turn around up there if so.

The Peninsula Trail is just a mile long, but the Western half of it is an ass-kicker. The trail negotiates a ridge of basalt, and even on the easy side, you are going to see some gulp-inducing drops. The river bank you end up on isn't especially nicer than any other river bank, so don't expect a big visual payoff. But there are a couple of picnic tables and, hey, it's the river! I love the river! We took the more difficult side on the way back and it was some of the hardest hiking I've ever done in that short span - impossible in wet conditions, by the way. I was so glad I had my walking sticks - which were sometimes climbing sticks on the way back. Check out these steps going up to (or down from) the Western half. I crawled down them.

We saw the sign for the Dam Hole on the Trask River and weren't sure what it was. What's there is a narrow rock channel that the river rushes through. It's a really dramatic sight, but apparently that's not what the sign refers to - it refers to the much calmer water up river a bit, where people swim when it's warm. I cannot imagine swimming in the river at all - all the white water and current makes it look very dangerous, and I don't know how if you swim there you don't get sucked into that narrow rock channel. There's no much parking and very little shoulder on the road.

Lucy and I were exhausted after the short but tough hike, so we went back to the campground and we all had a nap. It felt luxurious to sleep on a mattress. I think you have to have been a tent camper most of your adut life to get why a little homemade camping trailer is so special.

No one ever parked in the day use area - anglers that weren't camping parked their vehicles on the road and then walked over to the river banks in the park, to avoid paying the day use fee. I have no idea if anyone does in high season. The day use area and the big common area in A loop have horseshoe pits and plenty of room to toss a Frisbee or set up a badminton net, but there are TONS of gopher holes, so tread carefully.

That evening, I heated up canned soup for supper, Stefan got a good fire going and we sat outside enjoying nightfall. The three fishing guys camping next to us, each with their own camper, left on Saturday around lunch time, so we were even more alone. I went inside rather early to read and relax. Reading in bed with a proper reading light while camping? Oh, yeah, that's glamping. When camping, I often bring a book in case we get stranded somewhere, but I don't have any expectation to read it: I don't like trying to read by headlamp (except a guidebook), and there's no comfortable way for me to read at a picnic table or in a tent. That's doing to change now with this camper.  

The next day, Sunday morning, we took our time - there was no rush to get away. The stove no longer worked, which was a bummer - I didn't know how well I would function without coffee in the morning, but I was okay. No elk this morning either, which was disappointing. We hiked the A and C loops one more time, which pleased Lucinda the dog - she loves hiking beyond measure. Then we packed up to head out. It is so much easier to pack up the trailer than the tent!

And we were home by one in the afternoon.

I want to note that the Trask River County Campground camp host never interacted with anyone at all - he never came over to introduce himself nor came out of his camper when we were walking around nearby, he never walked or drove through the campground, and he never checked on anyone at all for the entire weekend. I ended up moving the reservation slips on the three sites that were empty on Saturday night because some people were driving up, looking at them, and leaving because they thought they were occupied for the night. Unfortunately for them I didn't do it early enough that someone actually got to camp there. Yes, it was nice not to have anyone next to us but I always hate when people looking for a camp site leave because they think a site is full when it isn't. 

Upsides of Trask River County Campground:

• It is a beautiful area.
• It's open year-round.
• Very few people in March, when we were there.
• All camp sites include a picnic table and fire ring, and there's plenty of access to drinkable water.
• Everything is well maintained.
• Easy to book online.
• The background sound and views of the Trask River for campsites next to it (video).

Not sure if this would be a good place for a motorcycle traveler to base him or herself for a couple of days in order to explore the paved and gravel roads in the area, because we haven't explored those roads yet and aren't sure what's available - we never drove farther than the campground on Trask River Road. The ride from the campground to the coast would not be that interesting, but the ride on the coast in this area is pretty, especially if you've never seen it before (Cape Meares is nice) and there are some nice places to eat in the towns on the coast (though be prepared for crazy traffic and crowds in high season). Just be sure you get back to the campground before sunset, both because the road is dangerous at night and there are at least one unmarked elk crossings. 

Downsides of Trask River County Campground:

• No picnic shelters, and that means tent campers have nowhere to cook if it's raining.
• There's no hiking trails except for a few yards down to the river and in a few short spots along the river. The only hiking trail of any consequence is four miles away and is just a mile long.
• There's no waste water dumps (for dish water, for instance).
• Too few sites reservable in the off-season (there's no excuse not to have some C sites available to reserve).
• The campground map on the info board is out-of-date (shows a lot of now permanently closed campsites as available) - the updated version is available only online.
• Online reviews claim the camp hosts don't enforce quiet hours and the campground has a reputation for being REALLY loud during high season.

About getting a campsite in the off-season: in winter, it turns out that sites A7, A8 A9 and A10 are the only ones in the entire campsite that are reservable online. They are all along the river (which is awesome). There are two or three more sites in A, near the road, and maybe four sites in C loop - I think C38, C39, C40, C41 and C42 - that cannot be reserved online in the off season; supposedly, they are one-night only. But given how the camp host didn't interact at all with us when we were there, never came over to any campers, and never checked to see if we really did have a reservation, I'd say that, in the off-season, especially through March, you could show up and stay in those one-night-only sites for two nights and no one would say anything, especially if the few open sites weren't full (but please DO pay at the pay station for every night you stay).

In high season, I'd say the best sites are any of the C loop sites, any of the A sites along the river, and sites A23 - 37. Looking at the map of the Trask River County Campground can help.

Will we go back? We will drop by on the motorcycles on a day trip from home, and we may go camping there again in the trailer in a couple of years.

You can see all my photos here. You can see all Stefan's photos here. You can see a video compilation of different viewpoints of the Trask River here.

One last note: something like Trask River County Campground needs to be built in Gales Creek. That town needs a little campground and day use area, but it also needs to have a two mile hiking loop. Gales Creek doesn't have anything like the Trask River, but it does have Gales Creek, and it's nice enough for a little recreation area. If the county would build that, the tavern there would survive, maybe the store would re-open a food cart would definitely end up there on weekends. A camp host would be easy to find.

Also see:

My favorite North American Ghost towns / historic mining towns / pre-1900s towns

Advice for Traveling Around the USA Camping & Hiking

Women's Safety While Tent Camping

Camp however YOU want to!

Forest Grove, Oregon area day hikes Backpacking start points near Portland, Oregon (PDX)

Forest Grove, Oregon area day hikes (Washington County, Yamhill County, Tillamook County)

More Oregon and Washington suggested short motorcycle routes

Tips for Women: Getting Started as a Motorcycle Rider (just to ride, not necessarily to travel as well)

For Women Who Travel By Motorcycle (or want to)

Advice for Women Motorcycle Travelers: Packing

advice for Women Motorcycle Travelers: footwear (shoes & socks).

Advice for Women Motorcycle Travelers: Transportation and Accommodations Choices

Suggested short motorcycle routes in Oregon and Washington state (from an hour to all-day; many can be linked together to create longer trips).

transire benefaciendo: "to travel along while doing good." Advice for those wanting to make their travel more than sight-seeing and shopping, whether in your own country or abroad.

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