Seasonal State Park Campgrounds Now Open

Photo Courtesy: Oregon State Parks

(Salem) - State park campgrounds at Detroit Lake, Joseph Stewart, Clyde Holliday, Oswald West and Saddle Mountain are now open for the 2006 season.

The campgrounds are the first of nine Oregon Parks and Recreation Department seasonal operations to open their gates this month.

Detroit Lake, 50 miles east of Salem, has 311 sites, including 172 with RV utility hookups.

Joseph Stewart has 50 of its 196 electrical hookup sites open, but all will be WITHOUT water hookup service until later in March. The park's campsites as well as its group picnic and camping areas are now on the reservations system. The park is 35 miles northeast of Medford and 36 miles southwest of the south entrance to Crater Lake National

Beachside, three miles south of Waldport on the Oregon coast, will open March 10.

Beachside has 33 electrical hookup sites, 45 tent sites and two yurts, all a short distance from the ocean beach.

Ainsworth and Memaloose state parks in the Columbia River Gorge, and Milo McIver, on the Clackamas River four miles west of Estacada, will welcome campers March 17.

Ainsworth, 18 miles east of Troutdale, has 45 full hookup sites (sewer, electricity and water). Memaloose, 11 miles west of The Dalles, has 44 full hookup sites along with 66 tent sites.

Clyde Holliday, which is six miles west of John Day, offers 31 sites with electrical and water hookups along with two reservable tepees The park's restroom-shower building may be closed temporarily in mid-March for construction to upgrade its accessibility to ADA standards.

Oswald West, 10 miles south of Cannon Beach, and Saddle Mountain, 17 miles east of the U.S. 26-U.S. 101 junction, offer tent camping only. Oswald West has 30 walk-in tent sites in the dense forest between the beach and a roadside parking area on U.S. 101. Saddle Mountain has 10 sites for primitive camping at the trailhead of the Saddle Mountain hiking trail.

The parks opening mid-March all offer RV hookups.

Beachside, Memaloose and Milo McIver are reservation campgrounds.

Another 14 parks will begin their camping seasons in April and early May.

Discounted Discovery Season rates, usually $4 off summer rates, will be in effect until April 30 at all seasonal campgrounds as well as at the 27 state parks that offer year-round camping.

More information about state park camping is available on OPRD's Web site at www.oregonstateparks.org, or by calling (800) 551-6949.