Thursday, September 3, 2015

Cottonwood Canyon State Park


Cottonwood Canyon State Park, recently opened, is one of Oregon's newest state parks and has been on our bucket list to visit.  It's a vast park of some 8,000 acres, and we were looking forward to staying overnight in the Lone Tree Campground. Thanks to a heads up from ranger Mark Taylor at Deschutes River SNA we learned that there is no cell service in the campground.  That means no Internet, which is a deal breaker for us, so we planned just a day visit with our overnight destination being Wheeler County RV Park in Fossil. Cottonwood Canyon State Park straddles the John Day River which is the county line between Sherman County on one side, and Gilliam County on the other side, enabling us to visit two counties with out leaving the park. We had the Day Use Area to ourselves, but the birds were rather scarce, maybe due to time of year, plus the ones we did see didn't seem accustomed to people. I think we will need to come back in the Spring some time to get a better count. (21 campsites, first come first serve, $10, no hook-ups)



We ventured on over the rolling wheat fields with their towering wind turbines to Condon for lunch and then on to Fossil which is in yet another county, Wheeler, giving us a three county day. From the RV Park which is a part of the County Fair Grounds we walked over to the picturesque Wheeler County Courthouse.  Looping back to our RV, we happened to walk on Main Street, and I do mean "on" Main Street, because there were no side walks.  Got to love small towns.  I will add, they are very quiet at night. (12 full-hook-up well kept sites, $25, weak Internet reception)


Wheeler County RV Park

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