How do I choose places to camp for short weekend trips?

Sometimes it is YouTube videos, friend recommendations, internet searches or from local area travel guides. Other times it is less scientific when I pull out the road atlas and see what looks interesting within a 2 hour drive of home.

Now that we are living full-time in the Tri-Cities area of Washington state – the Pendleton, Oregon area falls easily into the “drive there in 120 minutes or less” category.

With Noel out of town on a work trip, Aurora and I loaded up the New Aire, grabbed a reservation at the Pendleton KOA, and set out for a father-dog weekend exploring Pendleton, Oregon.

My normal readers will know that we stay at KOA campgrounds frequently as they are often clean and safe with good hook-ups and level sites. The Pendleton KOA campsite we stayed in was excellent, had a shade tree providing some relief from the heat, and had a large grassy field next door suitable for walks with Aurora. The only downside to this KOA was that about 50% of the sites were taken up by longer term renters and not all of them kept their sites looking good.

After we got set-up, a couple pulled into the site next to us with their pick-up truck and camp trailer. As they were setting up we started chatting. They were on the first night of a 3 month trip to the east coast along with their dog and a cat. When I asked him his name he said he was “Kirk”. What is the chance that two people with the first name “Kirk” were camping next to each other in Pendleton, Oregon?

Probability was not one of my stronger subjects in school – but I would say the chances of two Kirks camping next to each other would be pretty close to zero.

The late evening dog walks were a bit exciting as Aurora discovered a snake one evening moving through the grass. Aurora was not sure what it was – so we stayed back and I was able to snap a picture before it slithered away.

To be clear – I like snakes – but seeing something move through the grass at 10 p.m. in the dark is not necessarily when I want to be observing wildlife.

Since it was a solo camping trip it was a nice opportunity for me to try out a few new camping recipes including seasoned grilled shrimp tacos, grilled sausage and veggies with a vinaigrette glaze and peanut butter stuffed French toast. Let me say – all of these turned out well and will be in our camp meal rotation next season.

The highlight of our visit to Pendleton was the guided Pendleton Underground Tour.

The downtown area of historic Pendleton has a set of interconnected basements and tunnels that were originally built to efficiently move goods around the city out of the environment. They were also used as storage and work areas – and housed many of the immigrant workers who came to Pendleton to set up businesses at the turn of the 20th Century. It turns out that these tunnels also worked very well for illicit bars during prohibition when Pendleton was well known for its bars and houses of prostitution. There was a clear sense of entrepreneurship in Pendleton through the decades – and the tunnel system was one of the many examples.

The 2-hour long tour was fascinating and our tour guide did an excellent job of giving a lot of the oral history of the area along with stories about the men and women who built Pendleton over the last 125 years.

Pro-tip – the Underground tours can fill up fast so reservations in advance are highly recommended.

Our final activity in Pendleton was to visit the site of the famous Pendleton Mills. I was hoping to take a guided tour of the manufacturing facility but the tours are only offered on Monday through Friday. The factory store was open as was a nice small museum which gave some background and history on the Pendleton mills and described how the milling is done today. It was well worth the visit and I did snag a Pendleton shirt at the store before leaving.

These shorter weekend trips are a great reminder that there is a lot to do in some of the small rural towns across the Pacific Northwest. We enjoyed our time in Pendleton and will look forward to other small town adventures in the future.

Until then ….