October 11-16, 2025
Another new camping destination for me. There are so many wonderful campgrounds in the State of Washington! This one, Beacon Rock, is on the very southern edge of the State of Washington, and is right on the shore of the mighty Columbia River. My very own campsite wasn’t right next to the river, unfortunately, but it was within walking distance.
In the image below, my home is the RED dot. Beacon Rock State Park is the YELLOW dot.
You can see that the BLUE Columbia River runs along the border between Washington and Oregon for quite a while, but then turns and comes up through the eastern part of the State of Washington, and actually comes from up inside Canada. I may have mixed you up here with how I wrote that. The Columbia River starts up in Canada, then flows down through Washington, then westward along the border between Washington and Oregon, then empties in the Pacific Ocean.
Here’s another image below that shows the route of the mighty Columbia River. It starts up in Canada, south of Invermere. Then it runs north (down hill), then turns and runs south through British Columbia in Canada, eventually entering the State of Washington in the USA. When it reaches the border between Washington and Oregon (south of Richland, WA), it turns to the west and flows to the Pacific Ocean along the border between those two states.
The Columbia River is the second largest river (by water volume) in the USA, even tho it’s just in one state, Washington. Just the area along the river banks is larger than the country of France. It’s one heck of a lot of water … it’s a huge river. Of course, that’s not including the St. Lawrence River that is mostly in Canada. That river is larger, more water output than the Columbia, but it’s mostly in Canada, so I’m counting just USA rivers here. O, Canada! 🙂
And I get to go camping here, right along the Columbia River! Check out that large YELLOW dot in the first image above to see where I went. It was about a four-hour drive from home, with most of that time driving down the busy I-5 freeway, but then I turned east onto the really pretty highway 14 that runs along the Washington side of the Columbia River.
And, eventually, I arrived.
I found my way around the campground roads, found my site, and backed in. Oh how gorgeous.
Below, the view from the front of my truck.
There was a walkway, just off to the right from my campsite … hmmm, what is that building there in the trees?
Ah, restrooms and showers. Handy!
The photo above and the one below are views of one area close to where I was camped. I was here in October, so the autumn colors were very pretty.
Photo below … looking past the left side of my trailer and out to the entrance. The building contains tools and spare parts and other such stuff for use by state park employees.
As you can see by the pools of water on the ground, it was raining when I arrived. It wasn’t a heavy rain, just a light rain, but it was enough that I extended the awning just a bit to cover the steps and the ground there so they would stay dry.
While I was walking around and exploring the campsite area, I discovered this mushroom/fungus below. There was only one of them there; I never saw another one like it. Does anyone know what it is? I’ve looked online since I got home and can’t find it. It was about 2.5 inches in diameter.
So this is my home for the week. I’ll be showing you the mighty Columbia River soon. My campsite was less than half a mile to the edge of the river, a comfortable walk. Stay tuned. 🙂