July 30-August 3, 2019
I am so excited to tell you. My next camping trip in 2019 was in late July and early August. I didn’t take my inflatable kayak with me, but I did rent a kayak and go kayaking. I love kayaking … and I loved this camping trip.
So let me start at the beginning. Here’s where I went … Paradise Point State Park in the State of Washington.
The map above shows the State of Washington. Canada is to the north. The State of Oregon is to the south. [The State of Idaho is to the east but I don’t name it on the map.] In Washington, on the eastern shore of Puget Sound is the very large city of Seattle. Just a bit south of Seattle is the large city of Tacoma. I left from south Tacoma with my trailer in tow and drove down the big/busy Interstate 5 freeway, down to Paradise Point State Park, very near the Columbia River and the Ridgefield Wildlife Refuge.
The Google Earth photo above shows the immediate area around Paradise Point State Park. The east fork of the Lewis River runs close by the park. One can walk to the river from the campground in 20 minutes or so, although it always seemed much easier to me to simply jump in my big white truck and drive there. 🙂
I knew ahead of time that there were reports that loud freeway traffic noise could be heard in the campground, but holy smokes I didn’t realize how loud it was. You can see in the photo above that the campground is pretty much right smack dab next to the freeway.
But, still, I was looking forward to the week and my adventures there. I can report, in spite of the freeway noise, I had a great time! My stories and photos will appear here soon.
I arrived and settled into my campsite with no problem. Well, ok, there was one little problem. The tree right behind my trailer had not been pruned of its lower branches so, initially, I couldn’t back all the way into the site. But I have a ladder, and a sharp and trusty handsaw, so I fixed that problem quickly (and later reported to the Ranger what I had done) and then I did get settled in.
For the first several days here, I had no immediate neighbors. In the photo above, you can see one big trailer on the left side of the photo … and you can see a very tiny bit of a small trailer somewhat next to the rear end of my trailer, but in fact it was two campsites away from me. Those were my closest neighbors.
When I walked up the campground roadway to my right, this field above appeared … no one ever used it, all week!
Further around the road, and a little behind me, the area in the photo below appeared … no one used it either … all week!
I then took a walk through the main part of the campground, down to the Ranger station to check in and say hello. In the photo below, you’ll see the place was just about deserted but for a very few other trailers or motorhomes, and a couple of tent campers. It was going to be a quiet week. I breathed a sigh of relief.
Well, except for that darned freeway (photo below).
As I walked back to my campsite from the Ranger station, I looked to my right … waited for a semi-truck to come barreling down the freeway at high speed (it didn’t take long) … that’s when I snapped the photo above. You can see the white trailer of the semi on the right. On the left, through the trees, you can see a wobbly “fence”. The freeway was, as mentioned, right smack dab on the other side of that fence. It was NOT a sound-barrier fence.
Interstate 5 is THE major freeway from Mexico, through California, through Oregon, through Washington, and into British Columbia (Canada). I-5 is a rat-race of cars and trucks of all sizes going hell bent for wherever they’re going as fast as they can (given the speed limit) using many lanes in each direction. The noise is constant day and night. So this campground does experience quite a bit of freeway noise.
On the other hand, this campground, Paradise Point State Park, is the cleanest, nicest campground I’ve been in to date. The campsites are spaced nicely, the foliage is well maintained (except for my one tree), even in late hot summer the grass was green and well-watered, the Ranger folk were the nicest ever, etc. It’s such a shame this campground was built right next to the freeway. It’s so exceptionally pretty and well cared for, but by the second night there, I decided I would never be back. It was just too noisy.
On the other hand, have no fear, I did stay here all week and I had a great time. I’ll tell you all about it. I saw lots of stuff and did lots of things (like kayaking). But for the next trip to this area, I will be staying at a campground further from the freeway, you can bet on that!
The photo below shows how pretty this campground is, and my campsite in particular. My trailer/truck is in the middle of the photo below. There were so many healthy, green plants and trees and shrubs around. Even with the freeway noise, I had to smile and relax. 🙂
Yep, that’s the back of my trailer above. You might be able to tell that those tree branches are a little bit shorter than they were when I first tried to back in.
I spent that late afternoon walking through the campground, down every little roadway and past every other campsite (most of which were empty). After my supper, I walked part way up the road to the river, but decided to explore that area more fully another day when I had more time. So I wandered back to my little trailer, read my book, and settled down for the night.
In my next blog post, I’ll take you up the road to the river with me … such a pretty river. Ok, sleep tight all, see you soon!