A few years ago Dean and I headed down to Waldo Lake after the official reservation window had closed and all sites become first come first served. It was great because the campground wasn’t crowded at all and we had our pick of sites to choose from.

As we approached the middle of September I was itching for one more good weekend of #vanlife with Mia and hopefully some friends. Unfortunately everyone I asked was already booked up with other plans for the weekend that finally worked out. (or maybe they just don’t like us that much?) Either way Mia and I took off a little early from work last Friday for what looked to be an absolutely stellar fall weekend in the cascades.

North Waldo Lake CG is insanely popular and I lucked into a spot earlier this summer for a solo weekend. This campground was also our destination for the weekend and I was confident that we’d get an appropriate and decent site. Mia was a little less sure but she has heard from me numerous times in our long relationship my famous saying of “….just trust me”

When I was last down at North Waldo I walked around and made a list of all the sites that were Clifford appropriate. I jotted down some notes and tried to indicate which were the best options. The couple that were ideal and close to the water were taken but site five was still vacant. This one appeals to me because it has a long, relatively level, parking pad and offers good setback from the road. By the way none of the campsites are horrible by any means but some of them are definitely better than others.

North Waldo CG sits at about 5,500′ in elevation. I was expecting temps to be much cooler than down low but everything turned out really nice. Along with pleasant temps was the almost total lack of wind which is a rare thing back in the western Willamette Valley where we live.

I didn’t bring any bikes on this trip. I’m somewhat trying to take a little mental break from the bike(s) while doing some other enjoyable things.

We opted for the super simple and not-so-epic hike out to Bobby Lake just down the road from Shadow Bay CG.

After the hike we headed back to the campsite and lounged around. I may have had a power nap while attempting to read my book………

Sunday morning came around and felt much cooler than the previous day. I took Codi for his morning walk and was wishing I had brought some light gloves. I’d wager it was mid 30’s while we were out and about. I do have to give huge props to a recent clothing acquisition though. The Mountain Hardware StretchDown 700 pants I picked up at the Columbia store in Beaverton proved a highly worthwhile investment.

Now if you clicked through that link above and were a bit aghast at the price of these pants, don’t worry, so was I. The not so little secret is that I occasionally get employee store passes through my work for the Columbia employee store where most items are around 40-50% off retail. So yeah, still pricey given what I paid for them but not nearly as bad as full retail.

Finally on the way home we made a quick stop at Salt Creek Falls just off highway 58. This waterfall is the second tallest in Oregon and well worth the approximately 1/2 mile hike from the parking lot to see.

Thanks for reading,

-Pete