We pulled out from the “driveway in paradise” in Pendleton, OR just after 1 p.m. on Wednesday, July 13th and hit the road for destinations unknown. The night before, we looked at a couple of maps and found a small highway just to the north that headed into the Umatilla Wilderness Area. We picked out a road that was marked as “gravel” that left the small highway and went up into the mountains about 12 miles to Lake Jubilee campground.
The first half of the trip was through gently rolling hills of wheat awaiting the harvest with the Blue Mountains in the distance. They really do look blue! About 20 miles north of Pendleton we started climbing and soon we were in a pine forest scattered with flower-filled meadows. It couldn’t get any better; it did! We passed a small lake surrounded by vacation cottages and went through a small town with only one restaurant/general store/gas station combo. Just past the town we turned off on the road to Jubilee Lake. The first 3 miles were paved and then we saw the sign we had been waiting for: “Pavement Ends”.
As we “turtled” along the gravel road we were looking at the various dirt roads that beckoned the fearless boondocker to go investigate. At one junction there were dirt roads to the right and left. I passed those by but decided that, no matter what it looked like, I would take the next side road. A few hundred yards later, there it was. A quick left turn and a slow climb up a rugged dirt road and we had found our first boondock site!
In just under an hour, we had gone from a very nice private driveway to public land that was even nicer!
Dod - View from the North
Dod - View from the South
Dod - View from the East
This site is surrounded on all four sides by meadows containing some of the most beautiful and abundant wildflowers I have ever seen. It has A great fire pit, lots of free firewood; an almost perfectly level parking spot; and, THERE IS ONLY ROOM FOR ONE VEHICLE!
Each of the almost 20 varieties of wildflowers in this vase came from within 100' of our camp. We took several hikes along small trails and unused roads and the flowers were in abundance everywhere.
More to come; I have to choose just a few photos from the dozens I took to include in tomorrow's post!
Well would you look at that! What a wonderful spot you found for your first boon-docking experience. It looks great and it sounds like the adventure has begun.
ReplyDeleteWow, nice place to be. You sure you want to go all the way down south to Mexico? It looks like you could have some great times in the Northwest.
ReplyDeletenice.. very very nice!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great adventure! I remember Oregon and Washington just as your camp is pictured. We traveled in a Dodge Maxivan with 11 of us for three weeks as we went from Arcadia, CA to Expo 86 in Vancouver. What a trip!
ReplyDeletewell done grasshopper...
ReplyDeleteNice spot.
ReplyDeletePerfick!
ReplyDeletewww.travelwithkevinandruth.com
Can't wait to see more photos.
ReplyDeleteOh so nice to get away from it all.
ReplyDeleteWay to go Bro
ReplyDeleteYou site looks perfect! Looks like lots of sunshine from the shadows, too. It's amazing when you think of your first post that you are already boondocking in such a beautiful area with a great woman and your own dog. Would you have believed it when you bought Dod? Well done!
ReplyDelete