Champoeg State Heritage Area is one of our favorite state parks. We paid $24 for a full-hookup site with 50 amp power. Only a few of the sites have full-hookups--the partial hookups (electric and water) also cost $24, and both types of sites cost a few dollars less during the winter off-season. Verizon cell service is not great, with 0-2 bars in the B loop. Champoeg is also a popular day-use park and parking is $5/day.
Site B24
The bicycle and walking path at Champoeg State Park goes through all areas of the park and includes both forest and meadow terrain. We saw many different birds during our bike rides. The park also contains a popular disk golf course.
This basket was looking pretty muddy after all the rain.
Champoeg (pronounced sham-poo-ee), was an important settlement in the Willamette Valley in the early 1840s and was the site of the first provisional government of the Oregon Territory.
The town continued to exist after Oregon statehood. However, on December 2, 1861, the adjacent Willamette River rose 55 feet above its normal summer stage, flooding the town with seven feet of water. Champoeg was never rebuilt after the disaster. The town site is now preserved as Champoeg State Heritage Area and Archaeological Site. A 1901 monument records the names of the 52 settlers who voted to establish the provisional government at the 1843 meeting. Dams installed since the 1930s make another catastrophic flood unlikely.
The original townsite isn't much more than a trail now.
A pioneer cabin was built by the DAR and is open for tours on weekends.
Riverside day use area
Oak Grove day use area
We saw a couple of sets of bleachers out along the bike path. We couldn't figure out why they were there. Dave's idea was to watch mud wrestling, and my idea was to watch the weeks grow.
Mud wrestling or weeds growing? Cast your vote.
Now we are home again for a few days, and then we will head out on a short RV trip to McMinnville, OR.
Your site at Champoeg State Heritage Area was really pretty, and looked so relaxing. I think I might vote for the weeds over the mud wrestling.
ReplyDeleteGlad you had a good outing and enjoyed yourself!
Mud wrestling would definitely be more exciting than watching weeds grow! Did you and Dave do that? :)
ReplyDeleteI vote for mud wrestling..looks like you have the start of a mud pit in front of the bleachers!..great site..pull through?
ReplyDeleteCarol, thanks for the excellent recap of Champoeg. Now we know what it looks like, and we should really get up there. We're off to the coast this weekend, hoping to see the sun over there. Say Hi to Dave, and be safe.
ReplyDeleteWe talked about visiting Champoeg...we pass teh turn off every time we go to Portland. It has been many years since we went there. Your pictures show it much prettier than I remembered. Now I know we'll visit! Thanks for sharing and I vote for mud wrestling. After all the rain we've had this spring - that's gotta be it!!
ReplyDeleteChampopeg was a real favorite the couple of years we yo-yoed back and forth to the Portland area. On one of our visits there, we were in the midst of Cycle Oregon -- must have been at least 500 bikes (pedal kind, not motorcycles) and riders. They slept in tents laid out in rows (the tents were in rows, the bikers were in the tents separately or in pairs, I suppose, and the bikes stayed outside) and used trucked in shower facilities, blue porta potties, etc. What a colorful sight it was. We bought a couple of pins that read "Klahowya," but for the life me I no longer know what that means.
ReplyDeleteSecond comment - we just Googled "klahowya." It is the standard greeting among the Chinook people, much like Aloha is in Hawaii. It is also the name of a sternwheeler that ran on the Columbia River in British Columbia between 1910 and 1915. There is, or was, a town with that name also. Probably a whole lot more, but I didn't stick around to read it all.
ReplyDeleteI'm thinking watching the weeds grow.. :) Thanks for the tour. It is a beautiful place for a hike. I am still having to sign in to leave a message on the comment boxed that are embedded. When will all of this stop???
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