Camping along the Klickitat River

Under threat of thunderstorms and hail, the family, myself and our friend Berny headed out to the Klickitat river. Todd and Berny were meeting up with our friends Sara and Randy and some of their rafting friends to paddle the Klickitat. As we crossed over Mt. Hood the overcast skies parted and the sun came out. I can see the benefits of living in Hood River. They definitely get a lot more sun over the mountain. It was a beautiful drive out to the river. I always love seeing parts of the country I have never seen before. I have been out to the White Salmon river several times, but have never drove north east from there. There are beautiful high elevation meadows by Mt. Adams and you drive by a deep narrow canyon to get to the take out for this river and our campsite.

This is a picture of a cumulonimbus cloud we saw above Mt. Adams. We have been seeing a lot of these clouds lately and have had a few thunderstorms by our house. We usually don't get thunderstorms in our area, so it is kind of a weather treat.

After the drive, Meadow and I got to relax by the river while the rest of the crew went rafting and kayaking. I admit, I was a little jealous of their adventures, but being able to read and do yoga while Meadow played with shovels, buckets, water and rocks was a real treat for a pregnant lady. Here is a view of the river
Meadow in her outdoor glory. I had brought several outfits, so that she could just get dirty and wet. I made several trips down to the river with this yellow bucket so she could play with the water. I am sure it was refreshing for her because it was 80 degrees and sunny.

This is another one of Meadow's favorite activities. She could literally spend hours throwing rocks into the river. I found a little shady spot, so we could wait to see the rafters and kayakers come down the river.

Here they come.

I wish I had taken a better picture of the campsite. It was actually a really nice site because there were few people and a lot of room to hang out by the campfire. The only drawback to this campsite, was the bugs and the lack of trails. Poor Meadow got 11 bug bites on her back and that was even after putting on longsleeves and spraying her with bugspray. It is possible that the natural bugspray is not effective, or it was too old to make a difference. We had a nice dinner and I broke out the strawberries and angel food cake for dessert. There is just something about eating good food and camping. We are still loving our camper and we all slept really great.

We were going to do a little hiking on the way home, but Meadow was tired from the weekend that she fell asleep quickly into the drive. We all kind of wanted to get home anyway so it was a good excuse to just keep driving. We also got a look at the hiking along the klickitat and decided we got just as good of a view from the truck. It was really neat to see the small towns on our way back to the gorge. I always am curious what people do for a living and if they enjoy living so far out. For the people who think we live far out in the country, these people live faaarrrrrrrrr out. The towns we drove through on the way home include Klickitat, and Lyle. I am sure the people there really enjoy the fishing and living on a river just like we do. oh and I forgot to add, it never rained or thunderstormed. I heard a couple booms way off in the distance, but it was pretty much sunny the entire time.