Why did I not Know This Before? | e153

We hit the road by heading into the Mount Hood Oregon area to first visit Timberline Lodge (I didn’t realize it’s connected to The Shining Movie!), then go on some fantastic scenic hikes in the area.

Where We Stayed⛺🗺️📌

We’re sharing our camping and other locations on iOverlander (boondocking, etc.) and Campendium (established campsites).

Mount Hood Village Campground (Welches, OR) – (Link to Campendium Review)

We decided to stay here for several days while we got our minds wrapped back into our regular travel mode. This is a Thousand Trails resort. We don’t talk too much about our Thousand Trails membership since we really are still up in the air about whether it’s worth it.

We are enrolled in the yearly Thousand Trails Camping Pass with 2 camping zones and the Trails Collection. We have the Southeast and this year added the Northwest Zone since we were planning originally on going up the Oregon Coast (which didn’t happen).

We now pay $83/month for this membership. Unfortunately, there are not other Thousand Trails campgrounds between Oregon and Illinois. There is a smattering in Michigan (mainly part of the Trails Collection if I remember correctly). We will re-assess next time it’s up to figure out whether we keep it. It’s honestly not our favorite type of camping but it’s also great to have options on the road.

As far as this campground, it seemed quite nice. It was particularly helpful to have full hookups to flush out black and gray tanks – they were in desperate need of flushing after being sedentary for 3 months. We drained the tanks into our blue waste tote, but didn’t have the ability to flush them out due to difficulty in getting water as well.

Our campsite was located right next to the laundry room which was also a welcome sight! I think it was $2.50 a load and $2.00 to dry so not too bad. And the place was clean.

We did eat at the restaurant on-site – The Dragonfly Cafe & Bakery. I think it’s typical fare – nothing fancy but decent food. What we did enjoy is that the restaurant had a bakery and their cinnamon rolls were fantastic! They were not too sweet and the frosting was also toned down on the sugar and was worth it (it was $15 for one, but we both ate it over 2 breakfasts!). I unfortunately forgot to take a picture!

This campground has year-round residents as well as transient folks like us. I believe this is pretty typical for Thousand Trails campgrounds. What we saw seemed well-maintained. They also had an outdoor pool and an indoor jacuzzi which we did not try but looked decent (we’re just not swimming folks).

Where We Hiked 🥾🗺️📌

🥾PCT Trail via Timberline Lodge (Link to AllTrails)

🥾Ramona Falls Trail (Link to AllTrails)

🥾Tom Dick & Harry Trail (Link to AllTrails)

Our Journey Map⛺🥾🗺️📌

We also have a currently free map on Google with all of the places we’ve stayed along with the related video and links to more detailed reviews on iOverlander , Campendium and Google Maps.