Vally of the Rogue SP, OR - Oct 2006

After we parted ways with Mom & George at Winchester Bay, they continued south on Hwy 101 while we headed east for another layover in Grants Pass -- a pretty place and a good-sized town to get some maintenance work done on the RV and car. The drive over was pretty spectacular -- on Hwy 38 along the Umpqua River -- fall had arrived and the trees were turning red and gold and made for a lovely backdrop against the river.

We had planned to stay at Indian Mary Campground(a Douglas County park located about 15 miles north of Grants Pass), but when we got there we found that half the campground had already closed for the season and the remaining sites were very close together and almost at full capacity. Also, the sites were shrouded with huge trees and, while they were lovely in their autumn finery, there was no chance of us getting an internet nor tv signal there.

Instead, we opted to continue on (beyond Grants Pass about 10 miles) and return to Valley of the Rogue State Park. We had stayed there in September and really liked the park despite it's close proximity to I-5. We liked it even better on our second visit as we caught it right in the peak of the fall colors and the show was lovely. We had a great site with a few golden-leaved trees around us. The heaps of fallen leaves made me smile in pleasure -- yippee -- I didn't have to rake them up!

The park has 5 camping loops and F Loop is by far our favorite. The other loops are nice, but F has much roomier sites with fewer trees and affords most of the sites a beautiful view out over a meadow and to the hills beyond. Also, because this loop does not have sewer hookups (as do all the other loops), it tends to be less crowded. We practically had the loop to ourselves during our 10 day stay.