Best RV Parks & Resorts near Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

Up at the base of Mt Hood, this large resort style campground (operates by Thousand Trails/Encore) offers various areas for camping. There are full RV hookup sites, tent sites, group tent sites, E/W RV hookups and cabins/yurts throughout. It seems most, of not all, RV sites have room for at least a small tent or more and they do allow that. There also is a few group tent sites that I saw.

As for amenities, the campground has a small store that sells the basics and some RV parts, a deli/restaurant, playground and pool.

There are trails to get to the Salmon River, not difficult by any means.

Being just a dozen miles or so from Government Camp, there are so many things to do when you want to get out of the campground.

It’s open year round, and many folks use Mt Hood Village RV Resort as a basecamp for activities for all seasons.

Overall, I enjoyed my stay, though the limited restroom and showers are oddly placed, with access only by walking the loop. There are no trails to get to them, so if you are at the other end, it’s a small hike. The plus is that the restrooms are clean and well stocked.

I'll be honest. I wasn't expecting much from this RV Park. It's not in the most exciting area of Portland (the closet thing is a Walmart down the road). But it's actually quite lovely. Nice and clean. Plenty of green space, trees. Most spots were pull-though with decently wide streets to drive in. Even though it's just off a semi-major street, it's set back enough and surrounded by trees to be more quiet.

The park is set up in two areas, with the one closer to the entrance a bit higher up than the spots toward the back. Pool, clubhouse, etc. are toward the front. The front office was clean and the manager nice.

While there's definitely some long-term and month-to-month spots, most RVs aren't spilling over with "extras" (extensive decorations/sheds etc.) like some places.

To me, the price is a bit much: $57.67 for full hook-ups, and that's after a AAA discount. Otherwise, a decent place to stay with your RV on the edge of Portland.

We visited Mt. Hood Village RV Resort this past weekend for a two day snow outing adventure and it was the perfect stay for our family in our RV.  We started with night skiing at Mt. Hood Skibowl, and after finishing up about 10:30pm we headed a bit back down the mountain to Mt Hood Village.  Despite the snowpack on the mountain, Mt Hood Village is just 20 min away, but several thousand feet lower in elevation, so there was no snow to fight with when we arrived.  

It was late at 11pm, so what a great surprise to find a very helpful welcome with a gate attendant who had our information from our reservation printed and ready to go with a smile and good directions find our RV site.  We pulled in and plugged in within 10 minutes and got the crew ready for sleeping.  The site was level, had all the amenities for a full service hook up (although we had a full fresh water tank and relatively empty waste tanks so we didn't hook them up as I was too tired!).  

In the morning I walked through the Resort to see all of the many amenities.  We had stayed here once before in the summer when we visited the summer activities at Mt Hood Skibowl.  The kids rode their bikes then and we enjoyed an active RV resort with many overnight visitors and a lot of regular long stay neighbors.  Sites can be close together but the abundance of large trees and multiple sections of the park spreads out the large number of sites it offers for RV sites, and tiny home rentals.

Amenities are many (not all are open due to COVID) and we didn't have time to enjoy all of them, but they are here for your use.  I would call ahead to see what is open if particular amenities are important to you (fitness gym, pool, etc. to see if they are currently available or not).  There is a senior center for gathering, there is a mountain ski shuttle pick up for a ride to the slopes, also a fitness center, pool, playground, onsite convenience store, restaurant, clubhouse, etc.  

We particularly appreciated how close it was located Mt Hood.  After a solid night's rest we headed 30 min back up to the backside of the mountain to Bennett Pass.  We worked on a snow fort a friend had started and had a great experience finishing out our 24 hour mountain adventure.

Mt Hood Village resort has hundreds of RV sites, tons of amenities, and is part of the Encore RV Resort/Thousand Trails network of properties.  If you are headed to winter or summer activities at Mt Hood it is a great option for a stay that is close to the mountain, has access to all the amenities you could want, with personal service, all at a fair price.  I highly recommend this property.

There are several RV parks in this general area, just off the Columbia River parkway. The other two we visited were the kind where the sheriff/police cars slowly drive through to make sure things aren't getting too crazy. This is not that kind of place.

Smaller (25 spots?) and about half the spots are long-term residents. Lots of grass and trees. Laundromat and showers. Nothing too fancy but also nothing too sketchy.

Good location as far as a jumping off point for the Columbia River Gorge while being not too far from Portland proper.

The campground at Ainsworth State park feels more like an RV parking lot than an exotic Columbia Gorge camping experience. The majority of the camground it rv hookups with just a few walk in tent sites. Yet, while the campground isn't impressive in itself, it is in an amazing location for exploring neighboring Eagle Creek and the rest of the gorge just steps away!

The parking for the tent sites is close to the walk in trail. There are only 6 tent sites and they can be reserved online so it is not easy to roll up to a free spot in hiking season.

The sites themselves are basic and offer much more privacy than your neighbors in the RV section of the park are getting. There is water near the tent site entrance. Toilets are a bit of a walk from the tent sites.

This site does take credit cards for campground registration.