Best Glamping near Salem, OR

Stayed in Yurt #2 in the Yurt village on Fathers Day weekend. There was also a fishing tournament this weekend, so the park was completely full. The Yurt Village stayed very quite. Most noise was the Trucks/Boat coming and leaving the boat ramp which is about 400yds away. 

Yurt #2 & 3 are deluxe yurts. All this means is you get a larger deck and propane firepit. To use the firepit you need to bring your own propane, large 20lb style. The Yurts have solar lights inside and out, not sure how long they run, but they lasted us a weekend with conservative use. There is 2 pit style bathrooms in the yurt village. Bathrooms are located at the parking lot.

The yurt village is a ways from the RV/Tent sites. Not a quick or easy walk. 

Parking at the yurt village is a little walk from #2 and #3. Best to bring a wagon or such to help transport. Its about 100yd walk each way. 

There are 3 beds, one full side bottom with a twin bunk on top and one full size futon. There is a dining table and 4 chairs. There is no running water, bring your own water. I saw a fountain near the parking lot, but did not test it. 

While it says no pets, one other yurt had two well behaved dogs. The park knew and didnt stop them, so make your own decision with your pets but dont ruin it for others please.

Weather was pretty good for us. No mosquitoes, though lots of nats but able to sit outside all day without being bothered too much.

We headed to the Pacific City in search of fresh air in mid September when much of Oregon was consumed by wildfire smoke. The friendly staff at Cape Kiwanda RV Resort were very welcoming and we opted to stay in one of their cute cabins as rain was forecasted. Cabin N was comfortable and had electric heat, a TV, dorm fridge, microwave, porch swing, outdoor water, BBQ grill, picnic table and outdoor firepit.  The campground had cute wild bunnies hoping around, and amenities such as a playground, full market, and pool.  It's located a quick walk from a beautiful sandy beach, brew pub, coffee shop and other convenient options are nearby.

Mallard Creek Golf and RV Resort is located about 3 miles from Waterloo (or 8 miles from Lebanon, Oregon and 11 miles from Sweet Home, Oregon). It is off the beat and design for those serious golfers. The RV resort is design for trailers of any size with 30 to 50 amps electric, also includes, water, sewage hook ups, cable, and a cement table. The Club House has showers, bathrooms, and laundry facility. The club house has a wonderful party space with TV, gas fireplace (no fires at sites), tables for games and social gatherings. Free WIFI, your cel phone and data plans work wonderful in this area. Dogs are allowed, but no pet area to run loose. Kids are welcome but not gear up for things to do unless they love to golf too.

Mallard Creek is gear up for the serious golfers so the summer has special packages for the RV site with golfing from Memorial day weekend to the end of September. For non-golfers the RV resort is available between October 1 to the Thursday before Memorial day.

I stayed in the 1 of 5 tent spaces. They were a bit close to the other sites, but still large enough for a few tents if needed. There was only 1 parking lot for the tent/cabin spaces, so had to carry all my stuff about 100 feet. The bathrooms were clean and well lit at night. The bike paths through the campground/park were great and lots of people were using them all day. I walked the path around the entire park, which took me about 3 hours. Along the way got to see the Champoeg Heritage site with period piece actors, wide open spaces, and the Willamette River. There was a huge playground for the kids. There was also a large field area for dogs to roam around, just no fence. For being so close to the greater Portland area it felt like we were much further away. I would recommend this place, just make reservations early.

This is a beautiful campground nestled down by the Clackamas River. You can hear it rushing by the campsites, which are right down by the water. Each campsite has a nice sturdy picnic table and a fire pit with built-in grill. The restrooms at some of the cleanest, nicest-smelling pit toilets I've ever seen at a campground, conveniently located within the campground.

Each site was generously roomy. Our camping trip was, in part, a chance to test drive the new Chevy Blazer SUV. It's a big car but there was no problem maneuvering it through the campground or parking it at our site. We might have even been able to fit another, smaller vehicle too if we had more than one party with us. We had no problem pitching two two-man tents and getting out two camp chairs, and would have had room for a third easily. And although the campground is in sight of one of Oregon's classic pretty bridges and there is some road noise, it's balanced out by the white noise of the Clackamas and wasn't a problem.

Nearby Fish Creek campground was much busier than Armstrong on a rainy Wednesday night, but we had Armstrong almost entirely to ourselves. A vanlifer left sometime that evening and a camper in a pickup truck with two kayaks appeared close to bed time. Other than that, everything was quiet, secluded and just right for relaxing. We even got to see a bald eagle the next morning!

Lockaby Campground is a very simple, yet quiet place to camp. Some friends and I stayed here one summer break from college. There is some great hikes along the road, and close to the campground. We did drive about 15 miles from the campground for one hike that was amazing. There is also a river close by- Wild and Scenic Clackamas River. My friends and I had fun cooling off in this river while we stayed. We did see a few people fishing in the river if that is something you are interested in. We also heard/saw that there is a great place you can white water raft. We wished we would have signed up for this because we did see some people doing this, and it looked like a blast. The campsites themselves were your generic/basic campsites. They had fire pits at each campsite, with grates on top which made it nice for cooking. Also, each campsite does have a picnic table too. They did take online reservations which was nice (and simple). There was no running water, so definitely bring a good supply of water!! Especially if you plan on doing some hiking. The campsites were pretty close together, but luckily it wasn't too busy when we went and there wasn't anyone right next to us. The campsites are also pretty shaded, which helped during the heat of the day but it was pretty chilly at night. I would definitely recommend bringing a jacket for the evening. The toilets weren't the best- pit/vaulted toilets. Bring your own toilet paper!! Also, make sure to bring enough food/snacks because the nearest store is about 15 miles away (not bad, but who wants to drive?). Also, no showers onsite-this wasn't a big deal for us because we just went in the river to wash off. All in all I would say this campground was "average." Nothing super special about it, but it was great to just be outside with close friends.

**Ranger Review: GrubStick  at Promontory Park and Marina **

Campground Review: I hadn’t heard of Portland General Electric“PGE” Parks prior to a few weeks ago when friends invited us to camp with them. The campground and Marina were quite nice but one of the main reasons our friend booked this campground was to teach their daughters to fish in the stocked“kids only” pond. Unfortunately, the website doesn’t say the fish can’t survive in the pond during the hot summer months. The campground did, however, have awesome park staff (Matthew was AWESOME) who put on two great activities for kids every day. We stayed in a“Yome,” which is a cross between a yurt and a dome. Between our families, we had three young girls who got to attend two hosted activities per day. The campground has 50 campsites, a handful of yomes and small cabins, too. The restrooms and showers were a bit of a trek down a hill from our yome and weren’t clean as well or as often as I would have liked but, it was nice to have running water all the same. The campground has electric cooking stations and picnic areas spread throughout. Additionally, there is a large picnic shelter, with cooking facilities that you can rent. One of the biggest attractions to this park is the stocked pond called Small Fry Lake. It was developed for kids and is stocked from October to April(the fish can’t survive once the water temperature rises too high). Youth up the 17 can catch a limit of two fish per day. NOTE: the pathway to the“lake” is surprisingly steep!! They have a handrail however, it is steep! The store offers pre-packaged items as well as a handful of items such as corn dogs and hotdogs. There are a picnic and seating area and it appeared to have a small stage for live music. You can rent boats, kayaks, and canoes but, they are more expensive than most places(in my opinion). The marina is on gives easy access to the 350-acre North Fork Reservoir where you can fish and boat.

**Top reasons I love this campground: **

• Kids programming (give Ranger Matthew a raise!) 
• Kids only fishing pond Location(only an hour outside of Portland) 
• Yomes (fun for the family) 
• On the North Fork

Things I didn’t like about this campground: 

• The stocked kid's pond doesn’t have much fish throughout the summer because they can’t survive the heat BUT, this information isn’t on their website. 
• A bit of a trek to the restrooms Restrooms weren’t very clean No alcohol(just keepin it real)…………….

Product Review: As a Ranger for The Dyrt, I occasionally get to test products. At this campground, I tested the Grubstick Deluxe Kit. This collection of camping cooking utensils and accessories is fun and functional for the entire family. I love the compact 30” collapsible, stainless steel, telescope stick, with the rubber handle. It’s sturdy, easy to clean, and comfortable to hold. The Grubfork is awesome. It is strong enough to hold two hotdogs or marshmallows. The Grubcage is good for toasted s’mores (your graham cracker will get toasted or burned if you aren’t careful). It’s square and can hold wider items than the round Grubcage which is meant for burgers and patties. Both can hold items such as veggies, fruit, and bread or English muffins. The release tool takes a bit of getting used to operating while holding your Grubstick I would buy a ton of the handles and sticks to give as gifts but having to buy everything by the package is way too expensive. The good news is that I’ve heard that Grubstick is going to start selling individual pieces- hopefully, this is true. The Grubpocket is the size and shape of a marshmallow. We used this to create bacon pockets and it worked pretty well (can’t go wrong with bacon!). The bacon clip is tough to operate. It needs to be tight to hold the bacon in-place but, that also means that it is hard to squeeze open wide enough to go around tick cut bacon. The Grubtube is a steel cylinder that you can wrap the pastry around. I forgot the pastry but can’t wait to try out a few recipes and start to create our own! All in all, I love that the Grubstick products have given me a spark to rethink my camping meals!

Pros: 

• Rubber handle 
• Telescopic and collapsible to 30” Stainless steel and easy to clean 
• Makes me want to cook more creatively

Cons: 

• The bacon clip is really hard to open. 
• The grabber is good in theory and useless in reality. Falls off your fingers unless your fingers are tilted upward. 
• The packages are pricey 

Overall, I give the Grub Stick and Grubfork 5 stars and the accessories 3.5 stars.

Let me preface this review by saying I am not, typically, a KOA camper. In my past experience, they have been commercial, crowded, and noisy, but I found this KOA to be an exception. Disclaimer: I stayed during the week, not on a weekend, and the tent site side of the campground was sparsely populated. Here, the RV pull-in sites are separated from the tent and cabin portion of the campground, with an office, the bathrooms and showers, (even laundry!) and a playground in between. The tent sites are surrounded on the outside by dense woods, and because the campground is about 5 miles off the highway, it was blissfully quiet and serene. The flush toilets, running water and hot showers were welcome, as I was traveling, and the bathroom was sparkling clean. It was just a short jaunt into town for a bowl of fresh clam chowder and to sit by the beach and enjoy the sound and smell of the surf. In the morning, (I got up at 5am) I scared up a marten by the large oak tree in my campsite, and it was such a pleasure to see this shy fellow up close! I would stay here again.