Promontory Park

**Ranger Review: [GrubStick](https://grubstick.com/pages/compare)  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](https://grubstick.com/products/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.

Family Fun and Fishing!

This was the closest place I could find to review. If you are looking for some more off the grid camping you can take the NF4610 up the hill from Promontory Park and continue till you find a good cut off near Whiskey Creek for some good camping. It is an off road park so its very helpful to have an off roading vehicle.

OHV Park Behind Promontory Park

Beautiful campground nice sites. I have used both RV and yome sites at this campground. The grounds are well maintained. There is easy water access with a pier for fishing. Within a mile up the road is a marina and boat ramp.

I have a 36' rv and had a little trouble getting my rv into my reserved site, but there are others that have easier access for large rigs.

The yomes are great, I heard they might be getting rid of them, but I do not know if they have or if it was just a proposal. 

Beautiful campground 

My boyfriend and I had a good Time and everyone was very nice and had a pretty good time expect my dog running off come to find out hes not much of a camping kind of dog lol the one and only thing that we did not like was how on top of each other the camp sites are

My time

Small to medium size park right next to the gorgeous Clackamas River. Staff is helpful and friendly. Only complaint is there is no signal or wifi.

Beautiful, natural park

On the Clackamas river, mostly tent sites and a few RV sites with electric. Sites spread out nicely. Marina close by with overnight moorage if you want. My site had plenty of room to keep my jet ski. There's also overnight overflow parking if you want to park it there. 

Quiet Campground

Dry camp except a few spots with electrical. But you cannot park large trailers in those spots. 

Uneven pads surrounded by large boulders and trees. 

Hard to navigate corners.

Not really fun for kids. 

Gross bathrooms. 

And no generators past 10pm. 

Not for trailers or rvs over 20 ft

This campground has definite pros and cons. First, the camp host and security were excellent. They were kind, attentive and available. The campground was also very clean and having flush toilets and showers available was quite nice. We also had an owl watch over our site, which was super cool. 

  

Here's what I didn't care for, the set-up of many sites were terrible. There was little to no barrier between sites and some of the sites are tiny. We literally had chairs around our fire pit that were two feet away from the next site's table. On the other side of us, there was about 10 feet between our main area and the neighbors. It's just awkward. When I'm camping in the woods, I want to hear and see wildlife, not a bunch of other people. 

  

There was also a huge street light in the middle of the grounds that put light directly onto several sites. I felt terrible for those people who were trying to sleep under the stars but instead had a huge light right over head. 

  

Cell reception was spotty at best. Dumpsters were available.

Disappointed 

Great place for a family. We tent camped here with a 3 year old. Great facilities, great hosts, and great activities for the toddler. 

  

Bathrooms were clean (and kept clean) throughout our stay. Hot showers in the morning were amazing after a chilly night.

  

The hosts were welcoming and made sure we were comfortable with our stay. We also got a scavenger hunt with stickers for our toddler.

  

There is also a play area for the kiddos along with walking paths along the water.

  

One knock on the place is that the campsites are bumped up really close to each other. We were lucky in that we had really nice neighbors, but I could imagine if we did not have that experience.