LL Stub Stewart State Park, Dairy Creek West

We stayed in the Dairy Creek West campground of LL Stub Stewart State Park in Buxton, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A pleasant state park.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-07-11
Check out: 2022-07-25
14 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 73-90°F, lows around 49-62°F
No significant wind

Noise:

No road noise or train noise
Some neighbor noise (kids and dogs), mostly quiet
Crows making a racket on the roof

Site:

#46, back in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach (on asphalt)
Fairly level, once we moved the coach away from the edge
Large site: about 64 feet long by about 45 feet wide
Full hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located
30 PSI water pressure (we boosted from our tank); conveniently located
Good sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10 foot hoses used)

Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
Several trees for privacy

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 4 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 38 ms ping
AT&T: 8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
Verizon: 30 Mbps down, 12 Mbps up, 23 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage compactor and recycling outside campground entrance
No pool

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Huge sites in a beautiful park

We loved our stay at this campground. Our site was beautifully tucked into the trees, and it just felt like what a campground should be. The place has an awesome vibe. It feels like a rustic campground but has full hookups. It feels like you’re a long way from anywhere, but it’s pretty convenient to Hwy 26, so you can head to Portland or the Coast for an easy day trip. The camp hosts are really on top of things; they rake and tidy things up almost as soon as the previous occupant has left. And the sites are just massive. We had room for our 40′ motorhome, tow vehicle, screen tent with table and chairs, plus the campground-provided picnic table and firepit, with room left over. I can see why this park is popular with groups. We saw several campers with multiple sites booked, who all hung out at one site in the evenings.

We stayed in the West campground, which has a lot more trees around the loop than the East one and has a few that need to be trimmed along the road because they twanged the antenna on top of our rig, but it’s a minor thing because we will stay here again when we’re in the area. We camped at L.L. Stub Stewart Memorial State Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

Map

An embedded map, that you can zoom and scroll around:

Our site before parking:

Our site

Our coach in our site:

Our site

From the hill behind the site (and yes, the tent is new; I’ll do a separate post about that):

Our site

A peek of the roof:

Roof

Woods behind our site:

Woods behind our site

A murder of crows; they had an annoying habit of walking on our roof, making a racket:

Murder of crows

The crows did enjoy the drip tray of our griddle:

Crow on griddle

Another recent addition was a milk crate to help carry and stabilize the propane cylinder:

Milk crate for propane cylinder

Griddle breakfast for dinner:

Griddle breakfast for dinner

More pics of our site:

Our site

Another dinner:

Dinner

Oh deer:

Deer

Levitating squirrel:

Squirrel

Butterfly:

Butterfly

Another deer:

Another deer

Aerial views of our site:

Aerial view of our site

Aerial view of other sites

Let’s explore. The welcome center:

Welcome center

The campground didn’t have any garbage bins or dumpsters, but did have a trash compactor just outside:

Trash compactor

And it being Oregon, of course there were lots of recycling bins, too:

Recycling

Self registration station for late arrivals:

Self registration station

Bathrooms:

Bathrooms

More bathrooms:

Bathrooms

Tent sites:

Tent sites

Other RV sites:

Other RV sites

We will probably come back here in the future, but might like to stay on the opposite side of the road, for better shade. Site 41 could be a good choice:

Site 41

Or site 43:

Site 43

Or site 45:

Site 45

Behind site 45:

Behind site 45

A seating area by a path to the adjacent campground:

Seating area

We were in Dairy Creek Campground West; the East campground is nearby:

Dairy Creek Campground East

Both campgrounds have a couple of Park Hosts:

Park Host

Dairy Creek Campground East is a bit more open:

Dairy Creek Campground East

This campground might be better for our coach; it brushed some of the foliage in the west campground. Sites 82, 84, 86, 88, 89, 90, and 92 would all be excellent choices for afternoon shade and a decent amount of privacy:

Site 82

A very nice couple of campgrounds. We’ll likely stay here again when visiting Portland.

Cellular internet

We are both still working as we travel the country in our motorhome, so having reliable internet access is essential.

To that end, we have six internet options: two cellular plans (AT&T and Verizon) in a cellular modem, one cell plan (T-Mobile) via a Wi-Fi hotspot device, two iPhones (AT&T), and (very recently) Starlink satellite internet.

And sometimes we connect to campground Wi-Fi, when available, though our various options are usually faster and more reliable.

Having four different networks and a variety of devices ensures that almost anywhere we are, we can connect to the internet.

Some details about the plans:

T-Mobile (via 5G Wi-Fi hotspot): unlimited data; plan provided by the Calyx Institute. This is what we’ve used the most, being truly unlimited.
AT&T (LTE SIM in cellular modem): 800 GB data; plan provided by Mobile Must Have. A good backup option, though often not very fast.
Verizon (5G SIM in cellular modem): 150 GB data; pre-paid plan from Verizon. Often the fastest cellular option, but very limited data, so we don’t use it much.
AT&T (iPhones): unlimited data; plans and phones provided by Apple Upgrade Program. We use these a lot as standalone devices. They only have 40 GB data as a personal hotspot, so we don’t tether other than emergencies.
Starlink (satellite): unlimited data; plan and dish provided by Starlink. We’ll probably use this the most going forward, if it proves to be reliable enough (and if our campsites can see enough of the sky).

I’ll cover Starlink in a separate post later, once we’ve spent more time with it — as of this post, we’ve only had it for a few days.

This is the T-Mobile Wi-Fi hotspot; we can connect to it directly, but most of the time we go via the modem, which also connects to it:

MiFi

The modem has a roof-mounted antenna (the white fin in the following picture), which we got from Mobile Must Have, and installed by NIRVC; a Poynting 7-in-1 Roof Antenna. It contains 4 cell antennas, 2 WiFi antennas, and a GPS antenna:

Roof antenna

Zoomed out a bit:

Roof antenna

The antenna connects to the Pepwave MAX Transit modem (also from MMH), which contains the AT&T and Verizon SIMs (and can support two more). NIRVC mounted it in a cupboard above our entry door:

Pepwave modem:

See a later post about some further modifications to this cupboard.

Video

Xscapers Bash video: drone flight

Flying my drone over the Xscapers Annual Bash, held in the Lake Havasu Rodeo Grounds, Arizona. Hundreds of RVs attending the annual celebration of working-age RVers.

Xscapers Bash: aerial photos

It’s been months since I last flew my drone, in part due to not being permitted in some locations, or just not thinking of it. But at the Xscapers Bash seemed like a good opportunity, so I had a quick flight. Actually two: the first was just vertically above my coach, the second was a little further.

Let’s head up:

Aerial

Looking towards the main event area; all the Bash events were held in the structures beyond the arena:

Aerial

Looking towards the entrance, and the mountains beyond:

Aerial

Back down:

Aerial

I think our solar panels may be a bit dusty:

Aerial

My second flight, the next day, I flew from one end of the Xscapers Bash site to the other. But first, a closer look at the dusty solar panels:

Aerial

The nearby mountain:

Mountain

A view of the rodeo grounds from the entrance, and flying towards the back, looking in various directions:

Aerial

Nearby BMX course:

BMX

Aerial

Stay tuned for a video flyby tomorrow!

Valley of the Rogue State Park drone shots

While at the Valley of the Rogue State Park in southern Oregon, I flew my drone above the campsite. In part because it’s a fun thing to do, but also for a practical reason: to check the roof and slide toppers for branches, since we were parked amongst trees.

Here’s our campsite, with our coach and truck:

Coach and truck

From higher up:

Campsites

From this height, you can see most of the campground loop (and nice fall foliage):

Campground

A little higher to see the whole loop; not quite as bright, as starting to get into clouds (this was at just below the legal height limit for a drone):

Campground

Tilting upwards, a view of the Rogue River and the next-door campground loops, which are being used for FEMA trailers from last year’s wildfires:

Rogue River and campground

Looking to the left:

Rogue River and campground

The campground is right next to the I-5 freeway (as seen from the base of cloud level), which was a bit noisy at night:

Freeway

Heading back down again:

Campsites

Views of our coach roof, showing all the leaves. This was also my first look at our two extra solar panels, installed by Poulsbo RV:

Coach

Coach roof

I was particularly interested in the slide toppers, to make sure no branches were going to damage them. Though we don’t have a ladder, so it would have been difficult to remove them if there had been any:

Coach roof

I did fly my drone low over the toppers, which blew off most of the leaves. You can see me flying by looking at the screen:

Coach roof

Aerial pictures of our coach

Our coach is currently being serviced at an RV dealer, but I recently flew my drone above it while it was parked at Mom’s place. Since this coach lacks a ladder, this was the first time I’ve seen the roof, other than via the pictures from the inspector.

Here’s an aerial shot of the coach from the passenger-side front:

Coach roof