Alder Lake Park Rocky Point Campground

We stayed at Alder Lake Park Rocky Point Campground in Eatonville, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A delightful lakeside view.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-08-07
Check out: 2022-08-09
2 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps 90°F, lows at 58°F
No significant wind

Noise:

Next to a highway, so a bunch of road noise; no train noise
No significant neighbor noise

Site:

#423, pull through, asphalt
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
Not very level, sloped down from the driver side
Smallish site: about 60 feet long by about 25 feet wide
Partial hookups:

50 amp power conveniently located
55 PSI water pressure; conveniently located
No sewer

Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
Several trees on the driver side for privacy

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 55 Mbps down, 22 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 682 ms ping
Verizon: 8 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage bin

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Lovely view of the lake and close to Mt Rainier

We stayed at the Rocky Point campground in site 423 and had the best view of the lake from our site. However, getting to the site was a little gnarly with our 40′ motorhome, as the road inside the park is very winding and narrow with many overhanging trees. The site was one of the few pull-throughs in the campground and just long enough for our motorhome and tow vehicle. There wasn’t a camp host on duty, but it was pretty easy to just go to our site and get settled. A ranger came by while we were at Mt. Rainier the next day and left our check-in paperwork under our wiper. There’s easy access to the day use area next door, so it was nice to cool off on a warm afternoon. The only limiting factor to this campground is the lack of a sewer connection at each site; otherwise, we would have happily stayed for much longer than two nights. We camped at Alder Lake Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

Map sign

A delightful lake view from our site:

Lake view

Our site

Our site:

Our site

Only electric and water hookups:

Utilities

Not a sewer dump:

Not a sewer dump

Lake view:

Lake view

Dinner with a view:

Dinner with a view

View from our site:

View from our site

Moon:

Moon

Moon and lake

Another night:

Moon and lake

Aerial views:

Aerial view

Day use area:

Aerial view

Entrance:

Entrance

Campground full:

Campground full

The road in the campground was a bit tight for our coach:

Narrow road

Tiny trailer and tent:

Tiny trailer and tent

Gate to the day use area:

Gate to day use area

Day use area:

Day use area

Cooling feet

Lake

Video

Video: Welches, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 163 miles from Welches, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington.

Travel from Buxton, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington

We drove our coach 163 miles, about 4 hours of driving, from Buxton, Oregon to Eatonville, Washington.

The map route, heading north:

Map route

We pulled into a maintenance area to hook up our tow bar:

Tow bar

Our new Sinclair Trails logo sticker is visible inside with the slide-out in:

Sinclair Trails logo and David

Jenn driving; yes, she drives our coach:

Jenn driving

Enjoying some coffee at a traffic light stop:

Jenn drinking coffee

Sandy:

Sandy

Interesting MAX light rail station:

Interesting MAX light rail station

MAX light rail:

MAX light rail

Heading towards Seattle:

Heading towards Seattle

Paladin on the back of my chair:

Paladin and David

Leaving Portland:

Leaving Portland

Leaving Oregon:

Leaving Oregon

Stopping at a rest area:

Rest area

Lunch:

Lunch

The rest area had an RV dump station; nice:

Dump station

Paladin:

Paladin

Bridge:

Bridge

A small plane taking off:

Small plane taking off

Driving:

Driving

Another Tiffin joining the freeway:

Tiffin

Paladin passing over my lap:

Paladin

Gee Cee’s Truck Stop; quite nice and not busy:

Gee Cee's Truck Stop

Another bridge:

Bridge

We have Sinclair Trails logo Yeti coffee mugs:

Sinclair Trails coffee mug

Sleeping Paladin:

Sleeping Paladin

Mayfield Lake:

Mayfield Lake

Jenn driving:

Jenn driving

Paladin asleep:

Paladin asleep

Highway 12:

Highway 12

Hey look, another bridge:

Bridge

Hobo Inn, staying in train cars:

Hobo Inn in train cars

Day use area at Alder Lake:

Day use area

Our destination, Rocky Point campground:

Rocky Point campground

A rather narrow road within the campground:

Narrow road

Sinclair Trails stickers

One of the use-cases for getting a logo designed for Sinclair Trails was to put it on our coach.

Here’s me adding the logo sticker to our slide-out, above the states map:

David adding sticker

The Sinclair Trails logo sticker; looks really good, I think:

Sinclair Trails sticker

Above the map:

Sinclair Trails and map stickers

We also got another sticker with the SinclairTrails.com website and social name (e.g. Twitter and Facebook):

Sinclair Trails sticker

The stickers:

Stickers

Reflectix insulation in cupboards

The cupboards in our coach can get fairly warm when sitting in the sun. A common solution for that is to add extra protection via silvered bubble insulation like Reflectix. I recently added some to the back of most of the cupboards:

Reflectix

Mt Hood Village RV & Camping Resort

We stayed at Mt Hood RV & Camping Resort in Welches, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice Thousand Trails Encore park.

Dates:

Check in: 2022-07-25
Check out: 2022-08-07
13 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 77-98°F, lows around 54-67°F
No significant wind

Noise:

No road noise or train noise
Not much neighbor noise (kids and dogs)

Site:

Vine Maple Hollow #78, back in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad; parked in front of coach (on gravel)
Fairly level, sloped up a little at the back
Medium site: about 60 feet long by about 30 feet wide
Full hookups:

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

Picnic table, fire pit on gravel
Several trees for privacy

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 53 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 72 ms ping
AT&T: 6 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 27 ms ping
Verizon: 8 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
T-Mobile: no service
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Indoor pool
Onsite restaurant

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Nice campground close to Mt Hood

This park has a nice mix of sites close to all sorts of outdoor activities in the area. We were grateful to be under the tall trees during the worst of the heat even if it meant the Starlink was pretty useless. There are newer sites that have no trees, but they were baking in the sun. You really need to weigh your priorities when making your site reservation. The roads are a bit narrow in spots, and they have a few trees that need to be trimmed, but overall we had no trouble getting our 40′ motorhome around to our site. We really enjoyed the on-site restaurant. Their breakfasts are awesome. We camped at Mt Hood Village RV Resort in a Motorhome.

The RV park map; it a large park, with multiple campgrounds within it, separated into short-term and long-term RVs, plus cabins:

Map

An embedded map (that you can zoom and pan around):

Weather:

Weather

Our site:

Our site

Our bikes:

Bikes

The screen tent:

Screen tent

We moved the picnic table out of the way, since we have our own in the tent:

Screen tent

A big rock on the neighboring site:

Big rock

Utilities:

Utilities

I got out my ladder to access the roof; I attached knee pads to it to protect the edge of the roof:

Ladder

The main reason for the ladder was to remove a branch that I’d noticed was wedged up there:

Branch

I also took some pics of the roof, since this was the first time I’ve used the ladder to access it (and I’ve still never been on the roof):

Roof

We took Paladin out into the screen tent:

Paladin

David and Paladin

Paladin

Some aerial photos from my drone:

Aerial

Campground

Roof

The village has a restaurant and store:

Restaurant and store

Village store:

Village store

Dragonfly Cafe and Bakery:

Dragonfly Cafe and Bakery

Breakfast:

Breakfast

Dinner:

Dinner

Plus a game room:

Game room

And indoor pool:

Indoor pool

We were in the Vine Maple Hollow campground (a bit harsh to call the children slow):

Vine Maple Hollow

Campsites

Our neighbor had a catio:

Campsites

Another catio:

Catio

Some campgrounds were a bit more exposed:

Campsites

Monthly sites available:

Monthly sites

Campsites

More campsites:

Campsites

Tiny homes and cabins:

Tiny homes

A nice park. We’ll likely be back here again in the future.

Video

Video: Buxton, Oregon to Welches, Oregon motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 79 miles from Buxton, Oregon to Welches, Oregon, with a detour to Todd’s Auto & RV in Portland.

Travel from Buxton to Welches, Oregon

We drove our coach 79 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Buxton, Oregon to Welches, Oregon, with a detour to Todd’s Auto & RV Service in Portland.

The map route for the first leg, heading east:

Map route 1

And the route for the second leg, also heading east:

Map route 2

Leaving Buxton:

Leaving Buxton

Paladin on the steps:

Paladin on the steps

Sunset highway:

Sunset highway

The freeway tunnel:

Tunnel

Downtown Portland:

Portland

Freeway bridge

Portland

Todd installed our tow system last year, but recently the light on the dash that confirmed the brake was being applied in our toad stopped working. Fortunately, we had to pass near Todd’s shop when heading through Portland, so we arranged to stop by there so he could investigate (supervised by Paladin):

Todd fixing indicator light

The issue turned out (as we suspected) to be a bad indictator light; he was able to swap it out for a good one; this light comes on when the truck’s braking system is activated, due to the coach brake being applied. It’s a useful confirmation that the truck is actively braking with the coach:

Brake indictator light

We then continued on, passing through Gresham:

Gresham

MAX light rail stop:

MAX stop

Paladin asleep in his safe space:

Paladin

Through Sandy; here’s their “trolly” bus:

Sandy trolly

Downtown Sandy:

Downtown Sandy

Sandy used to be our local town (well, Estacada was closer, but smaller; we preferred to shop in Sandy). Mt Hood Pet Resort is where we took our dog for daycare and boarding:

Mt Hood Pet Resort

Speaking of Mount Hood, a view from the highway:

Mount Hood

And our destination, Mt Hood Village RV Resort:

Mt Hood Village

IKEA storage cabinets

One of several criteria when choosing an RV was that we needed to keep working as we travel, so we wanted a desk (or two). So soon after we bought our coach, we removed the couches, and replaced one with a desk:

Desk

From the start, I used a lap tray with my laptop, sitting in my living room chair, while Jenn used the desk. Over time, she decided that she didn’t need the second screen, and ultimately didn’t need the desk either.

So we removed the desk, while temporarily leaving its drawers:

Removed desk

We might get some custom furniture to go there in due course, but in the meantime we decided to replace the desk with IKEA KALLAX drawers and cupboards; a very flexible system that we’ve enjoyed in the past.

Here are the drawers being assembled:

IKEA KALLAX drawers