The last one. No, not our last trip out for the year, we camp year round. This was the last campground that is part of the Lake Roosevelt National Recreation Area that we have not camped at. There are 15 campgrounds where you can stay with your RV. There are a couple other campgrounds but some are boat in and there is another for tent only. Of the 15 campgrounds we have been to some multiple times over the years. Some, we have stayed at only during the off season. Some we will stay at again in the future and some we may skip going to again. Most are to our liking.
Porcupine Bay Campground was where we made our stay at this trip. It is along the Spokane River, about 10 miles up river from where it enters the Columbia River. It has a really good day use area, beach, boat docks, boat ramp and dump station. It also has flush toilets (closed for off season), pit bathrooms and water spigots that are available during regular camping season.
Now for the not so good. There are 20 sites and about 9 of them are usable for an RV due to the level of the sites. Heck, I am not even sure how someone could tent camp in the very unlevel areas of other sites. Here is a list of sites that you could use with an RV, although you still will need to use a good amount of leveling blocks/ramps in some of the listed sites. 1,2,3,4,7,11,16,17,20. You could use site 15 but it would have no view and is right next to the bathroom, very close to it. Yuck. We had site 20. A pretty good spot, but yes, we had to do a lot of leveling. With a rear entry door for our camper that made it even more difficult. Luckily, the picnic tables could be moved around and we ended up using that as part of a step to go in and out of the camper. Other than that, it was a great site.
We had a nice night of relaxation once we got set up and stayed up fairly late before calling it a day. The weather for this time of year is still unseasonably warm with highs in the mid 70’s. Night temperatures were cool and great for sleeping.
The next morning was nice and peaceful at camp. There were only another 7 sites being used during our stay. Another reason why we like the off season. We thought about bringing our kayak on this trip but decided not to. Instead, we brought our smoker and would spend a good amount of time smoking up various things and just hang at camp. We did explore a little bit around the campground to see what things looked like.
Joanne used the smoker to smoke chick peas and beans for later use, an artichoke and spinach dip for lunch and later a chicken for our dinner.
When we were using the smoker a Park Ranger drove by, then backed up to us. He smelled smoke and there is a fire ban on. Then he noticed it was a smoker and that was fine to use. We chatted for a couple minutes before he moved on. With no rain still in the forecast, we may have a fire ban on for several weeks still. We cannot even use our propane campfire with the current restrictions. There was however no restrictions on having my beers to enjoy and that is pretty much how I spent the rest of the day. Listening to music and enjoying the views. I did pick up trash around the area as we always do but other than that, we relaxed.
The night supplied us with amazing views of a full moon. We had great views of that from our site.
I played around with different settings on my phone while taking pictures. I ended up taking a picture with a setting that really made it look like it was not too dark, when indeed it was. What I captured was a moon beam to our camper. I loved how that turned out.
We had another good nights sleep. The next morning after coffee and breakfast we packed up to make our way home. Having the dump station nearby made that chore easy and I was grateful it was there. No having to stop elsewhere to get that chore done.
We had a good time here at this campground but really, I like some of the other campgrounds more. Maybe we will come back, maybe not.
We have no camper trips going on for the next few weeks. We will be traveling but not using the camper. I am sure I will be more than ready to go once that time comes up. I will need to winterize the water system before then I am sure. That doesn’t mean we stop going though. Until then, we will enjoy our other types of traveling.
The TC Life 