Breitenbush Camping

Camping trip #2 for the year was to Breitenbush campground in the Willamette National Forest.
We arrived Thursday July 19th around 8:30 pm after about 2 hours of driving. We scouted out a cool double campground, set up and went to bed



The campground is very nice double loop with a large number of the spots on the river. Most of the sights are amazing with huge trees...like these ones right in our camp site #11.
It would be fun to try out #7 and #18 which had slightly better river access. From #11 we could see a osprey nest and it was a nice side show watching the parents come and go.

Friday we pretty much just hung out in the campground, sleeping, eating, reading exploring and waiting for our friends the Gerkmans to arrive. The campsite is very kid friendly with nice trails along the river a 0.7 mile loop road servicing the campground the kids did lots of biking on...both with me running and without :-).

Saturday was hiking and beach day. We hit the south Breitenbush Gorge Trail No 3366. We ended up missing the gorge side trail on the way out but it was worth it as we got in a longer hike. Many, many amazing blowdowns of very large trees. As well, great views of the gorge when we did find the side trail. I found this historic picture showing pretty much the same view: link.
The kids had great fun terrorizing the local banana slug population. Many slugs will never be the same and likely will have nightmares for months. Luckily most escaped the slug "zoo" over night :-)

We spent the afternoon mostly down near the Breitenbush river off of campsite #6. Nice rocky ledge in the sun. I did a little swimming but the water and air temperature made for rapid movement!

Sunday we did the packing up and hanging out on the "beach" at the river. It was the warmest day but the water really still was too cold. I did some floating down the river and tried to take Cole and Leah. Cole made it in to his knees. Leah floated down for about 1o feet and then really really wanted to get out fast.

After driving home and eating some orange chicken I went out for a short leg stretcher with Cole around the neighborhood and tackled questions like "...if God made us perfect how come we made the wrong choice?". I am going to have to start studying up before we head out on these runs!

Great way to end a great weekend.