![\"\"](\"http:\/\/cowlesmountain.com\/Travels\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/ColumbiaRiverGorge053.png\")
<\/a> toll booth charges were written on a small A-frame sign on what looked like flip chart paper.\u00a0\u00a0 It said $3 for a motorhome.\u00a0\u00a0 Today the sign looked more official and was mounted on the booth itself and the price had gone up 66% to $5 for a motorhome.\u00a0\u00a0 Now that’s some inflation!<\/p>\nWe were there for about an hour and then headed east on Washington State Highway 14 toward the hamlet of Home Valley.\u00a0 One thing you notice when driving along the river is the train tracks are on both sides and the trains are long with lots of containers stacked two high.\u00a0\u00a0 I’m guessing Portland must have a very large container ship port or maybe all the goods from Seattle\/Tacoma ship east thru here too.<\/p>\n It was probably a 10-mile drive on Hwy 14 to our turnoff on a small road heading up the mountain,\u00a0 which kept getting narrower till another turnoff that got even narrower than the first road.\u00a0\u00a0 It was there I The owners were a young couple from the LA area that wanted out of the rat race.\u00a0\u00a0 They definitely found that.\u00a0\u00a0 This place is surely not part of that.<\/p>\n This is a very nice campground and you can just barely hear the train whistles if you listen closely, which is just perfect to me.\u00a0\u00a0 I like to hear them in the distance; but from what I read about park reviews down near the river, they sound more like you are stuck on a grade crossing with the train barreling toward you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We left McMinnville and headed northeast toward Portland and the Columbia River Gorge, looking for Cascade Locks and the Bridge of the Gods.\u00a0\u00a0 It was only about 100 miles to our next campground, so it was a truly enjoyable ride.\u00a0\u00a0 After a bit we got on I-5 north and once in Portland proper took the … <\/p>\n<\/a>We paid the toll, and as we exited the booth, noticed how narrow the bridge was.\u00a0\u00a0 Just then a truck coming towards us veered over into our lane<\/a> because of a pedestrian walking on the bridge.\u00a0\u00a0 Why they allow pedestrians on a very narrow bridge without a sidewalk is puzzling.\u00a0\u00a0 There is no way to stay in your lane while going past them unless you are a motorcycle.<\/p>\n<\/a>On the other side of the river we found our “rest stop” on a small hillside where we walked the pup and made lunch.\u00a0\u00a0 We needed to kill some time as check-in time wasn’t till 2pm.<\/p>\n<\/a>wondered if I made a mistake choosing this park to get farther away from the train tracks.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Luckily it was just a short hop on the extremely narrow road to the park and we got there unscathed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We had an easy spot to back into right down near the office with a big gravel driveway to maneuver the coach.<\/p>\n