Mt. Hood Village, Welches WA 9/14/09 - 9/21/09

Mt. Hood Village is an ELS park. ELS bought Thousand Trails a year or so ago, and they let TT members use some of their parks, for a nominal fee. This is one of them. It is supposed to be rated as one of the top ten RV parks in the nation.

It is nice, but it didn't have the "feel" of our TT parks. It was not as personable and didn't have any of the activities that we are use to at the TT parks. Their main focus is to rent or sell their little cabin models.

The RV sites for the TT members are all in very wooded areas, which was okay with us because we like being in the trees. It was a little cool, though, without too much sunshine showing through the trees.

We did get to set outside some, though, and ate a few meals together with Ron & Alice and Bob and Lolita. If you look closely at this picture you can see Ron relaxing in his chair under his awning. His site was the central gathering place because, as usual, he got the "best spot."

Mt. Hood is a beautiful part of Oregon and there are a lot of State parks. There was a trail from our park that joined with trails into a State Park called Wildwood Recreation Site, right next to us. Terry and I took off on it one day.

It ended up being about a 6-mile walk by the time we were through, but it was a great hike.

It was so pretty--lots of tall trees with ferns growing under them, and from the bottom of their roots if they happened to be tipped over!

There were lots of "resting benches," which is really good for old people like us!

This is the restrooms at the State park. Almost all of the benches had carvings on them. They were really cool.

The State Park is right on the Salmon River, a river that has a lot of salmon that come back to lay their eggs.

There was this really nice sculpture of the Chinook salmon that was near the restrooms.

I kind of got carried away with taking pictures of the benches. Each one was different and there were a lot of them along the trails. Terry said I could only put one on the BLOG, so I chose this one with him in it!

There was an underwater viewing window where we saw fingerling and juvenile salmon swimming around. Later on in the fall, sometimes adult salmon can be seen in it. We had a great time looking at everything and hiking.

One day, the six of us went to see Mount Hood. It is world famous because it is the only mountain in the U.S. that retains its snow and has operating ski lifts year-round. The ski lifts to to 8,540 feet and training camps come from all over the world to work on their skills throughout the summer months.

There is a national historic landmark, Timberline Lodge, built on the south slope of Mt. Hood at an elevation of about 6,000. It is still being used as a retreat. it was built in 1937, mostly by non-professionals, using materials that they had on hand, since it was built during the Depression.

Allice and I are standing in front of one of the mosaic wall plaques that was put together from left-over tiles from the ones used on the floor and other places in the lodge. It was quite a place to visit.

We only stayed at Mt. Hood for a week, but it was fun to be someplace we hadn't been before.