Crooked River, Oregon - June 19th to 22nd, 2024
Crooked River is not only a river, but an RV resort. This post covers our stay at Crooked River Ranch RV Park above the Crooked River, along with Steelhead Falls on the nearby Deschutes River.
Wednesday was a travel day from Diamond Lake to Crooked River Ranch RV Park, just north of Redmond and Terrebonne. We turned it into a long day, by spending most of the day in Bend, Oregon. We covered Bend in the previous post (Bend, Oregon - June 19th, 2024).
We arrived at Crooked River Ranch RV Park before 5 pm. However, the office closed at 4 pm. They had a packet waiting for us, so it was not a problem. We would finish checking in the following morning.
Crooked River Ranch was the first private campground we’ve stayed at so far this season. Of course, the sites seemed so packed together compared to where we had been staying. But we had partial hookups, water and electric. We needed to plug in to recalibrate what full means on our lithium batteries. Plus, it was supposed to get hot and we may need to run the air conditioner.
Crooked River Ranch sits on a small plateau above the Crooked River Canyon. It is a beautiful setting. However, we can’t see much of the canyon from our camp site, but it is a short walk over to the rim. Behind our camp site is a nice grassy area, encircled by camp sites. The area is a convenient social gathering place for families, especially for kids to run around.
Crooked River Ranch also has nice cabins for rent along with other amenities, such as a saloon, chapel, hair salon, food truck, pool, and golf course. It looks like many campers are there for the golf. One large group of people even had matching golf shirts.
We did notice that many little things required an extra charge. As a camper, you had a pass for four people to use the pool, with a charge for each additional person. The showers were coin operated. There was a charge for extra vehicles. The coin laundry was reasonably priced at $2 to wash and $1.50 to dry. There was even a $14 charge to use the dump station. Charging to use the dump station seems to be the standard so far on the west coast. However, it is only $5 extra per night to have a full hookup site compared with a partial. So if you are only planning on staying a night or two (or need to dump that often), it is more economical to pay for the full hookup sites.
For lunch on Thursday, we walked over to the food truck. They mainly had burgers, regular and smash. We opted for the smash burger. It was two patties smashed flat and grilled with a pile of onions. Ann had hers with a slice of tomato while Keith chose the pickles. The burgers were juicy and messy, but delicious.
After lunch, we hopped on our bikes and rode over to Steelhead Falls. The trailhead was six and a half miles from the RV Park. Google Maps showed several route options to get there. We asked the RV Park staff for a recommendation on which route to ride. All routes included a steep climb up to the higher rim, as Crooked River Ranch sits on a shelf part way down from the canyon rim. They recommended the northern route, heading north on Chinook Drive, turning onto Hill for a climb up to Shad Road, taking Shad west to Quail Road before turning onto River Road to drop back down from the rim to the trailhead.
The roads are narrow and two lanes with no shoulders, only deep, loose large gravel along the roads in places, but the speed limits are 35 mph for the most part. The traffic is sparse and light. We would not recommend riding a bike on these roads with children. Adults should choose based on their comfort level. You are at the mercy of the motor vehicle drivers paying attention.
Ann almost got hit on Quail Road on the way back. Quail is a straight stretch of road, a 35 mph speed limit, with no passing clearly marked by the double yellow lines down the middle. A motorist was heading in the opposite direction, going somewhere between 50 and 60 mph, and pulled out to pass another vehicle going a legal speed. Luckily, Ann saw the situation unfolding in front of her. She had enough time to slow down, pull off the road into the gravel, and stop, just in time for the car to fly by her at the same time it was passing the other vehicle. Had she stayed on the pavement, she was pretty sure she would have been hit. Keith was far enough behind her that the car was done passing by the time it reached him. Did that jerk not value the lives of others, or even his own life?
Other than the encounter with the jerk, the ride was pretty pleasant. We were glad we had e-bikes to get up the two steep sections, one on the way there, and one on the way back. In total, we rode 13 miles with a total elevation gain of 892 feet, taking us about an hour each way. At the top of Hill Road, we stopped at a nice overlook.
The Steelhead Falls Trail was short and the falls were beautiful. There were plenty of others enjoying them as well. Just below the falls is a tall rock that people jump off of into the deep water below. It didn’t seem to be a secret, as most of the people were there to jump in, young and old alike. The trail was one mile round trip with an elevation gain of only 138 feet. We only spent 45 minutes along the trail and at the falls. And no, we did not jump in.
When we returned to Crooked River Ranch, Ann took a quick dip in the pool to cool off and relax. Temperatures had reached 90 degrees, but, due to the low humidity, it didn’t feel that hot. In fact, when Ann got out of the pool, all wet, the breeze felt darn right cold. We had the air conditioning running during the day, but, by the time we went to bed, the outside temperature cooled down enough so we could turn off the AC and sleep with the windows open.
It was chilly when we woke up on Friday, in the 50’s, but it warmed up fast. We spent most of the day over in Smith Rock State Park, just a 20 minute drive from Crooked River Ranch RV Park. We’ll cover the state park in our next post.
Saturday was a rather laid back day. For exercise, we hiked down to the river in the morning, before it got hot. Just upstream from the RV park is the Crooked River Canyon trailhead. From our camp site, it was about a mile down to the river. The AllTrails route continued a little further, but we turned around. The trail continued but we couldn’t see how far it went. The grade of the trail was not that bad. It looked like it could have been some type of road bed at one time. In total, we went 2.2 miles with an elevation gain of 532 feet. It took us just a little over an hour to complete.
For lunch, we made gazpacho soup. It is a Spanish cold tomato soup, which is so refreshing on a hot day. Then we washed our sheets and towels. Since there were only two washers and two dryers for the whole campground, we only did one load of laundry per day. By this point, we had already done two loads of clothing, so the sheets and towels completed our laundry needs.
Just a mile down the road is the Over the Edge Taphouse. We heard they were having live music that evening, so we rode our bikes over to enjoy dinner from the food trucks there while listening to the entertainment. Keith messaged them, asking what time the music started. Six o’clock was the answer. We arrived at about 5:40 pm, but we should have gone earlier. Most of the seating was already taken. However, we found two chairs at a bar, facing the band. Some of the seating was inside, with open windows and doors facing the courtyard. Then there was some covered seating in the courtyard along with tables in the full sun. Some people brought their own chairs.
For dinner, we both had a hot Italian sandwich followed by churros. To wash the food down, Keith had a pale ale called Big Booty while Ann drank a blackberry hard cider. It was a tasty combination.
The band, Juju Eyeball, was a Beatles cover band. They were pretty decent. Many of the people were up on their feet, dancing to the tunes, and singing along as we all knew the words. The band took a break a little after 7 pm. We decided that was a good time to ride back to the RV Park. We didn’t want to ride back in the dark.
Normally private RV parks are not our style, but we had a lovely time. We felt like we got a taste of the local community.
Check out our related video: Crooked River, Oregon
(Ann)