Government Camp , Oregon is the outdoor enthusiast dream location!! Ski bums paradise, hikers playground and plenty of lakes for the fisherman! The 1 mile main street in the village is lined with chalet looking buildings a couple of restaurants , a bar or two and a general store! The village sits at the base of Mt. Hood and just north of Tom Dick and Harry mountain. Government camp sits at 3914 ft elevation. I have been told they ski here almost year round! The little village is busy with Kids who come to snow board camp as well as familys who come to enjoy the other summer activities that take place of skiing! We saw horse back riding , go karts and a slide that goes down the mountain.
Timberline Lodge and ski area is a mountainside ski resort dating back to the 30’s ! They have several restaurants and bars. It also served as a location in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. The view driving the 6 miles up the mountain is amazing!
Then on the other side of town you have the Mt. Hood Ski Bowl ! In the summer it becomes Mt. Hood Adventure park. Activities like horseback riding, go karts, zip lines and a alpine slide down the mountain. There seems to be something for everyone to enjoy. There is also mountain biking as well as restaurants and lodging.
Trillium Lake is a huge gem as well! The views from the dam area are spectacular and the same area is also a day use picnic area a $5.00 day use fee is required . The lake is popular with fishermen campers and boaters. There is a forest service campground as well as a boat ramp! Trillium lake is a man made lake made by the deptment of fish and wildlife in 1960.
If history and museums are your thing check out the Mt. Hood cultural center and museum. It is located in the heart of the village. It is full of historic information and exhibits as well as a gift shop! The Museum is free however it runs off of donations .
The camping is plentiful around here. You have several forest service campgrounds .They are all dry camping meaning you won’t find hook ups here. the closest place with hookups seems to be Mt. Hood RV Village in Welches about 12 miles away. I did find most of the forest campgrounds to be aimed more to tent campers. they all had vault toilets and water spickets and each site had picnic tables and fire pit. They are all deep in the forest producing very little to no sunlight as well. We stayed in the trillium air strip which is free dispersed camping. there is a lot of space here and you had the options of hidden spurs with fire rings but little sunlight or there were more open areas which allowed us to get at least 5 to 6 hrs of sun each day. There are also several sno parks in the area which you can park at for 14 days free. In the winter these are permit only areas. They are basically parking lots . Some do have little camping areas with picnic tables and fire ring. however there usually only one or two. Most lots are pretty unlevel however they do have portapottys and would work for a night or two. I did find one sno park that I liked called White River sno park. It is a huge parking lot with plenty of space and open enough to get plenty of sun for solar. It is located next to the banks of the white river so it does get some traffic during the day. it is a little further out of town so road noise is not that bad at night. I could not seem to find a dump station in the area at all and water was a problem as well as getting propane was a little difficult due to location of the propane tanks. I had to remove dolly and car at camp and drive to the exxon station to fill my propane so I could back up out of the parking lot.
The weather was a little cold for this Florida girl ! But with most other areas being hot it was a nice cool option!! It was typically in the 40’s and 50’s at night and in the high 60’s during the day! Amazing when 67 degrees feels hot lol . I really did enjoy my time in Government Camp and would recommend a visit to anyone who loves the mountains!!
Donna's Gang RV Adventures 