This past weekend marked our last camping trip of the year. Knowing that the kids would probably have soccer games, we knew we wanted to camp close to home- so we could come back for the games. Stub Stewart was the best fit, since it is in Vernonia- just 30 minutes from home.
It’s an interesting campground in that there are four distinctly different loops: a horse camp loop, a cabin loop, and two loops for trailer/tent camping. The West loop is very tucked into the forest, with each site backing into the hillside with trees all around. It’s a curvy loop and more like a typical State Park campground.
The East loop (where we stayed) is like camping in a meadow. Each site is open and spacious with very little vegetation. The landscape is simply what it is: a campground carved out of the forest!
There’s a playground and big grassy area to catch grasshoppers and play catch.
What we liked the best about Stub Stewart State Park was the attention given to each campsite. Each site was made up of a 36’x36′ square, plus a driveway for your vehicle. The square was raked gravel bordered by a concrete form with young trees and shrubs planted between the sites. Incredibly spacious and much cleaner than a typical dirt campsite. 
The sites on the outside of the loop were situated so that you aren’t really looking at your neighbor’s trailer- they are at an angle so you are looking at the landscaping behind your neighbor.
If your family is into hiking or biking, there are numerous trails to enjoy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have the time to explore them.
Being close to home was a huge plus. We had two soccer games on Saturday and it only took us 30 minutes to get to the first game…and coming back it was a few minutes less than that! Can’t complain about that! The other plus is that we were able to stay longer on Sunday, knowing that we were only 40 minutes from home.
And here’s my “tip of the day” (for fellow travel trailer owners). Knowing this was our last trip of the year, we brought our air compressor and Dyson vacuum with us so we could winterize the trailer before bringing it home! We usually do a thorough cleaning after each trip, but this time we wanted to ULTRA clean and empty all the cupboards and cabinets for the winter. We double cleaned the wastewater tanks and blew out all the lines. We scrubbed the walls, cabinets, floors, etc. and vacuumed all the screens and vents. We loaded everything into the truck then dropped the trailer off at storage- put the cover on it- and we are now DONE. We took something that would have been a 1/2 day project that nobody looks forward to, into a couple hour project at a campground while the kids rode bikes and played! (This was my husband’s idea- thanks honey!)
I think this will become an annual event for us!
Elisa's Ramblings 