SP Campground Review – Hilgard Junction State Park, La Grande, OR
A pretty, green and inexpensive ($10/night) overnight spot along the river right off Hwy 84 just west of La Grande, OR
Note/ Review updated as of last stay July, 2016
Link to campground here: Hilgard Junction State Park, La Grande, OR
Link to map location here: Hilgard Junction State Park, La Grande, OR
- Site Quality =4/5
Consistently good site quality here. This is a small park with only 18 total sites. All sites are paved and flat (back-in only) with spacious grassy “sitting area” containing picnic table and fire-pit. Most are large enough to accommodate RVs up to 40-feet, although you may overhang a little at the end. Excellent green & separation, plus several sites (#13-16) have wonderful water views. Only ding is no hookups (primitive camping only). Note/ For larger rigs and/or if the park is full, the host does allow parking in the over-flow by the day-use area. - Facilities = 2/5
Very basic facilities here. There are on-site flush toilets which are clean and well-kept, but no showers. Nice day-use area (with picnic tables). Several water spigots around the park. NO dump station. - Location = 3.5/5
Nice location here, except for the highway noise. Surroundings are lovely and green, plus you are right next to the very pretty Grande Ronde river (which does add a lot of positive location value IMHO). You also have easy access to La Grande for shopping/eating/hiking in the area. Biggest ding is that you are also very close to Hwy 84 which means fairly consistent road-noise, although you are parked below the highway so there is some dampening. - Pet Friendliness = 5/5
Great location for doggie. There is good space in camp and plenty of space to walk in the grass along the campground and just across the road in the day-use area. No real hiking trails in the park, but there is a nice ~1-mile fire-road that follows the opposite side of the river (turn left out of the park, cross the bridge and you’ll see it on your left).
Overall Rating = 3.6
BONUS ALERT = Camp with a view of the Grande Ronde River!
Summary: We chose this spot as a green and easy stop-over along Hwy 84 and for that purpose it worked perfectly. This is a very small park of only 18 sites located right off Hwy 84. All sites are paved and flat (no hookups) with excellent separation and lovely “sitting areas” in wonderfully green surroundings. The sites back-in to the gorgeous Grande Ronde river and several (#13-16) even have direct river views. Main dings are that the park is very close to Hwy 84 so you do get consistent road-noise (night and day) and there is absolutely NO internet signal (1X only on Verizon and nothing at all on ATT) even with boosting. For this reason it serves best as an overnight or a few nights spot. We were able to fit easily into our site with GORGEOUS river views right out the front window and only had one other car (a tent camper) as company while we were here. Larger rigs may have trouble fitting into the sites, but can park in the large overflow by the day-use area. Overall it was the perfect overnight spot and we found it nicer/prettier than Emigrant Springs State Park just north of here where we stayed a few years ago. We enjoyed our short stay and will certainly come back here for an overnight stay if we pass through this area again.
Extra Info: VERY POOR internet/cell signal. We were only able to get 1X on Verizon and nothing at all on ATT, even with boosting. 18 total sites, all first-come-first-serve (no reservations) $10/night. No hookups & no on-site dump station.
The next exit to the west of Hilgard Junction (note correct spelling) has a great boondocking site about 1/4 mile down a dirt road 1/2 mi to the south. Free of charge, no traffic noise, 1-2 bars of Verizon internet service, and occasional visits by deer and cattle. I stopped there for a few days of peace and quiet before my two-month gig atop Mount Constitution—where I am now!
Great tip Doug! How are you enjoying the gig at Mt.Constitution by the way?
Nina
P.S. And cheers for catching the spelling error. I’ve corrected the post.
“Larger rigs may have trouble fitting into the sites, but can park in the large overflow by the day-use area. ”
I think your Beast is a large rig rig. How large are you talking about? Is it easily accessible for a 35 foot 5th wheel and truck?
While we were there a 40-foot rig come in towing a trailer. I think they were maybe 60-foot or longer in total? He parked in the overflow for the night. 45-foot Class A’s would have a tough time fitting too. I think you’ll be fine with your set-up.
Nina
Sounds like 23 feet of SUV and 24 feet of travel trailer is an overflow situation too if you don’t want to unhitch?
Good point. There’s space for some overhang at the back of the sites (that’s what we did so we could squeeze the car into our site too), but if you don’t have that option or don’t want to unhitch then the overflow is your best bet for anything longer. No pull-throughs in this park.
Nina
Well it does seem a bit sparse by some standards, but it sure looks green and lush. Being close to La Grande certainly offers what you’d need from shopping. I think it looks like a nice spot for a limited duration stay. I hope you enjoyed it.
The few times I’ve been in that area, I’ve really enjoyed it, so I hope you two enjoy it as much as I would if I had an extended stay opportunity there. I’ll be watching closely as you post about the Wallowas and surrounding terrains. Have fun! 🙂
The setting was beautiful and the view of the river from the RV was terrific, but the traffic noise from 84 and lack of Internet would prevent it being a long-term spot for us. It was perfect for a few days and we’d certainly come back for the same purpose.
Nina
If you had crossed the river and gone down hiway 244 about 5-7 miles,(maybe less, don’t remember for sure) you come to Red Bridge State Park also right on the river. We have stayed there a couple of times for 4-5 days . Camp host at the time had cell service, (AT&T?) but we didn’t. Been a few years since we have been there and we now have Verizon MiFi so don’t know if it would work or not. We just tell people that we won’t be in contact for a few days if we go to a spot that we know we won’t have service for phones or the computer, kind of like the old days when all you had were phone booths. 🙂
Good info. Always great to have more options in the area.
Nina
Beautiful spot. Our S&B backed up to a large street in town with a row of huge sycamore trees and a block wall. We would sit in the backyard and “pretend” the cars going by were a river under those trees. Your spot looks like we’d have a nice visual to help with our ruse for Hwy 84 🙂 Thanks for another great review.
Totally! And to be honest right next to the river the water was running so fast and hard that it mostly drowned out the traffic.
Nina
I see you are now in Wallowa State Park. If it is not too crowded, yeh. If it becomes too much of a zoo, there is a very small privately owned rv park in Joseph called Five Peaks. It has only five sites and they are all very private. Run by a couple who live next door. We stayed in the space called Sawtooth with our 36′ so I believe you would fit in one of the spaces. They are all named for mountain peaks and beautifully landscaped. It was very quiet and we enjoyed it immensely as a base to explore the area from. You can google it and see what you think if you decide to move. We moved there from the state park one year in mid summer when the park area was crazy crowded.
Funnily enough I was just looking at that RV park on Google Satellite a few days ago. I saw it on the map and wondered if it could really be that small, and apparently it really is. 5 sites only! Luckily the State Park is not too crazy right now, especially during the week. I guess the “big” part of the season has yet to begin. I’ll definitely keep that RV park in mind for the future. Their location is awesome.
Nina