Hebo Lake Campground, Tillamook County, Oregon

After 2 nights at Whalen Island, we packed Rocinante up and headed over to Mt. Hebo to find a campsite at Hebo Lake Campground.  This is an older campground with a lot of character, sheltered by large Douglas fir, Western Hemlock and Red Alder trees.  There are also plenty of Elderberry, Salmon Berry, and Huckleberries!

Hebo Lake is the campground's centerpiece.  The lake attracts a variety of birds making the campground good for birdwatching.  There are platforms around the lake for fishing, which are wheel chair accessible and friendly.  This man-made Lake was created in the 1930's by the Civil Conservation Corpe (hmmm, my Dad was in the CCC's, wonder if he worked on this project?) and is currently maintained by the US Forest Service who stock the lake with cutthroat trout.

There are no reservations at Hebo Lake, sites are on a first come basis.  You also have to bring along your own fresh water and fire wood.  The sites (around 15?) are furnished with beautiful wood picnic tables and nice sized camp fire rings.  The beauty of this campground is truly mesmerizing.

We arrived at Hebo Lake on August 3rd and ended up spending 5 nights here.  Here is Rocinante claiming her site #0.  Just across the road was a gorgeous view of the Lake.

 Here you see Don Quixote atop his sturdy and dependable stead, Rocinante.   There is a little story here ... the Christmas before I retired, our brother-in-law gave us a wood carving of "Don Quixote".  Shortly after I retired, we began searching for a used Class B Motor Home and came across this 1987 Ford "Get-Away" van which seemed to be meant just for us.  While talking with the previous owner, I asked if he had named her ... indeed he had!  He had named her "Rocinante" after Don Quixote's trusted, slow, sturdy and dependable stead that always got him to his destinations.  We loved the name and as soon as we got home with "Rocinante" we reunited Don Quixote with Rocinante.  They have not been apart since that day!

Here is Danny Boy exploring the camp ground with us, he liked Lake Hebo ... paved roadway and soft green grass everywhere!  No sand or waves chasing you!

Next to our campsite was this beautiful expanse of green grass,  it was a great area for Danny Boy to run around and check out all the foliage.  It was also loaded with (what appeared to be) loads of mole holes!  Had to be careful where you walked or you might turn an ankle....

About the 2nd day, Dilly Boy helped me set up my portable art studio.  This is a roll up table that I just love!  The three tiered case holds colored pencils in the top drawer, ink pens in the 2nd drawer, and graphite pencils in the bottom drawer.  Because of the constantly changing light, it was very difficult to work with the colored pencils so most of my work was done primarily in ink.  Next time out I'm going to replace the colored pencils with my watercolors and see if they work out better.

As usual, Dilly Boy was there by my side to hand out advice and suggestions ... he was especially concerned that I used the correct ink pens. 

Surrounding our campsite were several bushes of Elder Berries and little electric blue dragonflies kept flying around ... they both became the subjects of my first camping illustration ...

I had brought along a art pad for pens, size 5.5"x8.5", and began drawing with no particular rhyme or reason ... just putting pen to paper and seeing where it would end up!  This turned out to be a good starting point.  After I have finished posting the photos of the various campgrounds ... I'll have one featuring the 3 pieces I completed during our camping adventures.

Here is a portion of one of the beautiful camping tables in the area; wish I would have taken a photo that showed the entire table.  This fire pit was the only one in the area that was made of a ring of stones ... it was really pretty!  The majority were large, deep metal rings with a pivotal cooking rack attached.

In this photo you can make out one of the wooden platform that jut out over the lake for fishing.

Another view of the lake ....

In this picture you can just see the pavalion with a gorgeous rock fire place inside that is in the center of one of the day use areas.

This is a cute yet cozy site ... everything was so lush and green ... we really had a hard time moving onto the next campground.

Here is a map of the campground that I was able to pull off of the Hebo Lake website.

The next destination?  Bar View Jetty Campground!

Happy day all!
Karen Anne