Name: Viento State Park
Item: Viento State Park
Rating: 4.4285714285714
Author: Jerome Parmentier

Pets - Allows pets to stay. Special rules will likely apply so check with park regarding the pet rules. If you like camping with pets this campground or RV park is an option.

Electric - Offers electric service to the sites. This electric service may be 20 amp, 30 amp, or 50 amp and may or may not be available at all campsites. Our information, reviews and photos suggest that if you have an electric powered device this destination has electric service available.

Water - Water hookups or water fill locations. Water is available here for your drinking pleasure.

Tents - Provides camping options for tent campers. If you will be sleeping in a tent this location likely has a site to accommodate you.

Public Park - Publicly managed. This campground or RV park is a public park managed by a state, federal, or municipal agency. Generally these types of parks have stricter rules on camping.

State Park - Operated by or located within a public state park. State parks tend to be more outdoorsy in style of camping. If you want to camp in a state park this campground or RV park offers that ability.

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Jerome Parmentier
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Viento State Park is a small Oregon State Park located along the Columbia River between Portland and Hood River, in the vicinity of Cascade Locks. It is well documented that the park is split between the travel lanes of I-84 and the Union Pacific rail line. So the park does suffer from a fair amount of traffic noise and train noise at all hours of the day and night. The UP train line is heavily utilized. The train does blow its horn as it passes by the park because the road from the park down to the day use area of the river crosses the railroad tracks. During our last stay neither the road noise nor the train noise was all that bothersome. It really depends on how heavy or light a sleeper you are and what campsite you are located. This is a cute state park with generally nice sized campsites and good, but basic amenities.

Ironically the park has water and electric at most campsites on the north side of the park, but no sewer hookups and most conspicuously no RV dump station at the park. You have to find a dump station someplace else. If you look online, you can find dump stations near Cascade Locks and Hood River, but it still requires a drive to take care of business. The south side of the park is tent camping only and sites on the south side of the park will not accommodate RVs or trailers of any kind. No hookups on the south side of the park. Flush restrooms and running water are also on the south side of the campground.

Typical for Oregon State Parks of this nature, there is a camp host entrusted with restroom and shower maintenance along with overall park upkeep. We have always found camp hosts at Oregon state parks to be friendly and hard working. Restrooms here are also very typical Oregon state park, government and industrial in appearance, but when they are used as hard as they are, I wouldn’t expect anything less. Showers here are also pretty typical Oregon state park, a fair amount of privacy, but used hard and sometimes a little muddy inside, especially if you shower later in the morning, a constant battle for the park hosts to keep up with.

The park is very attractive, and there is quite a bit of new planting going on in the park. Some of the campsites are large but not that private. Our most recent camp site was exactly that way, but at the edge of the site were new plantings of young trees, which in a number of years will increase site privacy. Information boards and iron rangers (fee collection posts) are located in a couple of places in the park, there is one at the park entry and one of the day use parking areas and another that is located in the main loop of the north campground near the restrooms and camp host site. Info boards are in excellent condition and well stocked with registration materials, reservation lists, regulations, fire ban information, etc. The information station inside the north camping loop has lots of Oregon State Parks guides and printed material to take with you.

A big draw of this park is access to the Columbia. During our last stay we didn’t have a chance to get down to the river, but it is probably the biggest reason a lot of campers go there, that and the proximity to Portland.

For me, I really like this park, but I use it is an overnight stop or a two night stop to rest while in transit to another more destination oriented campground. Lack of full hookups and or a dump station really limits this parks utility for me, but it makes for a great overnight stay or quick weekend away.
1 year ago
David Cornelius
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Viento State Park is a small campground between Cascade Locks and Hood River and only an hour from Portland. The sites support both tents and small trailers with a day-use area and short walk to a rocky beach on the Columbia River. It is nestled between (and very close) to the I-84 freeway and an active railroad. The day use area is on the other side of the tracks with a little dirt road that goes past the campground. Since the road crosses the tracks, trains have to blow their horns when going by–and they go by at all hours of the night!

Other than the noise, this is a a nice campground with much more availability than other, more popular places.
1 year ago