The Deschutes River State Recreation Area

The Deschutes River State Recreation Area

Want to spend a few days in The Dalles, but not be stuck in town? Head a few miles East of The Dalles to the Deschutes River State Park. Plenty of day use parking, reservation style camping and first come first serve campsites. Tent camping and full hookup RV sites. When everywhere else was booked, the first come first serve RV area of The Deschutes River State Recreation Area had several open spaces, each one of them within sight of the Deschutes River with a large park-like green between the campsites and the River.

Although a search of Boat Launches in the area will pull up Deschutes River Rec Area, please be forewarned; this launch is NOT for paddle boarders! The current leaving the launch is intense, with no rest or safe areas to get back out of the water anytime soon after launching. The only vessels we saw successfully launching out of here were commercial grade jet boats. So why include it on our map? Because if you’re anything like us you’ve searched and sought out every possible SUP launch you can find, and on a quick Google search this looks like a great place to SUP from. It IS a great place to camp for the night, has miles of easier Mt Bike trails with amazing views of The Deschutes all along the trail, and is located near several great SUP destinations.

The Deschutes River State Recreation Area Website