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Foghorn Outdoors Pacific Northwest Camping: The Complete Guide to Campsites in Washington and Oregon

Foghorn Outdoors Pacific Northwest Camping: The Complete Guide to Campsites in Washington and Oregon

List Price: $21.95
Your Price: $14.93
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Comprehensive . . . But not always helpful
Review: I was very excited when I first purchased this book. It had listings for nearly every campground and RV park imaginable. It seemed to be quite detailed in the information it provided. It was also generally organized by geographic area.

As I began to use the book, however, I realized that it painted an incomplete picture of most campgrounds. In particular, one often gets little or no information about the beauty and amenities of the campground from reading the listing. This was especially true as to the RV Park listings. On several occasions, I planned to stay at a park, and then drove on after seeing it first-hand.

Let's face it. Some campgrounds and RV parks are cleaner, nicer, more beautiful, more private etc. than others. That's why Woodalls has a rating system that takes these amenities into account. Unfortunately, for most campgrounds, Pacific Northwest Camping gives little discussion of how pleasant the campground is to stay in. In particular, for RV parks, it is important to know whether you will find a glorified parking lot or a nicely landscaped park.

Don't get me wrong. The book is very complete and often very helpful. However, I only use it in conjunction with other reference sources.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Northern Pacific Camping
Review: I would highly recommend this book to anybody who likes to camp in the Northern pacific. I have personally had very good luck with the this book because the information in it is so accurate. When you are an avid camper like I am it is very handy to have one book with all the info you need in it and this one blows the competition away.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good trip planner, along with others
Review: I've used previous editions of Tom Stienstra's book in the past, and was very happy to have this latest one available to plan a trip with our tent trailer to southern and central Oregon, including a stop at Mount St. Helens on the way home. Like another reviewer here, I agree it would be nice to have a rating system and more complete descriptions of the amenities of each site, but then this 837 page tome would become too big to take along.

Since we were traveling at the peak season, we opted to camp at Collier State Park, about 30 miles from Crater Lake, our intended destination. While Collier was a nice, quiet place to stay, we could've camped closer to, or even within, Crater Lake Nation Park. Some of Stienstra's comments led me to make this decision.

At another point, we wanted to camp near Bend, but ended up at Prineville Reservoir State Park, about 30 miles east of Bend. The state parks near Bend were booked solid, and we wanted to be assured of some good fishing for our son. He caught a small-mouthed bass at Prineville, which made him happy. My wife and I were too hot, but I guess a book can't really give you a weather report.

And, near Mount St. Helens, we stayed at Mount St. Helens RV Park, which the book described as "cozy" and "secluded." But the book didn't say anything about the fact that if you get there after the office closes, you're not given a key to the locked bathroom. Fortunately, a neighboring camper loaned us his.

So, it sounds like I'm complaining about this book, which is not my intent. It's quite thorough, but can't account for changes in conditions such as popularity of a given site, weather, or new ownership. So, use this guide with flexibility, and with a few other guides nearby that contain better descriptions of the areas you're planning to visit, such as "Going Places: Family Getaways in the Pacific Northwest," by Ann Bergman, et al, or "Best Hikes With Children in Western & Central Oregon," by Bonnie Henderson, or "Pacific Northwest: Oregon and Washington," by Bill McRae, et al.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Believe the Hype
Review: If you are planning on tramping through the great outdoors in the Pacific Northwest, you'll most definitely need four things- waterproof boots, some waterproof clothing, a waterproof tent and the seventh edition of Tom Stienstra's Foghorn Outdoors: Pacific Northwest Camping. It is THE GUIDE to getting around this magnificent area. The text is cogently written, engaging, and at times funny, and I found the directions to be spot on. Also especially enjoyed the key at the bottom of each page for easy thumb-to reference for both states. But, don't just take my word for it; get it yourself, and get out in the woods!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: It's all in here!
Review: Just back from a long weekend camp at Sheep Creek. Thank you Mr. Stienstra! We moved from California about 2 years ago and always relied on his book California Camping to find cool, dog-friendly sites - and we were thrilled to see he wrote one for this region too. We were not surprised to find perfect directions and descriptions accompanying realistic ratings.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worked for me
Review: Just back from a major road and camping trip thru the PNW. Stienstra's book worked great. We found camping spots we NEVER would have known about. Directions and info all seem accurate. Nice guide!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Dramatic improvements? Let's hope so.
Review: Maybe Mr. Steinstra should spend more time out in the field, actually attempting to use his own book, than he does crowing about it.

From the comments above, he would have you believe the book is the only credible source for camping information on the market for Ore/Wash. Buyer beware. After two years attempting to use his previous (6th) edition, it's painfully clear to any local that the guy has never been to 90 percent of the places he's writing about. As for the new, improved directions he's so proud of, owners of previous editions can only say: What took you so long? The 6th edition lists the starting point for all camps on the Olympic Peninsula, for example, as Olympia. Great if you live in Olympia, but...

This book is a decent overall inventory of all campgrounds in Wash. and Ore.; a Yellow Pages, if you will. But it's woefully lacking in any kind of expert, been-there savvy you'd expect from a guidebook. The author lives, works, and apparently recreates in California. If you want some actual advice instead of a long list of telephone numbers and a Byzantine grid-map system, get a guide written by a local.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Would not leave home without it!
Review: My husband and I will not leave home without this book. Being from California we love traveling in the Northwest and this is the best way we have found to plan our trip, reserve a site, and find the campgrounds. We just got the new edition and it really looks good, especially the updated maps. A very handy guide, highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thank you Tom Stienstra
Review: This book just came out (April, 2003) and is a lot better than anything we've seen. The key is the details, way good, both information, directions and maps. We've lived in Springfield for quite a while and have always kept our secret spots to ourselves. This book has all of them, which threw me, but it's got a zillion others. We checked the places we knew to see if everything was correct. The answer: Five Stars!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is what I was looking for.
Review: This book worked well for me last weekend on a trek up the Oregon Coast. We stayed at serveral places that we would never knew existed or found if not for the book, so I figure it paid for itself already. I recommend this one if you on on the road in OR or WA.


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