Random Stop in Stayton

Heading inland from the coast, we planned to stop in Independence, Oregon at the Rogue Brewing hop farm and then head for Silver Falls State Park (sure, it was a July Friday, but as the biggest state park in Oregon surely there would be vacancies there, right?).  We ended up at a Rodeway Inn in Stayton - a random little town about 15 miles east of Salem.  This is how we let that happen.

Even at their super cool rural farm, where Rogue is producing its own hops, barley, hazelnuts, and honey, they managed to let us down again.  No one in Newport had bothered to tell us that their tasting room in Independence - which is really in the middle of nowhere - doesn't open until 4 pm on Fridays.  That wasn't super helpful when we showed up at 1:30 in the afternoon.  We wandered around a bit, but didn't find anyone who would give us the time of day.

The "guard" dog and I check each other out.

Hops are awesome.  The McFrothys love hops!

Not all of the McFrothys love hazelnuts, though.

After our let down at Rogue, we drove through Salem to Silver Falls State Park to find that it was full, all 200+ sites of it.  As were the next two campgrounds we were tried.  The fourth was signed but didn't appear to exist.  So we ended up east of Salem in Stayton, a town that's only redeeming features are its cheap accommodation and a Mexican restaurant.

Recommendation: if you're travelling in Oregon on a late July weekend and want to camp, make a reservation.  If you get stuck, the Rodeway in Stayton isn't the worst place to stay, and has huge rooms so you can dry out your soggy camping gear from the night before :)