Schwartz Park (COE) – Cottage Grove OR

RATING: ♦♦♦♦
  • Dates: Jun 17, 2019 – Jun 24, 2019
  • Length of stay: 7 nights.
  • Cost per night: $10 with 50% discount.
  • Discount: National Parks Senior Pass.
  • Hookups: There are no hookups, but a dump station is provided.
  • Site number/quality: #27. Our site was paved, very wide, and fairly level, with a nice picnic table. We had no shade trees on our site, but some nearby tall trees gave us plenty of shade in the afternoon.
  • Park Quality: Schwartz Park is located on the Row River, just below the Dorena Dam and Lake. The campground is surrounded by a pleasant mix of marshland, forests, and grasslands. Having no hookups is not much of an issue for us. Our on-board tanks allow us to easily survive for a week with no water or sewer hookups. And our upgraded electrical system, which includes a 200 watt Renogy portable solar panel, two 100 amp hour Battle Born lithium batteries, and a 55 amp PowerMax charger, kept us amply powered up. We only needed to run the generator for a total of 90 minutes for the whole week. Most days we didn’t run it at all. But some campers ran their generators all day, which can be noisy. Fortunately, none of them camped near us.
  • Access: About 5 miles off I-5 near the town of Cottage Grove.
  • Connectivity: Verizon-poor, AT&T-poor, and T-Mobile-poor.
  • Return yes/no?: Yes, if in the area again.
  • Notes: The area is noted for its historic covered bridges. The Cottage Grove Scenic Byway meanders past seven of them. They were built in the 1920s and 30s, and some are still in use.
  • Website: Schwartz Park