How to Camp Without a Car Close to Portland

Camping: the central activity in a million car commercials. A harried couple or family rush to load up their trusty hatchback/wagon/SUV/van and light out for the territories. Bonding and stargazing are sure to follow. Also sure to follow: lots of exhausting unloading, cooler-carrying, dishwashing, repacking, and the panicked scramble to fit everything back into an overstuffed trunk.

Imagine leaving the car out of it and taking a bus instead. Someone else does the driving while you look out the window and start your vacation decompression. With no cavernous trunk at your disposal, you’re more likely to take only what you really need: a tent, a sleeping bag and pad, a flashlight, and a good book. You’ll still have to lug food and drink, unless you happen to be camping close to a market or restaurant—good thing that’s easy to do around Mount Hood and the Columbia River Gorge. Here are a few ways to take transit to outdoor bliss.

Mount Hood

Serious backpackers could hop the Mt. Hood Express from Sandy to Timberline and then spend four or five days hiking down to Cascade Locks on the Pacific Crest Trail. Less-serious types can reach seasonal campgrounds along US 26 with the same bus. Hit the Skyway Bar and Grill for mac and cheese or Al Forno for pizza before bedding down for the night at the Tollgate Campground in Rhododendron, or stay on the bus to Government Camp and then trek about a mile along the Barlow Trail to Still Creek Campground. At both, tent sites run $26 and can be reserved at recreation.gov.

Get there: From the Gresham Central Blue Line MAX stop, take a 25-minute connection run by Sandy Area Metro to downtown Sandy (SAM fare is $1), and then catch one of seven daily departures on the Mt. Hood Express ($2).

Cascade Locks

For a camping trip with lots of restaurants in walking distance, head for the Port of Cascade Locks Marine Park. The Columbia Gorge Express (run by Columbia Area Transit, or CAT—so there’s a SAM bus and a CAT bus, if anyone wants to alert Nickelodeon Sam & Cat star Ariana Grande) plies the waterfall corridor all the way to Hood River but makes a stop on the main drag of Cascade Locks, a few blocks from the tiny campground. Open-field sites are available to carless travelers, including Pacific Crest Trail hikers (Cascade Locks is the only city directly on the whole 2,650-mile route), on a first come, first served basis for $10 from July 5 to the end of September. But you don’t need a car to reserve a vehicle spot with a picnic table for $35–45 a night, available year-round. Either way, pitch a tent overlooking Thunder Island, cool off in the Columbia, and then take in the town on foot.

Grab a cone at Eastwind Drive-In and a postcard-worthy pic of its neon sign with the forested hills in the background. Buy a thru-hiker (and yourself) a cold one at Thunder Island Brewing Co., or pick up some cans there or at Gorges Beer Co. to take back to the campsite for later. Brigham Fish Market offers plenty of grilled and fried seafood, plus a variety of chowders and po’boys, crinkle-cut fries, and smoked-salmon quesadillas. Steps from the riverboat landing at the north end of Marine Park, Ixtapa has a cruise info desk in one corner but otherwise feels like it could be in a suburban shopping center, a place to catch a game on the bar TV with a margarita in hand. Outside, say hi to the bronze sculptures of Sacagawea, baby strapped to her back, and the dog Seaman, a four-legged member of the Corps of Discovery. For more of a hike than a walk, Dry Creek Falls is just over two miles from town on a short spur from the Pacific Crest Trail, and when you get home you can tell your friends you hiked the PCT.

Get there: The CAT bus has seven daily departures from TriMet’s Gateway Transit Center. Single trips are $10, or an annual Gorge Pass costs $40.

Stevenson

Don’t feel like hauling bedding and a tent? Skamania Lodge, just across from Cascade Locks on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, opened a cluster of glamping tents last year, with heated mattresses, lounging furniture inside and out, a refrigerator, your own gas firepit, a safe for valuables, and an adjacent tent with all the fixtures found in a hotel bathroom plus canvas walls that can be opened for a view from the tub. Running upward of $300 in summer, a glamping night costs a lot more than a DIY setup, but the entertainment options—including the lodge’s indoor pool, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, restaurant and bar, golf and disc golf courses, and ropes course—sure beat a run-of-the-mill state park. Bus riders can get off in Stevenson and walk about a mile or ask the driver for a flag stop that’s even closer.

Get there: Vancouver’s C-TRAN runs an express from downtown Portland to Fishers Landing ($3), where there are five departures each weekday on Skamania County Transit’s Stevenson bus ($2 per trip or $40 annual Gorge Pass). Portlanders can also take the CAT bus to Cascade Locks and make a connection.

Yurt by Bus

For a happy medium between lugging a tent and glamping, reserve a yurt and just bring a sleeping bag. For a nearby option, take TriMet and Vancouver C-TRAN
to Ilani and walk 30 minutes to Paradise Point State Park. If you don’t want to carry food, hit Michael Jordan’s Steak House at the casino or grab a cheeseburger and fries at the Paradise Market’s Gorilla Burger window (plus a Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwich from the freezer). Balance all that action with a stroll to the East Fork Lewis River as I-5 whirs over the bridge above.

For a (much) longer trip, ride the Wave to Tillamook and connect with southbound routes to reach the yurts at Beverly Beach State Park between Lincoln City and Newport (parts of the campground are closed for construction in June 2025) or Beachside State Recreation Site between Newport and Yachats. Note that summer reservations tend to get snatched up six months in advance.