Hood River Blog ยท Columbia River Gorge

Living here,
and staying here.

Why should you care about this site? Two reasons: you're moving here, or you want to visit. If you are moving here, housing is the whole story. If you are visiting, the best options are public land. Neither half links to anyone who profits from your decision.

Hood River is a town of roughly 8,500 people that a lot of people want to live in. The consequences run through everything: median house prices in the high six figures, a rental market tighter than newcomers expect, and only about 23 percent of the local workforce actually living inside city limits. Those numbers come from the city's own planning documents, not a relocation blog, and they are the real story of the place.

The reading list

Link-out only. No realtors, no relocation services, no booking sites, no cost-of-living aggregators.

Housing, which is the whole story

If you are thinking about moving here, read this group before you read anything about the hiking.

  1. Addressing housing needs

    City of Hood River · Primary

    The city stating plainly that housing affordability is a top policy priority, and what it has actually done: a middle housing code, a construction excise tax, and buying land to rezone for multifamily.

  2. Housing market economics FAQ

    City of Hood River · Primary document

    A city-published PDF explaining its own housing market to residents. Dry, and the single most honest document about Hood River economics you will find. This is where the 23 percent workforce figure comes from.

  3. Out-of-staters challenge Hood River's short-term rental policy in the 9th Circuit

    Columbia Gorge News · Local journalism

    The short-term rental fight is the defining local political argument, and it is now in federal appeals court. Local reporting on a live case, not a think piece.

  4. Long-term battle over short-term rentals

    Oregon Business · Journalism

    Background on how STRs went from roughly 50 to 200 since 2010 and why residents organised against them. Useful for understanding why a town this size has such fierce land-use politics.

  5. Short-term rentals

    Thrive Hood River · Advocacy

    A local land-use nonprofit with an explicit position. Read it as advocacy, but they know the county code better than almost anyone and they show their work.

Staying here, without being sold to

Lodging is an inherently commercial category, so this section points at the part that is not: county, state and federal campgrounds, booked at cost through the agencies that run them. No markup, no affiliate layer, no ranked list written by whoever paid.

  1. Hood River County campgrounds

    Hood River County · Public

    Tucker Park and Toll Bridge Park, run by the county parks department. Roughly 88 and 83 sites, open May through October, first come first served. The cheapest good beds in the valley and almost never the first result you are shown.

  2. Tucker Park

    Hood River County · Public

    Ten minutes from downtown on the Hood River, shaded riverside sites with showers. Close enough to town that you do not need to drive in for dinner.

  3. Toll Bridge Park

    Hood River County · Public

    South of Parkdale on Highway 35, under Mount Hood. Partial hookups and group sites. Better base than town if you are here for the mountain rather than the river.

  4. Park fees, maps and rules

    Hood River County · Practical

    Actual current fees and rules, rather than a number someone copied into a blog post in 2019.

  5. Oregon State Parks

    Oregon Parks and Recreation · Public

    The Columbia riverfront parks east and west of town. Book direct through the state; there is no reason to pay a reseller for a state campsite.

  6. Washington State Parks

    Washington State Parks · Public

    The north bank is a bridge away and often has space when the Oregon side is full. Most visitors forget the other side of the river exists.

  7. Recreation.gov

    US federal government · Public

    Federal campgrounds and permits at face value. The booking system for national forest sites.

  8. Mt Hood National Forest

    US Forest Service · Public

    Dozens of campgrounds on the mountain south of town, plus current closures and fire restrictions, which matter here more than the season suggests.

  9. Gorge recreation

    US Forest Service · Public

    Trails, day-use sites and what is currently open across the Scenic Area. The agency that manages the land, not a listicle about it.

Who actually runs the place

In a town where land use is the main argument, knowing which body decides what is genuinely useful.

  1. City of Hood River

    City government · Primary

    Council agendas, planning applications and the housing work. If you want to know what is about to be built, it is here before it is anywhere else.

  2. Hood River County

    County government · Primary

    The county governs everything outside city limits, including most of the orchard land. Different rules, different politics, and it matters enormously if you are buying acreage.

  3. Port of Hood River

    Public agency · Primary

    Runs the bridge, the marina and the waterfront. The Hood River bridge toll and its long-running replacement question are Port business, and the bridge is a daily fact of life for Washington-side commuters.

  4. Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area

    US Forest Service · Primary

    The Scenic Area designation constrains development across the whole Gorge. It is the reason the landscape still looks like that and part of why housing supply is so tight.

Daily life, practically

The things you check constantly once you live here.

  1. TripCheck road conditions

    Oregon DOT · Practical

    I-84 and the mountain passes. In winter this is the first thing you look at, and the Gorge closes more often than newcomers expect.

  2. National Weather Service, Portland

    NOAA · Practical

    The Gorge has its own wind regime. The forecast that matters is the one that understands the pressure gradient, not a phone app icon.

  3. Waterfall corridor timed-use permits

    Oregon DOT · Practical

    Summer permits for the western Gorge. Relevant mostly because it shows how the region now rations access to its most crowded places, and more of that is coming.