Elkton, Oregon is a village on the Umpqua River in the heart of the Oregon wine country about half way between I5 and the ocean. The Elkton RV Park is a nice campground right on the river within easy walking distance of downtown. Elkton has 5 wineries with three having wine tasting rooms right downtown.

The wines here are excellent. I prefer the world class Pinot Noir and variants and Peg likes the sweeter white wines. According to the folks at the wineries the drought has changed the wine a little with one winery even hesitant to open any of the 2014 vintage for tasting unless you were buying a bottle. Anyway you could fool me, I thought they were all very good. If you like wine and are in the area, Elkton is highly recommended.

Scout and I have been exploring the river bottom and he loves to swim in it. The campground has two access paths down to a sandy beach like area and from there you can walk out on the basalt floor of the river. With the drought and this being the dry season, the river is a quite diminished in size breaking up into small streams that flow in and out of  cracks in the rock. The locals have told me that when you are standing on the basalt that is dry now it will be 30 feet deep in a few short months when the rainy season is in full swing. Hard to imagine that.

Elkton has a nice Labor Day Celebration at the Elkton Community Education Center. The parade was on the street the campground is on which made it easy walk up and take it in. The parade was small but most of the town turned out to watch the dozen or so floats and vehicles go by. Candy was thrown out in liberal quantities with the kids filling up hats, buckets and bags. Later we walked down to ECEC to browse among the vendors of various crafts, foods and wine. We had a great lunch while watching the Pie Auction.

Yes, the annual fund raiser for Ft. Umpqua and the ECEC is a pie auction. I have never been to a pie auction but I will never miss this one if I am anywhere close by. Lots of $100 to $200 pies and a few that were over $300. I kept my hands under the table! The camp host told me that pies have sold for $1000. Yikes! All for a good cause, I guess. Really nice, open, welcoming people made us feel right at home and we had a great time.

The links below are to pictures of our trip to Clear Water Falls, our tour of covered bridges, and the Elkton Labor Day Parade and Festival.

Sjh

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sjharshman/albums/72157672965651138

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sjharshman/albums/72157694968286500

https://www.flickr.com/photos/sjharshman/albums/72157698929726741