Rooms with a view.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

ODELL LAKE - Tom and Susan Doyle of Salem planned to celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary Friday at Trapper Creek Campground, but it was still blocked by snow.

So they pitched their tent instead alongside a snowbank at Shelter Cove Resort, whose owner had plowed out the campsites.

Snow is expected to still be an issue at Trapper Creek and a handful of other popular campgrounds in the Cascades over the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Fueled by a spate of unseasonably warm temperatures in mid-May, camping fever is expected to be running even hotter than normal for the start of the 2006 summer camping and boating season.

As usual, most of the reserve-ahead camp spots are already claimed.

And, as usual, many people will try to jump the gun on the weekend and head out early Friday in hopes of snapping up the best of the first-come, first-served sites.

Unusual this year is the fact that several popular camping areas that are normally part of the holiday festivities will not be open this weekend because they remain covered with snow.

The most prominent trouble spots will be along the Cascade Lakes Highway between Lava Lake and Sparks Lake, at a few forest campgrounds in the Willamette Pass area, and at Diamond Lake east of Roseburg.

Nearly everywhere else, however, everything's ready for the season's first wave of wienie roasters and marshmallow toasters.

"I don't think the snow is making a huge difference to us," said Chuck Shepard of Hoodoo Recreation Services, a Eugene-based company that manages 1,400 campsites for the Willamette and Deschutes national forests.

"The heat last week really helped," he said.

Of all the campgrounds his company manages, Shepard said, only those at Waldo Lake and possibly Gold Lake will be closed.

On the other side of the Cascade crest from Waldo, Joanne Frazee of Lava Lake Resort said this year is only the second time in 25 years that she's opened later than May 12.

Two to 3 feet of snow in the Lava Lake campground disappeared in a matter of days last week, campground host Frank Ford said Friday, as a group of Portland-area campers erected a wall tent on bare ground.

There should be ample camping available in the Cascade Lakes Highway area this weekend, said Frazee, who is also the campground concessionaire for that region.

"There's always room at Crane Prairie, and usually at Quinn Rivers," Frazee said. "A lot of the times on Memorial weekend there's room at Cultus because the water skiers aren't using it yet."

Little Cultus and Hosmer lakes are "borderline" for being open this weekend, Frazee said, while campgrounds at Elk, Devils and Sparks will definitely be closed, even though state highway department crews expect to have the road from Mount Bachelor plowed by Friday.

Meanwhile, Diamond Lake area east of Roseburg is still snowed in. The Umpqua National Forest hopes to have one of its three campgrounds at Diamond open this weekend, but officials are encouraging people to plan on camping elsewhere.

"We're trying to steer people to the lower elevations," spokeswoman Cheryl Walters said. "If people want to stay at the lodge or if they want to go fishing for the day, go on up. ... But for camping, it's probably best to look to the lower elevations.

"All the Cottage Grove (Ranger District) sites will be open, and along the North Umpqua - which is really pretty this time of year - we're opening campsites now," Walters said. "People can also head down to the Tiller (Ranger District) area, and the coast is wonderful."

About 35 million Americans are expected to go camping this year, according to one national campground reservation service. And the majority of people confine their camping to a season bookended by a pair of holiday weekends - Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Even though it may seem all those campers are on the road over the holiday weekend, there are plenty of places to camp, especially for those willing to forgo such amenities as electric hook-ups and hot showers.

Aside from those campgrounds that cater to all-terrain vehicle users at the Oregon Dunes and Sand Lake, "our campgrounds tend not to fill up, even on holiday weekends," said Joni Quarnstrom, public affairs officer for the Siuslaw National Forest.

Shepard, of Hoodoo Recreation Services, said his company has campgrounds "that have never filled."

He recommends people have one or more backup campgrounds in mind in case their first choice is full.

The Internet has made it easy to gather information about campgrounds.

Shepard said he plans to update the hoodoo.com campground page three times a day over the Memorial Day weekend.

Each national forest also has a Web site that provides detailed information about its campgrounds - www.fs.fed.us/r6/r6nf.htm is the gateway to all forests in the Northwest.

To check on reservable forest service campsites, go to reserveamerica.com.

And Oregon State Parks campground information is available at: oregonstateparks.org.

CAPTION(S):

Jody Cagle of Beaverton admires the view of Broken Top as he motors across Lava Lake in the Oregon Cascades on Friday. Snow that forced the lake into one of the latest openings in 25 years melted rapidly, and the lake will be ready for the Memorial Day weekend rush. Youngsters play on a snowbank next to their campsite at Odell Lake's Shelter Cove Resort, where the camping area was plowed.