Oregon Public Broadcasting

This Memorial Day weekend might be a good one to stay home. Northwest travelers face $4 a gallon gas prices, snowbound campgrounds and raging rivers. Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

The Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start of the summer season. But this year, Northwest families beware.

Robin Rose is with the Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Southwest Washington. She says only about a third of the Forest’s campgrounds will be open this weekend.

Robin Rose: “We have snow still down to about 2700 feet in elevation so really there’s only the lowest elevations in our forest open and accessible.”

It’s a similar situation in the Mount Hood Forest in Oregon. In North Idaho, the BLM is warning that Lake Coeur D’Alene recreation sites may be inaccessible due to flooding.

Throughout the Northwest, rivers are running fast and high.

Officials don’t want a repeat of last weekend when there were drowning deaths and numerous river rescues throughout the region.