While Tom and I were visiting the national park in eastern Washington, we stayed at the Pasco Tri-Cities KOA. The Tri-Cities area is composed of the cities of Pasco, Kennewick, and Richland with about 300,000 people. This is a booming area of the state, more than doubling in population since 2000. The lovely Columbia River Valley was surrounded by hills covered with new housing developments as far as the eye could see.
The Pasco Tri-Cities KOA was a convenient waypoint for seeing the three national parks and two state parks described in the previous posts. Other than convenience, the KOA itself didn’t have much going for it. It was basically an asphalt lot with RVs parked slide to slide. Two-thirds of the sites were occupied by people who live in the area full-time or seasonally. The KOA was clean and quiet, but there were plenty of people packed into a little space.
The KOA did have a few very nice amenities. They had a little park with a playground and basketball hoop set up at one end. At the other end, close to the office, was a building that housed an indoor pool, hot tub and workout room. The workout room had a treadmill and some free weights. There was also a clean but busy laundry room with reasonable prices for a load of laundry. A separate building held a party room that could be reserved for gatherings. The cable TV and Wi-Fi signals were strong and reliable.
While we stayed at the Pasco Tri-Cities KOA we explored the cities a little. There was a Shell station with diesel just down the street – very convenient. The Tri-Cities had any retail store you could want, a large mall, and all the chain restaurants including a Shari’s Cafe and Pies. There are lots of lovely parks, especially along the Columbia River. We saw a nice bike trail but didn’t have time to ride. We also saw a “Footgolf” course. Looking it up, we discovered it is golf played with a soccer ball. Sounds like fun!
The Pasco Tri-Cities area was a good place for a home base while Tom and I explored the area. The KOA was very close to the interstate and convenient. Although it is not the prettiest or most spacious campground, it was a clean and safe place to stay.
