<p>Visitors to the day-use area find plenty of picnic tables and green lawn for relaxing.</p>

MT. VERNON – A shady refuge from the road awaits travelers at Clyde Holliday State Recreation Site, just east of Mt. Vernon on Highway 26.

“I call it an oasis,” said Dennis Bradley, park manager.

The park puts out the welcome mat for folks using just about any kind of transport – from RVs to motorcycles to bicycles and hikers. It features a campground, with 31 electrical sites; two tepees for overnight rentals; a separate hiker/biker camp; and an RV dump station.

The campground is closed during the winter months, but operates a busy extended season, from March 1 through Nov. 30.

“We’re filled just about every night, especially in July and most of August,” said Bradley. The campground sites are first come, first served, but Bradley notes that there’s an overflow area if someone pulls in and the regular sites are full.

While some folks stay for a few days, it’s not a “destination park.” Most campers stop one night and move on, and that turnover means good availability each day for campers traveling through the area.

The sites are a draw – spacious and shady. The campground sees a lot of use by tent campers, as well as the trailer set. The hiker/biker area provides a separate space for those travelers to stake a tent and it also has water and even power so they can charge up their electronic gear, if need.

Bradley said some visitors use the park as a jumpoff point to visit other attractions in the area: Kam Wah Chung Museum in John Day, the John Day Fossil Beds near Kimberly, Sumpter’s gold dredge park, and the bird-watching mecca of Frenchglen, in Harney County.

The park is just as popular for its day use area – a well kept expanse of lawn shaded by tall cottonwood trees and flanked by the John Day River on the south. The verdant setting, right next to Highway 26, makes it a convenient break spot for the road-weary, and it also is a favorite spot among local residents for family reunions and other celebrations.

Picnic tables and horseshoe pits are among the amenities.

A nature trail along the river suffered erosion in a few spots from flooding last spring, but survived. It remains a nice walking path through wildflowers, brush and riparian habitat at the west end of the park. The path leads to a fishing and wildlife viewing pond that was improved a couple of seasons ago by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. The agency also built a fishing dock, and stocks the pond with trout each year.

But it’s the trees that draw most folks to Clyde Holliday Park. Park developers planted an array of landscape trees that now tower over the campground, providing shade in the summer, color in the spring and fall, and terrific bird habitat through the seasons.

The park bears the name of the late patriarch of a local ranching family. Clyde Holliday came to Grant County in the 1940s and established a logging operation; he later went into cattle ranching, an enterprise carried on today by the family. Holliday and his wife Earlene donated land for the park, ensuring that visitors and residents alike could share in the beauty of the area.