This is part of our Oregon State Park challenge! Check out our progress here.

We drove out to Hat Rock State Park from Emigrant Springs, expecting to find a swimming hole.

It turns out that it’s not very easy to go swimming here if you don’t have a boat, so we strolled around the fishing pond, and hiked up to the eponymous rock:

It’s a nice place for a picnic and a short hike, and there’s a boat ramp if you have one of those.

Aside: Pendleton Aquatic Center

The kids were mightily disappointed that we didn’t go swimming. On our way back, we stopped at the Pendleton Aquatic Center, which was awesome.

That photo shows one of the three pools – there’s also a lap pool and a high-dive pool that’s 12′ deep. Will rode the big slide you see above (Lucy wasn’t tall enough), and both of them went off a diving board!

This place was a highlight of our trip, and it only cost $20 for all of us for the day. There’s a food stand (with predictable quality), but we also spotted people hauling in their own barbecues and coolers. It was a hot summer day with lots of people, but there was still plenty of shade for us to hang out in. Highly recommended, 5 stars, would pool again.