This month, we took a great trip to Oregon. My parents joined my husband, our 2 kids and me on this adventure. (I mentioned the circumstances that led to my parents joining us in another Lounge thread – it worked out really well. My parents really were awed by Oregon’s scenic beauty and we all had a nice time together).
We flew in and out of Portland. Here’s what we did:
Portland
Portland Underground Tour – we liked this tour, but I would recommend it with reservations. The tour is billed as a tour of the underground Portland, including enlightening visitors about the Shanghai Tunnels, which were used to kidnap workers to work on the large ships to China. The tour started in Old Town Pizza, and toured the Old Town, Chinatown and the waterfront areas. We have been to Portland before, but didn’t visit these areas, so we were interested in seeing these areas and learning more about Portland’s history. My husband said the tour should more accurately be called “A Tour of Portland with a stop in a Basement”. We’ve done Seattle’s Underground Tour, where you do explore the area beneath the present city. In Portland’s tour, you are not underground at all (except the basement). What once was an extensive tunnel network, used to unload goods from the harbor more easily into shops (and for illegal activities), does not exist today. Many of the tunnels have been closed. Much of this is for safety and security reasons – shops didn’t want just anyone having access to their places via the underground tunnels, so they shut off their access. The tour was a little over 2 hrs., and we all agreed that it would have been better if it were just a bit shorter.
Old Town Pizza – I found this place interesting historically – the place were you currently order your pizza used to be the reception desk of a hotel. The pizza was not good.
VooDoo Donuts – these were terrific!! If you go, and you should, get there early! We could see this store from our hotel room (the Embassy Suites), and there was a loooong line all day – starting at about noon. And this was on a Tuesday! But, darn, those donuts were GOOD.
Powell’s Bookstore. GREAT BOOKSTORE. Huge store, amazing selection. I spent 50 mins. here, which was not nearly enough.
Pioneer Courthouse Square – we walked around here, did some window shopping, and stopped in Niketown. They have a large version (statue) of LeBron and it appeared that his tattoos were a faithful reproduction of the real thing.
Rose Garden – beautiful! Large, gorgeous area in pretty Forest Park. On our drive away, we passed a really cute shopping area. We didn’t’ stop, but this definitely looked like a nice area to browse and shop. I never learned the name of that neighborhood.
Columbia River Gorge
We’ve been to the Gorge 2x before, and we did a few short hikes. We also stopped at the viewpoints at Womens Forum SP and at Vista House to get nice views of the river.
Latourell Falls – this is one of my favorite waterfalls in the Gorge, easily accessible from the road.
Bridal Veil Falls – short hike, less than a mile.
Multnomah Falls – this is the highest waterfall in the Gorge and it’s beautiful. We had a nice lunch at the Multnomah Lodge and then walked up to the Bridge. As good luck would have it, Hershey from Fodors was in Hood River visiting her brothers the same time we were in town (state?), and she was able to meet us at these falls, and we hiked to Elowah Falls together.
Elowah Falls – this was a short hike in John Yeon SP – a short ways down from Multnomah.
We didn’t’ do these hikes this trip, but I’m mentioning them, b/c if you see the Gorge, these are great hikes/waterfalls:
Punchbowl Falls via the Eagle Creek Trail. You also pass another falls on the way. This is a really pretty hike, but was long-ish (3.5 miles IF I recall correctly) and my boys didn’t’ want to do this. Punchbowls Falls is another one of my favorite falls in this area.
Oneonta Falls – this is another one of my favorite waterfalls and a very memorable hike! You hike a short way through a narrow gorge – and in one or two areas, there is no path – you must walk IN the creek. The time we did it was in August, and the water level was up to my stomach. The falls at the end are in such a lush a pretty setting – it feels as if you are in Hawaii. I thought my boys would get a kick out of “hiking” through the creek, but 2 things made me hesitate. First, someone died here a few months ago. Since we were there last, a huge log jam was created. To get to the falls, you have to now climb up and over some huge, very slippery logs. Apparently, some young men were goofing off while doing this, and one fell, and died. Second, the weather was not hot like it was last time we visited. I was told by the workers at Vista House that the water levels are still high, and the water is cold (snow melt). The air temp was only supposed to be a high of 70, so I figured I’d be cold doing this. We did pack extra, old sneakers, just to do this hike, but we decided against it, this time.
Hood River – we stopped here for ice cream (Hershey took us to a tiny little place with very good ice cream) and then my husband and dad went to watch the windsurfers. My husband likes to windsurf – and did get to windsurf here on our last visit. This is a really windy, good place to do it. The rest of us took my younger son to a skatepark.
I doubt most people here on Fodors are interested in the skateboard scene in Oregon, but it is a great place for skaters. You know how most cities have Bike Routes? The City of Portland has Skate Routes! Each town we visited – even the small ones – had elaborate, nice, public skateparks. We let my son bring his board when we travel in the US and we maybe find 2 or 3 skateparks if he is really lucky. In Oregon, he skated 5 parks (Portland/Glenhaven, Hood River, Government Park, Lincoln City and Florence), and they were all very good ones.
We said good-bye to Hershey after dinner in Hood River and we continued on to Government Camp to explore Mt. Hood.
Beautiful Oregon: our trip report
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Mount Hood
Mt. Hood Ski Bowl – here we rented mountain bikes and took them up the ski lift to bike down. We did the trails marked beginner and intermediate singletrack, but knew better than to try the advanced downhill. We thought this was a blast. My son scratched up his leg doing the jump ramps, but it was a minor injury.
The boys also rode the alpine slide and used the trampolines in the harness type thing they have.
Timberline Lodge – we ate a nice dinner with a great view of Mt. Hood. My parents explored the Lodge with my dad’s cousin while we were biking and took a tour. There is still plenty of snow up here and my dad said they were snowboarding and skiing in shorts during the day. After dinner the boys threw some snowballs at each other.
Trillium Lake – this is a pretty lake with a great view of Mt. Hood in the background. It is very easily accessible - about 3 miles off the the main highway on a paved road. (I wanted to hike to Mirror lake, but we ran out of time).
The next day we drove to the Coast (Lincoln City). On the way, we passed numerous wineries, If you are interested in these, you’d have a lot of choices.
Evergreen Wings and Waves
At the Evergreen Aviation Musuem is the Spruce Goose, an IMAX theatre and aviation exhibits. My parents explored these while we went to the brand new waterpark next store.
A 737 airplane was hoisted on the roof of the building. Now you can climb up into the plane to access four large waterslides. It’s not a huge park – it’s indoor and there is also a small wave pool and pool (for shooting baskets) and also a jungle gym type/water cannon shooting area that is typical of waterparks. Our schedule had us here on a Sat. and it was crowded - probably not the best time to visit.
Lincoln City
We stayed in a nice condo on the beach. In front of our place was a great place to explore the tidepools – we saw anenomes, fish and crabs scuttling about. It was cold! I knew the highs at the coast were going to be in the 60s, but on a breezy evening, that felt pretty cool.
The sunset we saw from here was amazing.
Overall, Lincoln City let’s say, lacks a lot of charm, and the food choices didn’t appear to be very good. But it was a good centralized location for us for exploring the coast.
Lincoln City to Tillamook.
Cape Kiwanda
Here we climbed the dunes to a nice view of a cove along the ocean. Also offshore was a huge rock with an arch.
Cape Lookout State Park
We were looking for the short nature trail, but found a parking area near the ocean and got out to walk around. I’m glad we got out here – up the coast was a really pretty view, with a waterfall flowing into the ocean.
Cape Mears State Park
A bit further up the highway, we got out here. There is a short walk to a lighthouse, with pretty coastal views/cliffs/coves along the way. We also took the short trail to the Octopus Tree.
Tillamook
Our only stop here was at the Tillamook Cheese Factory. It was late (6pm-ish), so the factory conveyor belts, etc. weren’t going, so the “tour” was sort of anti-climatic. But we did get to sample some good cheese and get some ice cream. Their ice cream is excellent!
Lincoln City to Florence
Our first stop was at Cape Foulweather – great views of the forested coastline from this area.
Devil’s Cauldron State Park
We had stopped here before on a prior trip, but we couldn’t find the churning bowl where we saw the ocean foaming around in. Instead, we walked down to the water and we saw great tidepools. We saw a ledge covered with purple and orange starfishes. We also walked into a cave that I thought was interesting – it was devoid of any life, which I thought was surprising since the tidepools a few yards ahead of it were teeming with life. (Maybe if I understood this stuff better, it is not surprising, I dunno).
Cape Perpetua
This was a great stop. In one area, the ocean cut a deep chasm into the rock, and the ocean surf was pounding into it. At high tide, you can hear a loud booming noise, and we were there a few hours before high tide.
There is another rocky area with a lot of tidepools and a Spouting Horn. At high tide, water spurts out of this like it would a geyser. We’ve seen other Spouting Horns (in Oregon and in Kauai), but we never caught them at high tide. This time, we did get to see spray/mist shoot up and out, and also a few times, water shot out. It was a neat sight! It was mesmerizing watching the ocean water roll and boil around the rocks, form small waterfalls, etc.
Sea Lion Caves
I suspected this might be a dumb tourist trap, but it was neat! You take an elevator down to a viewing platform into a very large natural sea cave. (I thought the cave itself was interesting). In the cave are what appeared to be at least 100 sea lions! The viewing platform has rails/bars in front of it so you don’t fall into the water. Their promotional materials state that here, they cage the people and not the animals. Once outside, along the coast, you can walk a few yards to see sea lions down the cliffs on a ledge adjacent to the ocean.
Florence
Old Town – we stayed in the small Old Town area and ate dinner at a really nice restaurant here. Afterwards we took a walk to the small harbor.
Dunes – there is a long, extensive areas of dunes along the ocean. These rival my other favorite dunes – in Cape Cod in their height. We went to one area and hiked up to a great view of the ocean, backed by the high dunes.
My son rented a sandboard here – which is like a snowboard to “surf” the dunes. He did well, except this is exhausting, b/c unlike snowboarding, there is no lift. Every time he wanted to try again, he had to climb back up the dunes.
You can take dune buggy tours and rent dune buggies, but we ran out of time to do this. (Plus, dune buggy rentals seemed expensive and my son was upset he couldn’t drive one – you needed to be 21).
Back to Portland – stop in Eugene
On our way back to Portland, we ate lunch in Eugene, on the Univ. of Oregon campus. This area is really nice. As a bonus, we were able to get more of those great VooDoo Donuts.
This was our 3rd trip to Oregon and the first trip for my kids and mom. Each time we’ve left, I’ve wanted to move to Portland.
Thanks Karens. Printing now & can't wait to read this. Oregon is on my must-see list... maybe next year!
Loved the report karens- I'm guessing you will come back to see the other 25% that you missed including the east side of the Cascades and some of the High Desert. You should try to make it to Crater Lake. One of the things you missed near the coast is about 5 miles east of Reedsport-Deans Creek Elk viewing area.
Wonderful report on a beautiful area! Thanks so much for posting it.
Excellent report, karens, thank you! The way you have broken it up into small categories makes it a very useful reference. We will be traveling to Oregon in September and will cover much of the same area - printing your trip report and adding it to my folder.
Glad you enjoyed our beautiful state - I feel fortunate to live here. Heading for the coast this coming weekend - staying close to Yachats in a cabin on the beach.
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What a great trip and trip report! Thanks for all of the details and how cool about all the skate parks.
It seems like every 5 miles along the Oregon coast is a state park.
sludick - have a great trip! I'm sure you will.
tomfuller - we will be back, some day, to fill in more of the things we didn't get a chance to see. On our first trip, we did get to see Crater Lake, which is beautiful. But we still haven't seen the Bend area yet. And I would like to explore the northern and southern coast more, too.
Thanks so much for the hiking and waterfall info! I am going in 2 weeks and have 2 days to explore, so now I can narrow down to maximize my visit!
Glad you had an enjoyable time!
Thank you so much for all this information. We are leaving on 9/6 for almost 3 weeks in Oregon and your report is very helpful.
Wonderful, wonderful. I loved my one and only trip to Oregon last summer. We rented an oceanfront home in Cape Meares and I dream about that place. There were many properties for sale and it would not taken much persuasion at the time so I fully understand about how you could move there.
We got the full Tillamook cheese experience since we were based right outside there. We went into Portland on day trips, so I also got to spend some glorious time at Powell's and we also did the Saturday market which was phenomenal. We also did a day trip to Mt St Helen's. And then the gorge and Mulnomah Falls!! Lots of fantastic scenery for this midwestern girl. I cannot wait to go back. And yes, I could live there!! Again, thanks for a good trip report, loved reading it and thinking about that part of the country.
Thank you, all.
luv2travel222 and theatrelover - I'm sure you will have great trips. I hope you let us know how they went!
I'll write a trip report when I return.
Thanks for posting with all the detail. We have not been to Oregon for years but are talking about going in September 2012 so my husband can do the Cycle Oregon ride and I can hang out with our friends in Portland.
I think there are a limited # of spots on cycleoregon. Best to make sure you are in first, though there is nice cycling almost anywhere in the big O.
Hi Karens - thanks for this great trip report! We just got back from Oregon last week and reading your report helped me re-live some of our wonderful trip... Glad you guys had such a great trip too!
Jenn
Great report, Karens! Very cool about the 737! Would love to follow in your footsteps for this trip one day.