dcd

DW and I are planning to visit Oregon for the last 10 days of August this year, arriving the 22nd and leaving the 31st, flying in and out of Portland. Wish we had more time. I'm holding reservations at Crater Lake Lodge for 3 nights (25-27) knowing full well we'll stay just 2 nights, but booked way ahead not knowing the exact itinerary. That reservation is the only limiting factor itinerary-wise.

We'd like to do some wine tasting, see the Coast, do some hiking, drive the Columbia River Gorge and of course enjoy CL (boatride and hikes).

Been speeding reading a bunch of past threads today.

How crazy does this itinerary sound:

Aug 22 & 23 Portland; see the Japanese Garden and do some Willamette wineries on the 23rd

Aug 24 drive to Astoria and drive down the coast to Florence for one night, which may limit accommodations

Aug 25 finish driving down the coast and end up in or near Crescent City and see the Redwoods

Aug 26 drive to CL

Aug 27 spend day and night at CL

Aug 28 drive to Bend area and probably stay in Sunriver based on comments here

Aug 29 drive to Hood River and visit wineries; spend the night here

Aug 30 drive to Portland along the Columbia River Gorge, stopping for some hikes

Aug 31 depart

We like to be on the go, but this would certainly be pushing that.....

I'd very much welcome your thoughts and comments, particularly on things to see and do en route to Bend and Hood River. Thanks!!

dcd

Quick follow up. We like pretty seascapes but given the limited time, would we be best off spending only one day driving the coast and, if so, which part?

tomfuller

What time does your flight into PDX arrive on the 22nd?
Could you get away with putting the extra day in Portland at the end 8/31?
Unless there is something you really want to see in Astoria, try going over US 26 to hit US101 south of Seaside. Make a stop in Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock.
Make a stop at the Tillamook Cheese factory (just north of town) for some great ice cream and cheese.
Just south of Newport, across the big bridge is the Oregon Coast Aquarium which is worth more than an hour of your time.
It depends on the weather and how tired you are whether you want to drive all the way down to Crescent City to see the Redwood NP.
If you decide to skip the Redwoods, take Rt. 38 east from Reedsport. About 5 miles east of Reedsport, you can see Roosevelt Elk at the Deans Creek Viewing area. On the east end of Elkton, take Rt. 138 to get to I-5 north of Roseburg.
In Roseburg you take Rt. 138 east up the Umpqua River to get to the north entrance of Crater Lake NP.
The best hike in CLNP is the one down the Cleetwood trail down to the dock for the boat to Wizard Island. You will have to get your tickets at the visitor center.
While in the Bend-Sunriver area be sure to spend some time at the High Desert Museum and maybe the Lavalands Visitor Center.
In the Columbia Gorge, the best hike is up to the top of Multnomah Falls. The other waterfalls in the area are great as well. Use the old US 30 route instead of I-84.
You may find that renting a car in downtown Portland is cheaper than renting at PDX. The end of the TriMet red line is right outside the baggage claim at PDX.

dcd

Thanks Tom! I haven't booked the flights yet, but I expect we will be arriving no later than 2pm which would allow us time to see some of Portland then.

Bobmrg

IMHO the best seascapes are from Port Orford south to the California border.

sunbum1944

The coast between Lincoln City and Florence is beautiful too- many places to stop and enjoy the views. A drive by really does not do it justice.

Florence to Coos Bay is rather uneventful as there are many trees to obscure the view.

Hwy 138 between Roseburg and Crater Lake is a beautiful drive with many waterfalls. Some of them are just a short walk in to see the falls, some more of a hike. One of my favorites is Watson Falls. I think there about 10 waterfalls along this Hwy- but you won't see them from the road.
Stop at Steamboat Springs for lunch, dessert - a beautiful resort on the river with a restaurant.

Enjoy your trip

kc14015

I think your itinerary is a little ambitious and a lot of driving for 10 days. We love Oregon and it is a beautiful State, but I think you might be trying to see too much in the time you have for this. One big hitch to your plan that I think I saw was that you were going to drive from Portland to Astoria and then down the coast to Florence in one day. The Oregon coast on HWY 101 is very scenic but a very twisty road in places. Traffic does not move fast in the summer, you can easily be stuck behind someone pulling a trailer in August and it could be slow at times. I think the most scenic stretch on the coast is between Waldport and Florence, as you are driving on these cliffs with the sea crashing below. I personally would want a couple of days on the coast and less time in Portland-unless you really want to be in a city for your vacation. I think if you stick to your plan you will not really have any time to enjoy the coast. Also Florence is on a river and is a little inland from the ocean. With your limited time you might want to consider an overnight in Yachts (Ya-Hots) for a better view of the ocean. Maybe think about skipping the redwoods on this trip and then concentrate on the coast between Depot Bay and Florence.

As far as the mountains you might consider staying at Black Butte Ranch near sisters as an alternative to Sun River. Very pretty area but less developed. Not sure that would work with your proposed route. Perhaps cutting some of your planned itinerary out would make for a more relaxing trip for you guys.

Good Luck and have fun!

capecodbeachfront

Did a similar trip when our daughter lived in Oregon. Never knew how varied the land formations are in Oregon.
Be sure to include Ecola Beach Park and Mulnomah Falls. Sorry about my spellings... Crater Lake was wonderful although we were caught in a thunderstorm. My wife would probably never go back... it was terrifying! We also did a side trip past Mt Hood to the high desert!
Not in Oregon... but I would consider a trip to Mt St Helen's. The welcome center has a introduction film that will stay with you for the rest of your life. Very emotional!
We also enjoyed McMennamins for dinner and drinks...

alwaysafrica

Hi dcd!

My family of four did a trip through Oregon about 4 years ago (our young sons were only 1 and 4 at that point) and we had an unbelievable time. We spent a long time planning our trip - with a lot of help from the people here on Fodors. I happen to think that the final itinerary we came up with was absolutely perfect and so I'm including the link to our trip report. Take a read and see whether there are any parts of our trip that you might want to include in yours. We loved the section of trip where we took why 138 along the North Umqua River. We also loved many of the places that we stayed - all of which are referenced in my trip report. The place that we stayed on the Columbia River Gorge was phenomenal, and we also really loved Brasada Ranch in the high desert. All of the places that we traveled were so unique and diverse - it made for a fascinating trip all the way along! We did a TON of driving on our trip too, but it was worth every minute.

http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...young-kids.cfm

Happy trip planning - you're going to love Oregon!!!

Jenn

dcd

Boy, you guys really came through! (Not surprising though.)

Well, I've spent the better part of the day reading, thinking and booking. Cram trip planning.

I think we're going to stick pretty much to the original itinerary with a couple tweaks. Here's what I've got planned so far.

Aug 22-23 We'll stay at the Heron Haus B&B which is within easy walking distance to the Park/Zoo, etc where we'll plan to spend Sat afternoon and early evening. On Aug 23, we have a wine tour booked with A Nose for Wine for the Willamette Valley. http://www.anoseforwine.com/

Aug 24, Mon, we'll leave Portland, head for the coast, skipping Astoria and going first to Cannon Beach. We'll drive to Yachats seeing what we can and stay at SeaQuest Inn for the night.

Aug 25 We'll continue sightseeing along 101 and end up in Crescent City, staying at the Crescent Beach House; time permitting, we'll do some Redwood Park visiting.

Aug 26 We'll finish our sightseeing at the Nat'l Park and drive to Crater Lake where we have reservations at the Lodge.

Aug 27 We'll do the hike and the boat tour, hopefully. Spend the night at CL Lodge.

Aug 28 We'll drive to and stay at the Timberline Lodge at Mt Hood, taking in some sights along the way.

Aug 29 We'll drive to Hood River and spend the night at a place to be determined. We'd like to do some light hiking and wineries there.

Aug 30 Finish up the Columbia River Gorge activities and drive to Portland where we'll stay at one of the airport hotels.

Aug 31 Head home in the morning.

I greatly appreciate all the pointers and tips of things to see and do along this grand loop. Jenn, awesome trip report!! I wish the Yachats place you stayed allowed one night stays.... Looks terrific.

Any other thoughts/comments are always welcome!

It will be a whirlwind trip but Oregon appears to be all about the out of door (and wine) so we'll see what we can and leave the rest for a return trip.

tomfuller

I'm shocked that you chose Crescent City CA over beautiful Bend.
To get a good closeup view of the Coast Redwoods, you can make a stop at "The Trees of Mystery" They have a gondola ride up to a platform on top of the mountain.
Leaving the north entrance of Crater Lake it is 90 miles to the south end of Bend. If the weather is good, make a stop at the High Desert Museum about 5 miles south of Bend.
North of Terrebone is Oregon's most scenic rest area IMO.
The John Fremont Rest Area is next to the deep Crooked River Canyon. You can walk across the old Rt. 97 bridge which is 300 feet above the river.
Mt. Hood and most of the Cascades have had less than half the normal amount of snow this winter. I'm hoping we don't have a terrible fire season.

dcd

Tom, thanks again.

We figured the Redwoods would add some diversity to the sightseeing. Hadn't heard of the Trees of Mystery. That does look interesting.

After reading up on the Bend area, it sounded more like a place to "park it" for several days as opposed to a drive by; that said, we'll plan to make some stops in the area. The Desert Museum looks interesting although the one in Tucson appears to be more impressive and we were just there.

We love beautiful mountains so we essentially added the stop at Mt Hood in lieu of stopping at Bend. Plus that puts us closer to the River Gorge where there are several activities we'd like to pursue in our limited time there.

sunbum1944

There are many beautiful stops between Yachats and Florence. One of my favorites is Devils Elbow State Park. The beach is in a nice little cove which is protected from winds. There is a trail up to Heceta Head lighthouse and the lighthouse keepers home. This is one of the most photographed lighthouses in the US. There is another trail from behind the lighthouse that takes you to a secluded beach only accessible by walking in- no cars.
My personal favorite stop along the coast.

In Old Town Newport my favorite restaurant is the Local Ocean- great food but no ocean view- its on the bay.

In the Bend area the Lavaland Visitors center is very interesting and there are ranger led walks through the area- it is worth a stop. You can also drive to the top of a cinder cone - there is a nice and easy trail around the crater.
Close by is a hiking trail to Benham Falls- an easy and beautiful hike.

In the Crescent City area, a drive up to the Klamath River overlook is lovely. Sometimes there are whales feeding down below. There is a nice hiking trail from the parking lot- better done using a shuttle but you could always do just part of it.

Enjoy!

tomfuller

Correction: The Rest Area on US 97 next to the Crooked River Canyon is the Peter Skene Ogden and not Fremont.
Ogden wandered through Oregon before heading to Utah and having a city named for him.

kc14015

I concur with sunbum that Devils Elbow State park is worth a stop. Very scenic spot, and when your driving 101 notice the trees along this part of the coast are all twisted and shaped by the strong winter winds.

dcd

Devils Elbow State Park just got added to the must see/do list, with 2 asterisks!

OK, 2 more questions.

First, which route would you recommend taking from Crescent City to CL?

The lodge is at the southern end of the lake and google maps says the driving distance is 3hrs 45 minutes if we go there via the southern park entrance.

But it's been suggested that entering the Park through the northern entrance, that is, we'd leave Crescent City and take Rt 199 to I-5 to Route 138, is preferable because it's more scenic and there are things to do along Rt 138.

If it's a nice day, perhaps that route makes the most sense from another perspective, namely, we could then take the rim drive to our lodge, either going along the western edge in a counterclockwise fashion (some say that's better anyway because there's less traffic albeit it's more tricky making stops), which supposedly takes 5 hrs 15 minutes without stops, or going clockwise along the eastern side which supposedly takes 6 hrs 10 minutes without stops. (Of course we'd make stops....lots of them, knowing me and my camera.)

That might actually be preferable, as I think about it, because that would leave the other half of the rim drive for the next full day when we plan to do the boat tour and hike. We'd have time to add another hike possibly, too.

So if we left Crescent City at 9am and drove to CL using the northern route and drove half the rim drive, and made some stops along Rt 38 and the rim drive, we'd have enough time to get to the lodge and enjoy a bottle of Oregon wine on our porch?

Thoughts?

Second, has anyone done the half day boat tour to Wizard Island and if so, is that a "must do" in lieu of some hiking along the rim?

tomfuller

From Crescent City, take US 199 which hits I-5 just south of Grants Pass. Along 199 you will see more Coast Redwoods extending a little into Oregon.
Head south on I-5 to the Gold Hill exit. In the town of Gold Hill turn left onto Rt 234 to get over to Rt. 62 east to the south entrance of Crater Lake. Stop at the Visitor Center to get your boat tickets.
When you leave Crater Lake through the north entrance, do you plan to go through Bend and Madras or Roseburg and Salem?

dcd

Tom, I plan to buy the boat tickets in advance.

To get from CL to Timberline, I was thinking of going thru Bend and Madras.

sunbum1944

I would take the HWY 138 route just because it is so scenic-

annalynn

When I was planning a similar trip for my family last year, tom recommended we take Hwy 138 to get from the coast to Crater Lake, and I've always been so grateful - it was so stunningly beautiful, and was definitely the best surprise of our trip - thanks, Tom!

We took way longer than anticipated because we just kept oohing and aahing with every turn along the road... beautiful, lush green woods dotted with wildflowers in every color imaginable. And we came across this great bridge, the Tioga Bridge (I think?) that was just amazing. The kids were thrilled the bridge featured on the label of ketchup bottles many local restaurants served. I definitely suggest you find a way to take this scenic byway as suggested.