Oregon - 10 days
 

Flying into Portland at end of September to tour Oregon for 10 days. Want to do the coast, Crator Lake, and Columbia River Gorge. Need suggestions on how much time to allow for each area. We are not hikers. Love scenery, good accommodation and food. Flying back from Portland. Any suggestions would be helpful. Many thanks.

If you like scenic, the drive to Crater Lake isn't scenic.

I recommend a circular drive: the Columbia River Gorge, the John Day Region, Lava Lands near Bend, and the Oregon Coast from Florence to Seaside.

Crater Lake is an interesting to see. It is unfortunate it takes a long, boring to look at it.

Oregon publishes an excellent guide that describes these regions: http://traveloregon.com/?utm_source=...QaArzrEALw_wcB

HTtY

Many thanks. Will definitely check into your suggestions.

Crater Lake is worth the drive there and not that far from Bend. Lots of interesting areas/drives around Bend as well including the Newberry National Volcanic Monument (Lava Lands is part of this). Smith Rock state park is scenic even without hiking. Sisters is a cute town and a scenic drive.

While I generally agree that the drive to Crater Lake <I>isn't scenic</i>... I <b>did</b> like the long, straight drive on what must be Hwy #138 (from eastern Oregon) as you have to <I>ascend</i> quite a bit to reach the altitude of Crater Lake viewpoints. Something about the <I>deliberate-seeming</i> altitude increase on such a <I>straight</i> road makes it unique to the more typical highway ascent which involves curves and winding paths.

Definitely include Crater Lake. It is less than 2 hours from Bend and while the drive isn't as scenic as other areas, it isn't bad either.

"...the drive to Crater Lake isn't scenic."

Depends on where you're coming from. The route I'd suggest would be to drive the coast south to Crescent City, CA before reversing direction onto US 199 towards Grants Pass. Which would have the OP approaching Crater Lake from the southwest on hwy 62, through a section of the Rogue-Umpqua Scenic Byway.

After Crater Lake, exit the park from the north to Bend, then take hwys 97/26/35 past Smith Rock, up Mt. Hood (with a stop at Timberline Lodge), and down into the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. The time to be spent in each area depends a little on if there's an interest in Portland, but in any case, I'd allocate at least three nights to the Oregon Coast.

Oh, and between Crater Lake and Bend, there's the option of Cascades Lakes Scenic Byway instead of (dull by comparison) hwys 138 and 97.