I am planning a week-long family vacation in mid-June. My wife and I have 4 children (ages 22, 19, 17, & 16) and we plan to explore Portland and do some hiking and rafting. I am considering 2 days in Portland and 2 days in Columbia River Gorge for rafting/hiking/seeing Mt. Hood. As a family, we do short hikes of 4 hours or less - we don't do backcountry camping. Does this time estimate sound reasonable? If so, then I am looking for suggestions for other sights to fill another day or two. Is Mt. St. Helens worth seeing? Any other ideas? I have not been to the area before, so I also welcome suggestions about where to stay. Thanks in advance for your help.

If you've not been, you can't come to Oregon and not see at least part of the coastline. One of the best on the planet. You'd regret not giving it more time, but if a day or two is all you've got.... That's not to say that St. Helen's isn't worth a visit, though. Decisions, decisions...

Two days each for the Gorge/Mt Hood and Portland should be enough time; maybe too much. I'd suggest allocating time to sights and activities more unique to the area. The Gorge and St. Helen's fit that, and maybe Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood. But, there's not much unique about Portland, and depending on what you're thinking, temps might be too cool to make rafting fun.

We are going there this summer ourselves. Eagle Creek Trail looks fantastic in Columbia Gorge. Of course, see Multnomah Falls.

Rose Garden, Japanese Garden, and Chinese Garden all look great in Portland. We are driving the coast and headed to Crater Lake as well.

We plan on doing Mt St Helens and have one night stay at Timberline Lodge/Mt Hood.

I would probably do the coast or crater lake over St Helens. We have 11 days there.

My daugher and I(age 15) will be doing a tour with www.deserthighlights.com
We have done this with them in Utah and are super excited about canyoning with him in Oregon. If Utah looks interesting, get him to email you his options in Oregon, he doesn't have anything on the website for Oregon yet. You can see oregon on youtube-search- moabmatt or mattmoab or cascade canyoning. This is pretty adventurous, but we really enjoyed it in Utah. My wife says she is passing on this, she didn't do it before either. She doesn't know what she is missing.

Voodoo Doughnuts
Stumptown Roasters
Worldcup
Anana Banana's
are all on out lists for eating in Portland.

The Eagle Creek hike is very nice-a couple of waterfalls and some steep canyon walls but it's pretty easy.

As beachbum said, rafting in June could be iffy- usually can't count on good weather until after Jul 4.

If rafting doesn't work out for you, there is a great hike south of Salem- Silver Falls State Park- there are 10 waterfalls within an 8 mile walk- some of them have pools you can swim in.
One of my favorite hikes!!

I echo both beachbums and sunbums suggestions. With only 4 days total, you can't do everything, so you really need to decide what interests you the most. Odds are definitely not in your favor for rafting in June. But then again, odds are not in your favor of good weather at the coast...but the good news is, our coast is great any time. Just be sure to bring layers and don't expect to sun yourself

As much as I love the gorge and Mt. Hood area, with such limited time I would make that just a day trip, although a long one. You can head out of Portland over towards the gorge, then take the old scenic highway at either exit #17 or #22. Make the scenic stops, do either a few small hikes or one longer one, head to Hood River, then around the back side of Hood to Timberline, then continue on the loop back to Portland.

Silver Falls is a great hike as mentioned also. If it is cold, there is a small lodge with a huge fireplace to warm up in.

I really like Mt. St. Helens, but unless you just do a day trip to the coast, I am not seeing how to fit it in with only 4 days. It is a full day trip, but well worth it. One thing though, you want to be sure it is not a cloudy day or else you won't see much.

Any way you can add a few days to this trip?

With one of your days, I would head over to the coast. We have a beach cottage in Seaside, it's about a 90 minutes drive from Portland to the coast. Cannon Beach, Manzanita, Gearhart and Astoria are all nice places to visit. Have a wonderful time! ***kim***

(contemplative) Hmmmmmmmph...


My first vibe when reading your interests is to suggest that you could make your 'home base' in Portland and do DAY trips to most of the sightseeing possibilities in the area.

Perhaps you would get better hotel deals when booking several consecutive nights in one spot vs. hobnobbing around the compact area.

Mt. St Helens would be an easy day visit from Portland.

The self-guided coastal tour could begin in Portland and go toward Seaside, Astoria, or Cannon Beach, then down through Tillamook (gotta stop at the cheese factory there) toward Lincoln City or Newport, and then back to Portland after somewhat of a loop.

IF Crater Lake were of interest, that would probably require a separate night spent away from Portland.

A circular trip around Mt. Hood from Portland via Hwys #26 and #35 looks to be less than 175 miles, and June affords you plenty of daylight by which to see the various sights on your vacation.

IF it were MEEEEEEEEEEE, I'd use Priceline.com while attempting to land posh downtown Portland digs at a great rate. If successful doing just that at the price YOU want, then don't hesitate to make downtown Portland your base camp for the whole trip.

(and by "posh", I mean only a 3- or 4-star hotel that suits your tastes)

There is plenty to do in the area even if you don't opt for a far-reaching side-trip.



Generally speaking I think your instincts for a week will be just ideal for the area.

imfacen,

It's not my favorite place on the coast, one of my least favorite in fact, but still, I suggest you take kimamom up on the implied offer to use her "beach cottage" in Seaside. It's only a few miles from there to the other places she recommends as nice to visit, and heck, maybe she'll let you stay there for nuthin'!

. I would rather pay for a hotel in Cannon Beach.

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...stack-rock.jpg

When we lived in Portland.. it took us about 90 minutes to drive to Cannon Beach .. with no traffic.. it will be longer to Seaside. ( which kimamom probably doesn't know since she arrives at the Seaside rental by way of California )... which is a bit longer drive than 90 minutes lol

The Gorge is only about 30-45 minutes from downtown Portland and a perfect day trip.. or overnight..
We always drove up the Historic Highway, stopping at the overlooks and taking a gazillion photos

http://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/med...ic-highway.jpg

then on to the falls where we would park and walk to them or along beside them .. Multnomah Falls is the only one that I just stood in front of it .. I could not go up there to that little bridge if you paid me ... a lot of money .. a lot.

http://www.oregon.com/photos/pg/rlmfalls24_medium.jpg

I enjoyed Bridal Veil Falls , which has picnic tables and then the trail ( helped with steps cut into the hill) go to a platform where you can walk out over the water and view the falls.. everytime we went, we were the only people there.. it is just so amazing driving past a series of waterfalls!