At long last, I made it to Oregon! This was one of the places that have wanted to go to from the very beginning, and last year just when I was on the cusp of making it, I had to change my plans again. This year, I made getting to the PNW a priority. I explored as much of this vast and gorgeous state as I could in 4 weeks – everything from their craggy coastline to their lush green forest to their high peaks. And I didn’t even get rained on that much!
Oregon Coast
One of the very first things I did when I got to Oregon was explore their beautiful, rugged, foggy coastline. The Oregon coast is famous for their “ocean geysers,” the gaps and holes in the craggy rocks where incoming surf crashes and explodes upwards like a geyser. Several of them have names, but the most famous is “Thor’s Well,” which I have a video of below. They tell you never to turn your back on the ocean, and now I know why. When I turned to walk back to my car, a wave snuck up on me and crashed harder than expected, soaking the whole back of my body from my shoulder blades to my shoes. I had to drive home in the only dry clothes I had in the car, which was a kaftan I bought as a joke – I’m sure I only looked a little crazy.
Eugene
Eugene was my basecamp for my time in Oregon, and it is such a cute and sweet little town. Oregon is famous for their craft beer, so I spent a lot of my time in Eugene cruising around looking for different delicious beers. I also did some short hikes, did some birdwatching, tasted some local wine, went on a covered bridge tour, and visited a local raptor center.
Crater Lake National Park
When I decided to visit Oregon in May, I didn’t expect to have to plan for snow – so you can imagine my surprise when I got to Crater Lake National Park and found that there was still many, many feet of snow on the ground, and half the park was still closed for the “winter.” Turns out that at high elevations in the PNW, “winter” can stretch all the way to July or sometimes even August. But I was already there, so I adapted my plan, and rented some snowshoes from the University of Oregon outdoor office. Earthbound visitors were limited to a couple of miles of plowed road, which is a unique experience, but in practice the experience is mostly walking down a tunnel of snow that can be 15 feet high – you can barely see the lake the whole time. Getting to walk on top of the snow along the edge of the lake meant that I had incredible views of the lake the whole time, and I got to do it without any of the crowds!
Central Oregon – Willamette, Silver Falls and Bend
One of the main draws for me to Oregon was all the hiking and outdoors-ing I could do there, especially in the green middle parts of the state. I hiked to the “Blue Pool” and kayaked in the nearby Clear Lake in Willamette National Forest – both of which have an eerie blue hue. It looks like Ty-D Bowl, but apparently it’s more like an optical illusion; it comes from the water being so clear after filtering through the surrounding volcanic rocks that it is basically devoid of any impurities or suspended particles that would refract the light and change the color. I also saw ton of waterfalls at Silver Falls State Park, and visited the last Blockbuster Video store on earth in Bend.
Mt Hood, Columbia River Gorge and Portland
Portland was my last stop on my way out of Oregon, but it was also a stop on my way back into it too. I’m jumping ahead in linear time here, but on my last day in Oregon I spent the day exploring the Columbia River Gorge on my way to visit some friends in Portland for the night; my time there was so nice that after I left Washington a few weeks later, I came back to the Rose City the spent a few more days with my friends and exploring the city. Now that I was fully vaccinated, I got to go to bookstores and art museums for the first time since the pandemic started.
This post describes land that belongs to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs,Chelamela, Winefelly, Kalapuya, Alsea, Tillamook, Siletz, Molalla, Yakama, Klamath, and Wasco and Wishram people, among others.
Alyson Gagne 