A selection of some of the most interesting places to visit and experience while visiting Oregon.
How would a busy day look for an Oregon tourist strapped for time?
A person itching with wanderlust may awaken bright and early on a clear high-desert summer morning in Central Oregon, hop in the car and head through a mountain highway beside a towering snowcap (even in summer months), travel through a valley of fertile farm land, cross another mountain range, walk on an ocean beach before eating seafood with a Pacific Ocean view from the table, return over the second mountain range, stop in a city for a bite at a five-star restaurant atop a skyscraper, pass through a rugged, narrow gorge with multiple lofty waterfalls, circle around the original snowcap mountain on its opposite side and slip back into the desert sagebrush scenery before the sun sets.
That's Oregon in a nutshell: a place where you can visit more types of scenery in a single day than perhaps anyplace else in North America.
Of course, most visitors want to take time, much more time, to explore and absorb the incredibly diverse and varied terrain and features of this mountainous, forested, desert-dry, Pacific Coast state. Depending on available time, resources and location of visit, there are numerous and wide-ranging localities dotting the state map which captivate tourists daily.
Portland
The largest city and an integral historical point in western expansion, there are a handful of "must sees" the traveler with limited time may wish to explore in this river city. All are easily accessible.
Pittock Mansion: On the far-western, heavily forested portion of the city just off Burnside, this mansion is at once a historical museum, a fantastic viewpoint and a hiker's delight with multiple nature trails veering out from its Forest Hills Park parking lot.
Washington Park: With the Rose City's famous Rose Garden, a Japanese Garden, an arboretum and the Oregon Zoo all close or within it's borders, this park is an easy visit, etched into the near side of Portland's west hills, and the sight-seeing options are aplenty.
Brewpubs: If you have a taste for beer, look into the craft breweries and pubs spotted all around the Portland city. The brews are flavorsome, eats hearty and atmospheres relaxed.
Columbia Gorge: Just a hop skip and a jump from east of the Portland metro area travelers enjoy the lush, rugged Columbia River Gorge, featuring a historic (and narrow) scenic highway, spectacular views and a handful of waterfalls decanting from the steep precipices highlighted by Multnomah Falls at 620 feet. It's perfect for a day trip, especially well suited to picnicking and hiking.
Willamette Valley
Almost 70 percent of the state's 3,559,596 population (2003 estimate) live in this western region of Oregon, which ranges north-to-south 120 miles from Portland and the Columbia River to Cottage Grove, just south of Eugene, and between 25 and 40 miles east-to-west from the Cascade Mountain range to the coastal range.
Popular destinations and events for locals and tourists alike around the valley include wine tours, state parks, festivals, museums, botanical gardens, college and university campuses and wildlife areas.
Wine Tours: The largest concentration of wineries in Oregon can be found throughout the upper Willamette Valley, primarily along with western portion, in Yamhill County near Dundee and McMinnville, Polk County and rural portions of Washington County. Guided tasting tours are offered, or with individuals can use a winery map and make their own tour. There are 11 wineries within 10 miles of Dundee alone, while Polk County (just south of Yamhill, west of Salem) boasts another dozen.
State Parks: Depending on your location and recreational urges, you are never far from a state park in thee valley. Champoeg, just south of Newberg and Wilsonville, is a popular historically-flavored park featuring fascinating information about native and non-native early settlements and a museum; Silver Falls, east of Silverton (26 miles northeast of Salem), is a back-to-nature treat in the Cascade foothills featuring miles of primitive trails and 10 major waterfalls, ranging from 30 to 178-feet high.
Other notable state parks in the Willamette Valley include Tryon Creek, between Portland and Lake Oswego; Willamette Mission State part just north of Keizer; Detroit Lake State Recreation Area 20 miles east of Salem; Cascadia State Park east of Sweet Home and Elijah Bristow State Park near Pleasant Hill (east of Eugene).
Prominent Festivals: the most prominent and well-known festival in this region is Portland's Rose Festival, which features the nationally televised Grand Floral Parade and attracts hundreds of thousands during its 24-day celebration every June. The city also hosts the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, first weekend in August; Waterfront Blues Festival, first weekend in July, and the Oregon Brewers Festival on the last weekend of July.
Other well-attended annual festivals and events in the valley include Mt. Angel's Oktoberfest in September; Albany's World Championship Timber Carnival in early July; Sweet Home's Oregon Jamboree in early August; Oregon Country Fair, Veneta (near Eugene) in mid-July, and the Independence Day celebrations in Independence/Monmouth.
Museums: History buffs will find Oregon City's Museum of the Oregon Territory, the McLoughlin House and the End of the Trail Interpretive Center as indispensable resources for sating curiosity and intrigue about the colonization of the Pacific Northwest.
Other interesting museums of the valley include: the Pioneer Mother's Museum in Champoeg State Park; Old Aurora Colony Museum, Aurora; Mission Mill Museum in Salem; Independence Heritage Museum, Independence; Albany Regional Museum, Albany; Linn County Historical Museum, Brownsville; Museum of Art, Natural History Museum and Lane County Historical Museum, Eugene.
Botanical Gardens: In the same fashion of the Rose and Japanese Gardens in Portland, the Oregon Gardens off Hwy. 213 just south of Silverton, is essentially an ongoing piece of artwork with flora as its medium.
College-Row: Highway 99W runs down the west side of the valley from Portland to Eugene, passing through a row of college towns in the process. This is also the prime winery region. Newberg, roughly 20 miles south of Portland, is home to the small Christian school George Fox University; a dozen miles south is McMinnville home of the respectable private school of Linfield College. Twenty-five miles south in the town of Monmouth is Western Oregon University, a popular college for teachers, while Oregon State University is located 20 miles further south in Corvallis. Finally, 40 miles south of Corvallis is the largest of the schools on college row, the University of Oregon.
OregonCoast -- North to South
Over 340 miles of coast highway stretch from the port of Astoria on the treacherous mouth of the Columbia to the north and the California-border sister towns of Brookings and Harbor. That stretch of 101 varies in traffic, but one constant throughout is it's a veritable drive through a picture post card.
Astoria, the oldest U.S. settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, boasts historical sites that date back to Lewis & Clark's infamous winter stay at Fort Clatsop in 1805. A former U.S. military installation vital to the country's defense on the Pacific Rim during World War II, Fort Stevens is now a state park at the farthest northerly point of the state near the town of Hammond.
Rolling south, coastal attractions largely geared to the amusement of youth are found in Seaside, while just over the Ecola State Park hill is Cannon Beach where a slightly more upscale crowd enjoys the dining, arts, crafts and a gorgeous beach setting, including Haystack Rock and the Tillamook Lighthouse, a built in late 19th century on a harsh, craggy base about a mile offshore.
The 40 miles of Hwy. 101 between Cannon Beach and Tillamook offer respites a tad more off the beaten path, including Manzanita and Rockaway Beach, smaller, less-crowded than Cannon Beach or Seaside, yet equipped the all the services and sights most modest beach travelers enjoy.
Tillamook, the seat of a county bearing the same name, is amid fine a region of fine pastures and, not coincidentally, is noted for its cheese. A scenic route just west of the slightly inland town of Tillamook threads the state parks of Cape Mears, Cape Lookout and Cape Kiwanda, before winding down into the fishing village of Pacific City.
Normally the busiest part of the Oregon coast is the mid region between Lincoln City (22 miles south of Pacific City), and Newport. At the north end of Lincoln City is Roads End State Recreation Area, one of 100s of popular trails along the coast that winds a hiker through rich forests and bluffs overlooking the vast ocean. The town also draws recreational gamblers with its casino, and shoppers with its outlet malls. D-river, one of the world's shortest at roughly 120-feet long, empties into the ocean near the center of town by a small beach park. Further south Depoe Bay's tiny harbor was the site of Jack Nicholson's boat hijacking with the mental patients from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
Newport is home to the Oregon State University Hatfield Marine Science Center, Oregon Coast Aquarium and the Oregon Coast History Center. Travelers with a bit of thirst and a taste for craft brews may want to stop by the Rogue's Brewers on the Bay Pub.
Traffic will thin out again over the 50 miles between Newport and Florence with exceptions in Waldport and Yahats. Shortly after viewing the picturesque setting of the Heceta Head Lighthouse the southerly traveler will drift into Florence. From Florence south to the California border - about 156 miles - a traveler progressively enters some of the most remote and spectacularly beautiful coastline in America.
Between Florence and Brookings/Harbor, the towns with services come at about 25 to 30 mile intervals: Reedsport, North Bend/Coos Bay, Bandon, Port Orford, Gold Beach and Brookings. The largest population of the Oregon coast is in the Coos Bay area. Don't let the dumpy nature of the town fool you; just a slight jog west of those frumpy industrial town near Charleston is Shore Acres, Cape Arago and Sunset Beach State Park: each a visual treat.
Bandon's blue-ocean beauty is immediately obvious, replete with the pristine Coquille Lighthouse sitting flatly at the mouth of the Coquille River. Despite its remote location, Bandon is host to one of the top-rated golf courses in the nation: Bandon Dunes.
Four miles north of Port Orford is Cape Blanco, a state park and campground, which is the farthest point west in the contiguous United States. Six miles south is Humbug Mountain, a 1,756-foot peak and hiker's dream, adjacent to another very pleasant campground. Some of the best whale watching on the Oregon coast can be found near Port Orford, and one of the most stunning, casual perches on the coast can be found just west of town at Port Orford Heads State Park.
Between Gold Beach, and the mouth of the Rogue River, and Brookings near the border is one of the most scenic and enthralling stretches of coastal highway, flanked by undeveloped terrain to the east and the vast Pacific to the west. Brookings is known as Oregon's "Banana Belt," where temperatures, highs and lows, are rarely uncomfortable.
Central Oregon/Mountains: The most rapidly growing area of the state per capita, Central Oregon - Bend, Sisters, Redmond, Crooked River -- is a treasure to retirees, outdoor-recreation enthusiasts and just about anyone who likes their climate relatively dry and their surroundings open and scenic. Recreation of choice in this area includes year-round golf, skiing, hiking, camping bicycling, fishing and hunting.
With the Cascades in your front yard, residents and visitors alike enjoy more than a dozen ski-resort options, ranging from less than 15 minutes to a couple of hours drive, depending on where you live or stay. The Deschutes River is famous for is white-water rafting, and it's also one of most popular trout fishing rivers in the Northwest.
A dozen public and half-dozen private golf courses within a 45-minute drive of Bend couple with ideal conditions year around to make Central Oregon a golfer's mecca.
The High Desert Museum just south of Bend is a must-see for anyone enthralled with the region, its topography, wildlife and history.
Southern Oregon
More rolling hills and less population, Southern Oregon is also less culturally identifiable than most areas of the state. Medford is the most economically industrial city of the area, while just south is the more artsy Ashland. Some general points of interest in Southern Oregon include the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Crater Lake and historic Jacksonville.
Ashland is home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival which runs from mid February through October, featuring a variety of plays daily.
America's deepest lake at 1,947 feet, Crater Lake is nestled well into the Cascade Range. An extinct volcano that essentially sunk, this gorgeous setting exhibits breathtakingly blue water and a conical island (once the top of the mountain). It's packed with snow much of the year, but summer visits are a royal treat.
Named after President Andrew Jackson, Jacksonville (five miles east of Medford) is a unique foothill town and National Historic District adorned by buildings of original 19th-century architecture, the truly "western" setting and home of the Southern Oregon History Museum.
Northeast Oregon
Northeastern Oregon features some of the most vividly contrasting landscape scenery anywhere; flat-desert wheat fields across northern portions, rolling sage-painted hills to the east and south, tree-blanketed foothills and snowcapped peaks in the Wallawa and Blue Mountain Ranges. It's also one of the best places on the continent to step out of time and away from the modern annoyances - like cell phones and traffic jams - and visit a world that hasn't changed too dramatically over the past century.
A traveler greeting this area in mid-September is likely here for the Pendleton Round-Up. Drawing over 45,000 spectators every year, the Pendleton Round-Up is one of the four most prominent rodeos in the nation. Its festivities are complete with a parade, hearty western cuisines, and the Happy Canyon Pageant which presents Native American exhibits and displays. There is also a Native American encampment of tepees, stunning in its own right, on the Round-Up grounds.
This region is steeped in Native American history, much of which pivots around Nez Perce leader Chief Joseph. A visit to the Wallowa County Museum in Joseph inspires visitors to learn more of the history and lore of this tribe. Another treasure for visitors of this Joseph-Enterprise region of Oregon is Wallawa Lake, serving at once as a historical stop and soothing vista.
In the summer, when the road is clear, the 54-mile Wallawa Loop Mountain road is an astonishing, though extremely isolated, road trip. Between remote Imnaha and Halfway, if you have time take a side jaunt and check out the Snake River and Hells Canyons.
Primitive camping opportunities are abundant in Northeastern Oregon, most notably in the Sumter area of the Blue Mountains (west of Baker City), which is also a historical mining region from Oregon's gold-rush days of the 19th century.
