Finding the Sun in Bend, OR

Last year we had a rather long, wet, and cool spring. By the time June rolled around we were dying for a peak of sunshine, as well as some warmth. We heard tale of a place in Oregon - just a few hours drive from Portland - where we could get out from underneath the towering Douglas firs, looming rain clouds, and finally get some sun on our abnormally pale faces. So on a rainy, cold Portland morning in June, we packed up our car and headed out to Bend, Oregon. Where we most certainly found sunshine!



















Here is a list of a few places we discovered while in Bend and highly recommend.

Sites:
Pilot Butte - This extinct cinder cone volcano offers an amazing view of Bend and the surrounding mountains such as Mt. Bachelor and Three Sisters. You can drive, bike or even hike to the top to catch a view like this:

















Downtown Bend - There are many unique stores, coffee shops, and restaurants in the downtown area.

Drake Park - A pretty park located in the downtown area. Drake also has a great trail for biking or strolling along the Deschutes River and Mirror pond

Food:
McKay Cottage Restaurant - The most amazing breakfast we have ever had! Definitely go on a sunny morning so you can sit outside.

Bend Burger Company - A great burger and super friendly staff...a win-win.

Baldy's BBQ - Ever since leaving OKC we have been on the lookout for some good Texas-style BBQ and this place does a good job of feeding our smoked meat craving.

Activities:
Deschutes Brewery tour and tasting - A more in depth post with pictures here.

Eagle Crest putting course - It's putt-putt but on real grass and a fun way to spend an hour.

For what's it worth we found most of these places plus many more things we want to do at the visit Bend website.

An added bonus was this amazing view of Mt. Hood on the way back to Portland.

















We enjoyed Bend so much that we went back again in August, and will head back as soon as the mountain passes reopen in late spring.

Two Parks for the Price of None

Last weekend, the National Park Service offered free admission to over 100 National Parks. That offer gave us a great excuse to head down to Crater Lake and the Redwood Forest. It also gave us an excuse to go camping again. In future posts we will talk specifically about Crater Lake and the Redwood Forest. In this post we'll talk about everything in between.

In all, we logged over 900 miles in two days. Fortunately, we're no strangers to long distance driving (see here, here, and here). We went from the farms of the Willamette Valley, to the Cascade Range, the Redwood Forest to the scenic Oregon Coast. The map to the left shows our path, a la Indiana Jones (only it's not animated).





Originally, we were only going to head down to Crater Lake, spend the night nearby, and come back home. This would have gotten us back to home base by 4pm and really would have made for a short adventure. Fortunately, we called an audible and decided to head to California. We're glad we did.
















Our jumping-off point on the second day of exploration was the Joseph H. Stewart Recreational Area. Being just an hour southwest of Crater Lake, it made sense to use this state park for an overnight stay. This was a nice, full service park (running water, showers, etc.) located on the Lost Creek Reservoir. The beautiful Rogue River feeds the reservoir and offered scenic views during a portion of our trip.

From J.H. Stewart, we headed to Grants Pass, OR. This metropolis of 30,000 people, nestled in the Cascades, was the gateway to the path to the Redwood Forest. U.S. Route 199 was our official path. We have never been on a curvier or more scenic road. Unfortunately, the driver was too busy keeping his eyes on the road and having a death grip on the wheel to fully appreciate this section of the trip.
















The trip down U.S. 199 was harrowing, so we opted not to take that route back after the Redwood Forest. Instead, we took the 101! U.S. Highway 101 jumps in and out of pine trees yielding stretches of awe inspiring ocean beaches and rocky outcrops. Here are some pictures around Arch Rock in Oregon (near Brookings, OR).

















U.S. Highway 101 does not go directly to Portland, so we figured there would be some inter-coastal range hopping, eventually. Night had fallen by this time, so we couldn't get pictures of that stretch.

Check back soon for specific write-ups about Crater Lake and the Redwood Forest.

Our Survey Says...

I like maps and I like standards. Maybe I should have been a land surveyor. Well, it is a little late for a career change, so I will just bask in the glory of other surveyors and imagine what it would be like to be the first surveyors of the Pacific Northwest. In the 19th century a stone marker, the Willamette Stone was placed in the West Hills of Portland. Now it wasn't just placed anywhere (uh this looks like a good spot). No, it was placed at the intersection of a pre-determined meridian (the Willamette Meridian) and a baseline (not to cross the Columbia River).

In 1851 the location was marked with a cedar stake, but now an official metal marker and state park denote the location.

The Willamette Stone is an significant surveying marker for the Pacific Northwest. In fact, all sections and townships in Washington and Oregon are based off of this one point. And since we are a) nerds, b) have a car, c) live in Portland, and d) had time to kill waiting for a restaurant to open, we decided to check out this historic marker.



It may not have as grandiose a monument to its existence as four corners, but at least the Willamette Stone is in the correct location.

Goonies Never Say Die!

One of our favorite movies of all time is "The Goonies". You can't go wrong with friendship, treasure hunting, pirates, and the Fratellis! And who can forget that kick ass Cyndi Lauper song! Even better, the kids are not annoying in this movie.

The movie took place in Astoria, Oregon, which by the way is less than 2 hours away from Portland. We thought, "...wonder where they filmed some of the exterior shots of The Goonies?" So, we started doing some research and found this awesome website dedicated to the movie (link). These guys did a great job finding the locations and organizing the info nicely on their site. Props to them! So we decided to grab a camera, hop in the car, and have a Goonies adventure! Don't worry, we didn't stumble upon any "booty traps".

Remember our friend Haystack Rock, from our coast post? Well, it was an intergral part to the guys' triangulation of the starting point for the adventure.


The jail from which Jake Fratelli escapes:


Astoria football field:


A welcome to fellow goonies at Mikey's house:


Mikey's house (in the "Goondocks"):


And last of all, no trip to Mikey's house would be complete without the truffle shuffle (NSFW):


So the next time you watch The Goonies (we will probably watch it after we publish this post), keep an eye out for these landmarks. You'll see all of them in the first 15 minutes (or so) of the movies. Perhaps you could even enjoy the movie with a nice Baby Ruth or some rocky road.

Post about the coast

A benefit of living in Portland is that you can go to the coast for a day (or even a part of a day). In a little over an hours time, you can drive out to the Pacific Ocean. But first, you must drive through the mountains of the Oregon Coast Range.

The Oregon Coast Range is a majestic stretch of mountains running parallel to the Pacific Ocean. The range spans from about 20 miles west of Portland out to the Ocean. Formed millions of years ago by volcanic activity caused by the subduction of the Pacific plate ... well let's just get to the scenery. Other than a few small towns and the two-lane highway, there was nothing but mountains and trees. The trees came right up to the road in many places and were some of the tallest fur trees we've ever seen! The roads wound around the mountains. But fortunately, no steep drop-offs.

We decided to head to Cannon Beach, about the closest coastal town to Portland. If you have seen any of those movies about coastal towns in the Pacific Northwest, then you probably have an idea of the feel of the town (see The Goonies). We found some public parking and walked out to the beach. Now remember, this is not your "fun-in-the-sun" kind of beach (except for a month or two in the summer). But, it is an awesome beach for taking a walk, enjoying the cool air of the Pacific Ocean, and seeing this:


Haystack Rock! This is a monster outcropping from just off of the beach. Very photogenic and impressive. If you watch the afore mentioned movie, "The Goonies", then you have probably seen this formation. You can't miss it once you get to the beach.

While in town we stopped at a great seafood restaurant, Mo's. We had some clam chowder, clam strips, pop-corn scallops, and bread. A very delicious lunch. If you are ever along the Pacific Coast of Oregon, we would recommend finding one and eating a meal or two there.

Our trip to the coast was only a half-day trip. But we got to see plenty of fur-tree covered mountains, beaches, and the ocean.

Oregon Trail

After 1976 miles, logging 30.5 hours on the road, we have made it to Portland! And guess what ... it was raining again!

After waking up in Boise, ID, we continued heading NW. An interesting side note for those who played Oregon Trail in grade school, a good part of the I-84 corridor follows the historic Oregon Trail. Fortunately, Max did not have to go hunting for food, Sara didn't get cholera, and we didn't have to ford the Snake River. But I digress. It took an hour to get to Oregon from Boise. Nothing different from yesterday's trek through ID, more Snake River valley with irrigated crops and occasional rolling terrain.

An official state map of Oregon says, "things look different here." I must say I agree. We saw a wide variety of landscape throughout the 6 hour drive. Rolling terrain, arid areas, beautiful pine forests... and the Columbia River! (which is cooler than the Cimarron; although the Columbia might not reach the "raging" level as often as the Cimarron)





Prior to getting to Portland, we had our first view of Mt. Hood (more pictures to come once we get a clear day in Portland). If you need to see Mt. Hood, go here. We then had to go through the Columbia River Gorge. "Had" is not a good word here... I-84 parallels the Columbia River for a good 120 miles, half of which is through "The Gorge". It is a breathtaking area, and even if I-84 hadn't gone through this region, it would have been worth while for the detour. Needless to say, we had plenty to look at as we neared Portland. It was a shock to see people, cars, houses, and civilization once we got to the outskirts of Portland. We had been in isolation for over 2 days... then... metropolitan area. I almost forgot what traffic lights were.

Now that we have opened the official Portland branch of okctopdx. Let see, other random thoughts to close out the trip. We used 62.5 gallons of gas, averaging 31.6 mph. Our best performance in gas mileage was from Home, ID to The Dalles, OR - 34 mph mainly because the speed limit was only 65 in OR and not 75 like CO through ID. Finally, we would like your opinion. Which word makes an area sound cooler - gorge or canyon? For example, does the "gorge" modifier in rattlesnake gorge make it sound cooler than rattlesnake canyon. Let us know.

Day Two - More Rain

Location: 43.5787 N, 116.2144 W

We started day two with a great view of the Rocky Mountains. It is quite a different feeling to look at the horizon see terrain. We headed north from Ft. Collins, CO to Cheyenne, WY, and saw the U.S. Cycling Championship (or people in funny helmets championship) along the way. We ended up driving past Cheyenne without really noticing it. We thought that the I-25/I-80 interchange may have been far away from the city, and that we were more focused on heading the right way instead of site seeing. However, later we found out that Cheyenne is a small city, and we were only 2 miles from the city center.

We encountered rain in the central 1/3 of WY. With the rain we had in OK early this week, and the rain we've had on the trip, we are ready to live in the rainy Pacific Northwest. It took us about 6 hours to cross WY, seeing some interesting terrain, not many people/vehicles, and some grazing area for cattle.




Utah was beautiful. We followed the floor of some valleys until we got north of Salt Lake City. After that, we entered some more semi-arid basin stuff (wish I would have paid more attention in geology class) until we got to the Snake River valley in Idaho. The Snake River (not quite as cool as the Cimarron River) is a 1,000 mile river that carved out a distinct valley and provides irrigation for farms in the valley. On a topographic map it makes a smiley face in ID! We got up to Boise in under four hours from the ID/UT border and 12.5 hours since leaving CO.

So far we have traveled 1400 miles through 6 states. To drive home the fact that we were truly away from civilization, if you added the population of all 6 states (OK, KS, CO, WY, UT, and ID) we have traveled through, thus far, you would have about the same amount of people as the population of Ohio. In other words, there is a lot of space and you feel very isolated. Tomorrow, we ride the Oregon Trail. (note this is not realtime, due to internet issues)

Current Elevation 4,984 Feet

Today was day one of our road trip to Portland. So, this is part one of our three part series detailing our trip.

We started out early this morning packing what we could into our little Hyundai, which required Peter to stuff whatever he could into every nook and cranny in the trunk. So that along with taking care of last minute details set us back about an hour and a half. But we would not be discouraged. The lack of traffic made it easy to get out of Oklahoma City. It turns out there is nothing too exciting on the north end of Oklahoma so I occupied myself taking pictures.

We crossed the Kansas border an hour and forty minutes after leaving home. Unfortunately, Kansas wasn't any more exciting than Oklahoma (sorry Kodi). Although we did see a wind farm, how fitting we thought. The wind mills are huge and turn a lot slower than I would have thought. Once again Peter has a cooler job than me, darn it.

We also saw a huge grain factory, which I'm assuming is the Ft. Knox of Grain. Unfortunately we were on a tight schedule so there was no time for stopping to see vaults of wheat, may be next time.

We saw several farms that reminded me of Dorothy's farm from the Wizard of OZ, which lead to a somewhat in depth conversation about the symbolism in the Wizard of Oz. Things really started to liven up in western Kansas when we hit the edge of some thunderstorms. Luckily we just had some rain and no hail or high winds.

Rain greeted us again as we reached Colorado. Total travel time at this point-seven hours. When we started out for the day Peter was pretty excited about Colorado and kept saying "I think you are going to like Colorado". Well, once we got out of the rain I finally got to see Colorado-like Kansas only browner. I was not a big fan and made sure Peter knew this. We drove and drove and no sign of mountains, I began to think the mountains were all a fraud and made sure Peter knew I felt this way. Finally, after a little over two hours of driving we spotted mountains at 6:26pm MDT and trust me they are not a fraud. We drove through Denver (the mile high city), someday we will have to come back for a visit. After eleven hours of driving we arrived at our stop for day one - Ft. Collins. We have a nice view of the mountains from our window.

Max is doing very well, which is to be expected since he such a world traveler.

Tomorrow Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho (no, you-da-ho, get it?). Stay tuned for more adventures from our road trip.