jp@lanl.ARPA (08/05/85)
My wife and I (and our two youngest children ages 7 and 10) will soon be going to Portland, Oregon to take our oldest son to college. Since I have some business in San Francisco shortly after we plan to drive from Portland to San Francisco. We understand that the coastal highway in Oregon is quite nice. We would like to camp at one of the state parks there, perhaps on the beach. We would appreciate any advice about what would be an especially attractive (or fun or interesting, etc.) place to spend a night or two. We would also appreciate recommendations of things to see or do in Portland, especially things that might interest the two young ones. We could use some advice about Northern California as well. I am fairly familiar with the Bay area, but know nothing about further north. The bird sanctuary mentioned in an earlier posting to this net sounds interesting and is in fact what prompted this query. Thanks, Jim Potter jp@lanl.arpa
dthk@mhuxd.UUCP (D. T. Hawkins) (08/09/85)
The Oregon coast highway is beautiful if you get good weather. Oregon
Dunes Park has a very nice campground and is a fun place--high sand dunes
to play in. Other things to see/do in N. Calif:
--Redwood parks and groves
--Pacific Lumber Co. Mill at Scotia, CA--very interesting
--"Skunk" train from Ft. Bragg through redwoods to Willits and return
(nice day trip)
--Mendocino county coast parks and towns
Enjoy!
Don Hawkins
AT&T Bell Laboratories
Murray Hill, NJ 07974
(201)-582-6517
...!ihnp4!mhuxd!dthkbill@hp-pcd.UUCP (bill) (08/13/85)
At the risk of sounding like I work for the Oregon Department of Tourism ... If you'll be driving I-84 from Boise to Portland, you might consider the Hell's Canyon area of the Snake River (along the Oregon/Idaho border). Parts of this area resemble the Grand Canyon (in depth), though it's narrower. The Columbia River Gorge is nice. The freeway follows the river across the northern part of the state, passing through this area where the river narrows. Multnomah Falls, Cascade Locks, Bonneville Dam are popular tourist attractions near The Dalles/Hood River. Multnomah Falls is very scenic and has hiking trails to the top; all of this stuff is along I-84 as you approach Portland. An alternative is to swing south at Hood River, driving around the east and south sides of Mount Hood. Timberline Lodge (on the south slope of Hood) is worth a stop; in addition to a spectacular view of the Cascades (when the weather is nice, which it is right now), it's supposedly only place in the continental U.S. where you can ski in the summer (on a glacier). North of the Columbia (on the Washington side) you can take a some time to tour the Mt. St. Helens (volcano) area. Awesome desolation. If you're into shopping, Portland has quite a few malls, in addition to a really nice downtown (if you excuse the current light-rail construction project that's got several streets torn up). There's also a pretty good selection of restaurants. If you're into activities, your kids will probably like the Portland Zoo; it's located in Washington Park, which is on a hill overlooking the west side of the city. The Japanese Garden in Washington Park is great; there's also the Washington Park rose gardens. You can take your kids on a train ride -- starting at the zoo -- that winds through the forest around the park to the rose gardens, then back to the zoo. Across the parking lot from the zoo there is OMSI (Oregon Museum of Science and Industry). You can follow the Columbia from Portland up to Astoria, at the northwestern most tip of the state; highway 101 follows the coast south from this point all the way to San Francisco. In Tillamook there's a cheese factory that's pretty interesting -- it's right on the highway -- and has a pretty big cheese/gift shop. You can also get to the coast by driving south from Portland via I-5 to Salem or Albany, and then cutting west on Hwy 22 (at Salem) or 20 (at Albany). About 20 miles east of Salem is Silver Falls State Park. This is a collection of something like 8 water falls of varying height (about 20' to 200' or so) set in several thousand acres of lush green forest. There's maybe ten miles or so of well-developed trails leading from fall to fall (even under a couple of them!), plus large picnic areas, some camping, horse rental, etc. I've had several out-of-state friends come to visit, and they all thought this place was really neat. The entire stretch of coast from Lincoln City south to Florence is very scenic. Newport is a nice place to visit; the "newer" part of town pretty much hugs 101, while the "old" part of town is down at the bottom of the hill at the north end of the Yaquina Bay bridge. The old section of town is very active, with a lot of private, charter, and commercial deep sea fishing. Across the bridge is Oregon State University's Marine Science Center -- kind of an interesting stop where you can touch starfish and an octopus and stuff. Continuing south there are a couple of good stops before you get to Florence. The first is a small park called Devil's Punchbowl (or Devil's Churn, or something like that). This is a steep, rocky "bowl" cut into the cliffs that violently churns with seawater every time a wave comes in. The thing that's neat about this park is that there is a trail leading down to the bottom of the cliff; when the tide's out, the entire area turns into an accessible collection of small rocky tidepools. A little further south is Sea Lion Caves. I haven't been there in years (it's pretty touristy) but if you've never seen it, it's probably worth the stop. The entrance/gift shop is at the top of a steep cliff (along Hwy 101, which hugs the cliff). There's a viewpoint here with telescopes and such for viewing the groups of sea lions that bask on the rocks below. You can take an elevator down into a large cave inside the cliff; in the winter the sea lions live in the cave. For about twenty miles, from Florence south, there's tons of sand dunes and rhododendrons. Probably the most worthwhile stop (my opinion) on the coast is just south of Florence at Jesse M. Honeyman Memorial State Park. Your kids will love this place. The park has excellent camp sites and facilities. The day use area is at the base of the dunes, as well as on a small lake in which you can swim. You can even slide/run/whatever down the dunes into the water. Throughout the park are various trails, many of which lead up onto the dunes. The entire park is set among large fir trees, absolutely humongous rhododendrons, and native salal plants. You can hike across the dunes to the beach -- it's ~1.5, maybe 2 miles. Just south of the park are a couple of places that offer dune buggy rides, rent out small, fast dune vehicles (I don't know what they call them), and, the last time I was there, there was even a guy called "Lawrence of Florence" renting camels. There are also some lakes in the area, if you're into fishing or windsurfing. I shouldn't leave out Central Oregon. If you've decided to take the coast route, you'll probably have a hard time working in a trip to the central or south central part of the state, but just in case ... The Three Sisters area (in the Cascades just west of Bend) is a great place to visit, especially if you like to fish/hike/backpack/mountain climb. One nice route is Century Drive, the 100-mile loop highway that starts in Bend, heads toward Mt. Bachelor, goes past Elk lake et al., and rejoins highway 97. Sunriver, about 15 miles south of Bend, is a really nice place to stay; so is Inn of the 7th Mountain (on the road up to Bachelor). I think that the summit chair at Bachelor is still running in the summer for sightseers who want a view from the top (not certain, though). The entire area is pretty volcanic. There are lots of places with lava fields, cinder cones, and such; Lava River Caves, about ten miles south of Bend on 97, is an interesting 2 mile walk through an old underground lava tube. One of the best sights in the southern portion of the state is Crater Lake. It's also the only National Park in Oregon. There's plenty of camping nearby, or you can stay in nearby Klamath Falls. A lot of people like the Rogue River area, which stretches more or less from near Crater Lake west through Grants Pass to the coast just north of the California border. Jet boat rides up the river are pretty popular. I know there's a lot of stuff I've left out, but my fingers are getting tired. Hope this helps you out somewhat. bill frolik hp-pcd!bill (corvallis, oregon)