Mike's Virtual Vacation

Oregon

crater lake

In the summer of 1996, we drove through Oregon coming from Washington on our way to California, Portland is about a three hour drive from Seattle. We didn't stop at Mt. St. Helens on the way down because it was raining and we suddenly realized that it would be a pain to drive all the way down the coast within such a short timeframe. Our original plans were to camp another night up in the Olympic Peninsula, but there was that rain thing again. So it was late afternoon as we pulled into Portland. We found a Super 8 near the airport and spent the night in confort. Showers, beds, watching "The Little Giants" on TV, and a breakfast cooked for us in the morning. It wasn't really necessary, but considering the opposite - camping in the rain (and it rained all night long) and cold, it was great. Good call by Julie.

The next day was beautiful outside so we set out towards Mt. Hood and the Columbian River Gorge. Our tour of these destinations was solely from our car so we really didn't get to experience anything here. It definitely looked like it merited a return trip someday. The Gorge was awe-inspiring with it's massiveness and beauty. It was like the Mississippi but with huge cliffs surrounding the river. It was snowing up on Mt. Hood even though it was quite warm when we left Portland (70s) but not a big deal. After Mt Hood, we decided to head south through central Oregon. Big mistake. It would've been worth it to drive all the way back to the coast and drive down 101 but we didn't know that at the time. Central Oregon is a wasteland sort of like Arizona. We crosses a neat river gorge that must've been a couple feet straight down. It was the wierdest thing. We were driving along in totally flat terrain when we came to a bridge. When we drove over it, it was like "Wow!".

Later that day we finally made it to Crater Lake. I don't remember how long it took but I would say in the neighborhood of 5 hours. Another thing that would've been nice to know is that there aren't any, ANY, gas stations from Mt. Hood going south. We burned through over 3/4 of a tank of gas on our Ford Taurus rental and were starting to get nervous when we hit a small gas station out in the middle of nowhere. There were a lot of cars filling up there. Crater Lake was awesome. Once again the terrain surrounding wasn't very inspiring, but once we made it the lake and saw the sky-blue water and the volcano cone in the middle of the lake, it was satisfying. Snow was all around up near the top but disappeared quickly when going down. The west side of the peak was much more rugged with plenty of trees. We found an awesome campgound near a stream and spent the night there. One of the benefits of camping during midweek is that the campgrounds are mostly empty. We had our pick of sites so we chose one right on the water's edge, a short distance from rough whitewaters. The sound was soothing and the temperature comfortable as we relaxed there. The next day was another drive down into California so we enjoyed ourselves here. Oregon in one day is an injustice to the beauty of the state, but our timetable was just too tight. Next time will be different.

Following are links to many of the places we visited as well as a few others that we would have liked to have seen. Crater Lake, which is in southern Oregon, is a place I would definitely recommend to visit.