Explore The Pacific Northwest
For nineteenth-century pioneers on the arduous Oregon Trail, the rich and fertile Willamette Valley was the promised land of Oregon (OR-uh-gun), and it’s still the heart of the state’s social, political and cultural life. Portland, the biggest city, is centralized and walkable, with a cosy European feel; Salem, the state capital, maintains a small-town air; and Eugene is a likeable college community.
East of Portland, waterfalls cascade down mossy cliffs along the beautiful Columbia River Gorge, south of which looms the imposing silhouette of Mount Hood. Central Oregon is based around the popular recreation hub of Bend, while further south around Grants Pass, the major rivers carve steep gorges and make for some excellent whitewater rafting, and the liberal hamlet of Ashland offers a splash of culture with its annual Shakespeare Festival.
The Oregon Coast’s most northerly town, Astoria, enjoys a magnificent setting strewn with imposing Victorian homes, while farther south, wide expanses of pristine sand are broken by jagged black monoliths, and pale lighthouses look out from stark headlands over sheltered coves. Finally, the rugged deserts and lava fields of Eastern Oregon are much more remote, and some small towns still celebrate their cowboy roots with annual rodeos.
Read More-
Portland
Portland
With few major attractions and an unpretentious bohemian flavour, PORTLAND makes for an excellent spot to slow down and relax in the wealth of good diners, microbreweries, clubs and coffeehouses. Though sporting grand Beaux Arts architecture, Portland has a small-city feel thanks to a walkable urban core of short city blocks and attractions that cluster close together. The city is also internationally famous for its bicycling culture, with two-wheeled commuting a rising trend and major streets losing their auto lanes to make way for more prominent bike lanes.
The city was named after Portland, Maine, following a coin toss between its two East Coast founders in 1845 (“Boston” was the other option). Its location on the Willamette River, just 78 miles from the Pacific, made it a perfect lumber and trading port, and it grew quickly, replacing its clapboard houses with ornate facades and Gothic gables. Though the heroic age of timber is long gone, as a reminder of that era, the town’s quirky downtown “Benson Bubblers” – four-headed drinking fountains funded by a lumber baron – are constantly flowing.
-
Bend
Bend
BEND is the most useful base for visiting central Oregon, giving access to prime outdoor activities, and packed with good restaurants, microbreweries and sports shops. Bracketing the west side of downtown along the river, Drake Park is a popular half-mile stretch with pleasant paths, an outdoor stage and a setting near fetching Mirror Pond, the most picturesque sight in the city. Beyond recreation, the area’s main attraction is the High Desert Museum, 59800 US-97 (daily: May–Oct 9am–5pm, $15; Nov–March 10am–4pm, $10; w www.highdesertmuseum.org), a fascinating collection of artefacts from Native American and pioneer history, along with displays of regional flora and fauna – river otters, porcupines and so forth – and a reconstructed pioneer homestead and sawmill. There are panoramic views over Bend and the Cascades from Pilot Butte, the remains of a small volcano a mile east of downtown off US-20; you can drive or walk to the top. Also worth a visit is Smith Rock, about 25 miles north (day use $5, primitive camping $5; w www.smithrock.com), a state park whose towering basalt cliffs draw thousands of rock climbers; the deep gorge also creates an ideal landscape for horseback riding, cycling and hiking.
-
Hells Canyon
Hells Canyon
East of Joseph, marking the Idaho border, the Snake River has cut the deepest chasm on the continent – Hells Canyon, a 130-mile-long gorge that’s a thousand feet deeper than the Grand Canyon, though it doesn’t really look it, since it spreads out wider and lacks the sheer cliffs of its Arizona counterpart. With the Seven Devils mountains rising above it, the area is preserved as Hells Canyon National Recreation Area (day pass $5; w www.fs.fed.us/hellscanyon), where otters, mink and elk live, along with rattlesnakes, black bears and mountain lions. Motor vehicles are banned in much of the canyon, so you can only explore by foot or on horseback. Many of the forest roads that skirt the area are closed by snow much of the year. When open, if you intend to use them, first check with the rangers in Enterprise, 88401 Hwy-82 (t 541/426-5546), or Baker City, 1550 Dewey Ave (t 541/523-6391). Also available is information on the US Forest Service’s twenty scattered primitive campgrounds (first-come, first-served; free or $5) – eleven in Oregon, nine in Idaho.
-
The Oregon Trail
The Oregon Trail
Between the 1840s and 1870s, more than a quarter of a million Americans journeyed by wagon train from the Midwest on the Oregon Trail, fuelled by an idea of “Manifest Destiny” to see their country expand from coast to coast, regardless of who or what might be in the way. The first migrants were further inspired by the missionaries who went west to try to Christianize Native Americans in the 1830s, and who sent back glowing reports of the region’s temperate climate, fertile soil, dense forests, fish-rich rivers and absence of malaria.
In spring 1843, more than a thousand would-be migrants gathered at Independence and Westport on the banks of the Missouri, preparing for the “Great Migration”. Nearly all were experienced farmers, using ox-pulled wagons with flimsy canvas roofs to transport supplies and often walking alongside their vehicles, instead of riding and adding extra weight to them, as Hollywood would have it.
Traversing almost two thousand miles, the migrants forced their wagons across pristine rivers, forests and mountains, pausing at the occasional army fort or missionary station to recuperate. After three months on the trail, they arrived at what is now the town of The Dalles. From here the group faced an uneasy choice before reaching the lush Willamette Valley just beyond: build rafts and risk the treacherous currents and whirlpools of the Columbia River or take the equally perilous Barlow Road around Mount Hood, notorious for its swiftly changing weather and steep hillsides.
Over the next thirty years, fifty thousand more settlers arrived in the Willamette Valley, with others moving into California and (what would become) Washington State. Along with helping Oregon to become a state in 1859, the migration spawned a cottage industry of specialist suppliers and wagon-builders. Inevitably, except for some isolated wagon-wheel ruts here and there, there are few surviving signs of the migrants, other than the considerable lore of their journey that continues to this day.
