My most recent blog post described our multi-modal travel to Oregon and back – by airplane, automobile, and train – during June of 2024. That post focused primarily on the modes of travel involved, but I pledged to add another post describing the beautiful places we visited during the automobile portion of the trip. True to my word, here it is.
The map below shows the main places we visited in Oregon and northernmost California. Brief descriptions of these points of interest are provided below.
Crater Lake National Park, OR: On our second day in Oregon, in-laws Andy and Barb drove us to visit Crater Lake and served as our tour guides, since they had been there several times before. It was my first visit and Pat’s second, becoming the 39th National Park that we have visited together. I had seen pictures of the lake, but that had not prepared me for the beauty of the place. I’ve included some photos I took myself, but they also fail to do justice to this magnificent national treasure.
Crater Lake was formed when a massive eruption 7,700 years ago decimated a mountain peak and created in its place a deep basin. Centuries of rain and snow filled the basin, creating the deepest lake in the United States (1,943 feet at its deepest point) with water of stunning color and clarity. The lake is 6 miles across at its widest point and 4.5 miles across at its narrowest and contains 4.9 trillion gallons of water. The lake level is maintained by precipitation, with rain and melted snow averaging 5.5 ft annually. The National Park is open year-round, but the rim road is typically closed from mid-October to late June, with annual snowfall accumulations ranging from 25 to 50 feet over the past five years. The road was still closed during our visit, so we were unable to drive all the way around it, but we did walk along the rim trail near the Visitor Center to experience a multitude of amazing views. Since a picture is said to be worth 10,000 words, here are 60,000 eliminated words for your viewing enjoyment.
Boy Scout Tree Trail, Crescent City, CA: After two days staying in Medford, OR, including our visit to Crater Lake, we drove along an amazing road, US Highway 199, that wound its way steeply up and down and around a multitude of sharp curves as it traversed the mountains toward Crescent City, CA. As we neared Crescent City, we got off the main highway to take small, forest roads into the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. The most amazing of these was called Howland Hill Road, a mere dirt path that wound its way through giant redwood trees. We stopped at the Boy Scout Tree Trailhead and walked about a mile and a half into the forest to admire magnificent trees and beautiful wildflowers. Again, the pictures can not truly capture the immensity of these ancient trees, but I’ll once again dispense with 60,000 words.
Crescent City Breakwater: After our walk in the woods, feeling quite puny and insignificant compared to the massive trees, we again drove along Howland Hill Road until it emerged from the forest and morphed into a city street. Once in Crescent City itself, we had a nice lunch at SeaQuake Brewing (I had clam chowder and a hearty stout) before taking a short walk to the nearby breakwater. This structure is known for its unusual design, employing concrete structures called tetrapods, designed by the US Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s to serve as protection against the heavy ocean waves that frequently impinge on the pier. I found these tetrapods fascinating, given my nerdy engineer curiosity, so I’m calling this a point of interest even though others may not be overly impressed.
Port Orford Heads State Park, Port Orford, OR: As I explained in Part 1, visiting this location was the underlying purpose of the whole Oregon excursion – to visit the site where our nephew, Steve, and his wife, Kelci, were married in a quiet ceremony last year, so we could celebrate the event with them post facto. The assembled relatives all trooped along a lovely walking path to the overlook where the nuptials took place and gave the newlyweds our collective congratulations. As we stood looking out at the surroundings, I couldn’t resist the urge to say a few words of purported wisdom to the happy couple. Here’s what I came up with:
“I’m very happy that you chose such a beautiful place to say your wedding vows, because it can serve as a symbol of your future life together. I say this because there is nothing in the world more beautiful than the love shared between life partners.”
Okay, maybe a bit sappy, but there you have it. Now for some more word-saving photos.
Battle Rock Wayside, Port Orford, OR: After our visit to the State Park, we drove to the nearby town of Port Orford for a great lunch at a place called The Crazy Norwegian’s Fish and Chips and then walked to a nice little beachside park called the Battle Rock Wayside. While the name comes from one of the many unfortunate moments in American history (a battle between white settlers and indigenous people who were being unceremoniously expelled from their supposed treaty lands), it was actually a very beautiful place, and we spent some time roaming the beach and enjoying the scenic overlooks.
Prehistoric Gardens, Gold Beach, OR: Calling this one a point of interest is a bit of a stretch. It’s a tourist attraction featuring 23 life-sized sculptures of dinosaurs set among the lush foliage of the area’s temperate rainforest. The gardens are the work of an amateur paleontologist in the 1950s, but I presume it’s mainly the sort of place people stop to entertain their kids. Unfortunately for our little tour group, it did include one big kid – me. So, we had to make a quick stop on the way back from Port Orford so I could pose with the big T-Rex that’s visible from the highway. We didn’t actually go into the gardens, though, so I can’t really give an opinion on whether or not it’s a worthwhile stop.
Ophir Beach Wayside, Gold Beach, OR: On our last day before heading off to catch the train in Portland, we visited one of the many nice waysides along US Highway 101. Ophir Beach is a long, sandy beach divided by a small creek that emerges from the hillside area east of the highway. We enjoyed beautiful views of the ocean and the sandy hills as well as interesting driftwood and other objects strewn along the sand.
Miscellaneous: Finally, to round out this narrative, I have a couple more photos I want to share from other places we passed by during the trip.
OK, that’s it for this installment of my travel blog. Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for our next adventure, coming in October of 2024.
Dave Saari 