Travel Oregon: 5 Places to Visit
Some of my closest friends from college are from Oregon and ever since my first trip to visit them back in 2009, I have been absolutely smitten by the state. While New England will always be home, Oregon has completely stolen my heart. When we moved to California, I realized we were only a few hours from the border of Oregon and since Dustin had never been to Oregon, I convinced him to travel Oregon during Memorial Day weekend so I could show him all my favorite parts of the state. I love to road trip and when there is a long weekend, I think it’s waste to not be going somewhere! There is so much to experience in this life and I want to see as much of it as I can.
One of my favorite things about Oregon is how alive the state is. Everything is SO green (none of these pictures are edited besides the one above). The people may be a little weirdy, but they are, for the most part, welcoming and kind. And Oregon is EXTREMELY dog friendly! We didn’t take Rosie with us on this trip because we were going to be driving a ton, but after seeing how many places were dog friendly, we will definitely take her next time. Dustin and I got to experience so many things in Oregon in one short weekend; places that I would recommend to anyone that they have to see if they are going to Oregon.
1. Multnomah Falls. One of the most iconic waterfalls in Oregon, this waterfall is located about 40 minutes outside of Portland in the Columbia River gorge. It has really nice paved walkways and is handicapped accessible. You can take about 30 minutes to walk around, get up to the bridge and peruse the gift shop. It’s gorgeous!
2. Oneonta Gorge. This is literally the most beautiful place I have ever seen; to the point that Dustin and I were both almost in tears at the sheer beauty of it. This is just down the road from Multnomah Falls and a bit harder to hike. BE PREPARED (we weren’t) to get wet. Wear water shoes and a bathing suit! You literally hike through the gorge in the river. Most of it is shallow, but there was one part that got up to our knees and another part that reached up to our ribs. There is about a 10-foot high log jam at the beginning of the gorge that you have to climb over, which was so scary, but Dustin helped me every step of the way (and I climbed on my butt the whole time. It’s fun to take back small things that cancer has taken away from me, like getting over a scary log jam!)
3. Ecola State Park. This is about 2 hours outside of Portland on the coast. It’s where they filmed the Goonies! You feel like you are driving through a rainforest to get to the coast, but it’s beautiful. There are two look out options; one gives you a perfect view of Haystack Rock and the other one is a beautiful rocky beach where the Goonies was filmed. You can bring a picnic lunch, watch the surfers and look for sand dollars. This is one of my favorite places to go in Oregon, because I love the way the ocean makes me feel; small, but like I count for something anyway.
4. Seaside. Seaside, Oregon is a super cute beach town right outside Astoria. It has a ton of small shops, seafood, candy stores and an arcade! We got fresh fish and chips from The Crabby Oyster and ate dinner at a delicious Irish restaurant called McKowen’s. There is a candy store that had over 100 flavors of saltwater taffy and walked along the promenade in the sunshine. You could easily spend a few days here, if you wanted!
5. Tillamook. We drove along the Oregon Coast Highway from Seaside to Tillamook and it was beautiful. At Tillamook, we spent a whole afternoon touring the cheese factory! We got to see how the cheese was made, sample a ton of different kinds, eat grilled cheese sandwiches and get Tillamook icecream cones. It was delicious and fun experience! Definitely worth the stop for the cheese and ice cream!
We had the best trip and it was so fun to watch Dustin experience Oregon for the first time. He was blown away at all of the beautiful places we got to see! We spent a day in Portland, as well, but there is so much to that city that it’s should have it’s own blog post. Oregon is so alive and it makes me feel alive being there and so grateful for a second chance at life to see it!
Have you been to Oregon? Have you seen these places? What other places have you been to? We want to go back before we move away from California!
