If you are planning on visiting Tri-Cities area of WA, the Lodge at Columbia Point is a great place to make an overnight stop. Lots of wineries nearby and lots of good food (we did our vaccine tourism to that area in April). When kids did sports and had tourneys in Eastern WA, we discovered Terra Blanca winery; nowadays, when we go to that area, we always stop by and grab lunch on their patio overlooking the valley below.
My gosh, Oregon is a big state! It’s almost 6 hours from Crater Lake to Steen Mountain.
One of the kids wants to join us for the middle week. Will fly into PDX on Monday. Tues and Wednesday will be in the lodge (!) at CL. On the next Sunday we need to be in the Gorge for an event. Thinking Bend, Trillium Lake/Mt Hood, Painted Hills.
Any hotel suggestions? The Steamboat Inn looks nice though I think we will stay in the Eugene area the first night.
I stayed at The Steamboat Inn two summers ago. I loved it! It’s right on the Umpqua river, which is stunning. Fantastic (expensive) food. Fly fishing heaven. Lovely gardens. There’s a large, comfy game room with plenty of games. Lots of gorgeous hiking in the area. The river is lovely to swim in. It is really isolated and the internet leaves a lot to be desired. If you MUST have internet 24/7, you will be disappointed. If you can live with spotty service, I highly recommend it and I think it’s a better Oregon experience than Eugene.
If you’re staying at Mt. Hood The Lodge at Government Camp is a nice alternative to Timberline. The rooms are bigger and more modern if you’ll have family. The best western is actually nice too. Of course Timberline is iconic and The Shining was filmed there. If a smaller room is ok or you can get more than one room, it would be fun. Redrum!
If you’re going to eat in Portland there are LOTS of choices. Canard is the sister restaurant to Le Pigeon. Everything Gabe Rucker touches is amazing. Eem is essentially a fusion between authentic thai and southern smoked meat with an innovative cocktail menu. Both are killing it right now.
Lodging in Portland, love Kennedy School! Other McMenamins are also great. Of course there are regular hotels too.
If you’re staying in Bend, I like The Riverhouse. There’s a McMenamins in town. I haven’t stayed yet, but every one of their properties is unique and interesting.
Along the Umpqua Hwy, Lemolo is our favorite falls. It’s off the beaten path.
Lastly, if you go to The Steens, drive the loop. You can see Bighorn Sheep and wild/feral (long running debate on the right term) horses. I saw both on my last solo trip out there. The Steens isn’t worth the trip unless you do. It’s a fairly underwhelming, flattish top massif, that only reveals how cool it really is once you’re “inside.”
Have fun!
If you are seafood lovers, there is (or at least was pre-covid) an oyster farm in Southern OR which had delicious oysters.
Ranier was lovely to visit when we were there in 2010.
Back again. The hotel I was going to stay in by The Gorge is book. Does anyone have a recommendation for a hotel in The Dalles?
Check out The Society across the River in Bingen, WA.
My niece got married in Stevenson Washington. The Skamadia Lodge was nice but very expensive (we had her luncheon there). The town is cute. We stayed in a motel (not a chain, locally owned) and it was fine for our purposes (which meant for sleeping and changing as we were busy at the wedding most of the time). There is a bridge that crosses Oregon to Washington, so lots of things to do on both sides. I think it is Hood River on the Oregon side and we went to a museum there and a festival with booths and food. My sister went to the lavender farm and really liked it.
Is the Coulee Dam worth a visit? Thanks
It’s a long way from Portland. The Bonneville dam is worth it. There are fish locks and interesting info about fish and the river.
This article recommends The Society Hotel or The Ruby June Inn. I haven’t stayed in either, so no opinion either way (we camp in our 5th wheel over at Maryhill State Park).
Grand Coulee Dam is interesting, but it’s way east. (Once upon a time that had a laser light show with narration about the history of the area and the dam.)
The wine tasting in the gorge area is fantastic.
Leaving today! Thanks for all of the help. Many of the hotels mentioned above are booked but I figured work around.
Hope the wildfires are not going to mess up your plans. Parts of WA are burning so bad Department of Natural Resources closed all campgrounds on DNR lands.
Trip report:
We spent the first 4 days in Portland catching up with some friends and saw our child’s new condo. Visited the International Rose Test Garden late in the day and parking was easy and the roses beautiful.
Hotel- Rivers Edge on the Wilamette River (walking distance to the condo)
Drove to Eugene for the night. La Quinta Inn. Next day drive to Crater Lake via the Umpqua River. Wow, the smoke and burned trees were impressive and so sad. Many of the waterfalls were closed but we were able to eat lunch at the Steamboat Inn and catch some of the later falls.
Crater Lake was wonderful. I found that rooms in the lodge become available at the last minute and I was able to get two lake view rooms for two nights. Very worth the cost though the rooms were hot at night and the food just so so. We hiked down to the lake and jumped in (oops I didn’t have my bathing suit so went in my skivvies, I’m old, nobody noticed), saw beautiful sunsets and sunrises.
Next to Bend. Stayed in the Residence Inn and at 1:15 am two hotel employees walked into our room with pillows and blankets and were as shocked to see us as we were to see them. Got a free room that night. Did white water rafting on the Deschutes which was fun. I’m not a beer drinker which is big there.
Then back to Portland with a stop at Hiyu Farm Wine lunch in the Gorge which was incredible and a lavender farm afterwards. This whole time our car rental had issues with starting so we swapped for a different car. After an hour on hold with road side assistance I still hadn’t gotten through. We finally got through to the local office. Not cool for road side assistance to not pick up
Then just the two of us drove up to Waterville WA where my grandmother grew up, across WA state to Spokane with a stop at the Coulee Dam. Next was the scenic drive around Coeur D’Alene then to Missoula MT, down into ID and Twin Falls, then to Boise and back to Portland. Mostly stayed at Marriotts within walking distance to the towns’ river walks.
It was a great trip. Thanks for the tips. Next we are planning two weeks along the Maine coast. Then I will have 7 more states to go to get to all 50.
Interested in reading your impressions of Couer d’Alene, Missoula, & Twin Falls.
I forgot, we also made it to Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park for the day prior to child’s ref eye back east
We only drove around Coeur D’Alene and didn’t stop to hike. There is a trail at the northern edge I wanted to do but my husband’s knee was bothering him. There are pretty views but the smoke obscured some of them.
Misoula has a vibrant downtown with a definite college town vibe. There was a concert along the river happening and people out on paddle boards. We only stayed one night so didn’t see a whole lot.
Twin Falls was interesting. We drove straight south from Missoula through some beautiful country. I was afraid the road would be too windy because I read that you drive by 9/12 of ID’s tallest peaks but we only drove over one mountain and then the road followed a river. Smoke obscured the mountains. We didn’t see any wildlife and the waitress in Salmon where we stopped for lunch said they were very high up in the mountains at that time of year. We drove through the Craters of the Moon National Site and it’s very interesting. There is a river walk in Twin Falls that is on top of the river, looking down 500 feet. I’m not great with heights so I stayed on the far side of the trail. There were lots of bike riders. The Perrine Bridge was amazing to see. People were setting up parachutes to jump off but we didn’t see anyone actually do it. Also lots of people kayaking and paddle boarding in the river. I would definitely go back to Twin Falls.
Boise also has a river walk and lots of people floating down in inner tubes. The gardens were open, the old prison was not. The state Capitol building was very pretty and I’d like to go back and see the interior (we were there on Sunday). I learned there is a large population of people from the Basque region with lots of restaurants but they were closed on Sunday. They have a big festival every 5 years like they do in Europe.
It’s very dry out there. I can see how fires go wild. It took some time to adjust back to the humidity and rain at home
I can’t remember what we were celebrating, but we stayed in the big suite at the Rivers Edge. It’s the room the Dalai Lama stayed in when he was in Portland. Slept in the same bed as His Holiness…got that goin’ for me.
That is a pretty cool fun fact. They told us the hotel is going to undergo renovations in 6 months.
I wouldn’t be going to Oregon now. The state has the lowest inventory of hospital beds in the country. The Delta variant is causing the hospitals to turn away anyone other than Covid or life or limb saving emergencies. And they are experiencing a shortage of nurses. Just FYI.
For further information see today’s LA Times article.