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06-23-2009, 01:05 AM
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jun 2009
2 posts, read 1,141 times
Reputation: 10
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Oregon Road Trip (Please provide feedback)
I am planning a family road-trip (Four adults and one 4-year old kid) to Oregon from the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's my plan - would you please tell me if this sounds reasonable and do-able?
Day 1: (Driving up from California)
Visit Burney Falls; drive to Medford (OR), stay the night in Medford
Day 2: (Crater Lake)
Drive from Medford to Crater Lake; spend time at Crater Lake - Rim Drive. (No boat tour.)
Drive to Bend, OR.
How is the Bend TO Mt. Hood road? Scenic?
Day 3: (Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge - part 1)
Drive from Bend to Mt.Hood/Columbia River Gorge area. Cover as much as possible. Stay the night near Columbia River Gorge.
Day 4: (Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge - part 2)
More Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge. Stay the night nearby.
Day 5: Portland/Silver Falls [CAN USE SOME SUGGESTIONS]
Local Portland area sight-seeing. Stay the night nearby.
Day 6: Willamette Valley
Visit Willamette Valley - stay the night nearby.
Day 7: Newport/Coast. [CAN USE SOME SUGGESTIONS]
Drive to Newport and nearby attractions - drive along the coast. Stay the night somewhere in Southern Oregon? (SUGGESTIONS PLEASE - which city?)
Day 8: Drive back home
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06-23-2009, 09:09 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Aug 2008
384 posts, read 254,483 times
Reputation: 172
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Only 1 day at the coast?? That doesn't do it justice. However Mt. Hood and Columbia Gorge can be done in about a day if you're just sightseeing. I'd do something like the following.
Day 1-3: SF to Astoria or Seaside via Hwy 101. (see the Redwoods and the OR Coast)
Day 4-6: Portland/Columbia Gorge/Mt. Hood
Day 7: Bend/Crater Lake
Day 8: Back to SF via I-5
That's still pretty rushed to do anything more then look out the window. If you want to truly experience these areas (ex: fishing, hiking, camping, sightseeing, boating, shopping, etc, etc) then you need to narrow your focus.
Last edited by davefr; 06-23-2009 at 09:26 AM..
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06-23-2009, 10:37 AM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: N. Cal
774 posts, read 326,649 times
Reputation: 410
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I like Davefr's suggestion personally.
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06-23-2009, 10:37 AM
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M. D. Vaden of Oregon
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Join Date: Sep 2006
Location: Beaverton, Oregon
655 posts, read 646,419 times
Reputation: 207
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Unless you are going to stop at a lot of streams, looks like a road trip that may have bored all of our kids when each was 4 years old. They could have gone bonkers with so much drive time. But with ingenuity, you can add some interest.
Guessing you are coming up I _5 since Oregon Caves is not on the list.
If you stop several times each day at secondary spots for the child, sounds like the plan would work for everybody, although it would be more of a sightseeing tour with a few short leg-strethes.
All of you, would probably like the "Avenue of the Giant Boulders" as well as the Rogue River Gorge on the way to Crater Lake. Not very much walking.
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06-23-2009, 10:47 AM
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Real Estate Agent
Status:
"Thinking about getting motivated to work on a project..."
(set 11 hours ago)
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Salem, OR
4,347 posts, read 2,623,345 times
Reputation: 1618
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I can't imagine coming to visit Oregon and not actually experiencing Oregon. I would either do the Coast to Portland route for the entire trip, or do Crater Lake to Bend trip. Pick a side of the state and stick to it. Don't try to cover the entire state like that.
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06-23-2009, 10:50 AM
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Crankier than average
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Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Fort Klamath, OR
1,788 posts, read 1,628,269 times
Reputation: 874
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Your trip has you spending about 75% of your time in a car. 4 adults and a small child, cooped up in a car for that long, is going to get OLD, no matter how scenic the view.
I'd cut the trip back to head up to Portland via I-5 for the first day, stay a day in the city and poke around, do the Mt Hood/Hood River/Columbia Gorge route on the third day, head out to the coast on the fourth day. The road at the coast is SLOW, especially in the summer - pick a stretch of coast to visit.
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06-23-2009, 05:51 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Nov 2008
144 posts, read 85,994 times
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Over Memorial Day weekend I covered a good portion of the state in about 3 days with some friends. We went from Portland to the Bend/Painted Hills area on day 1. Day 2 we did Crater lake and then to the coast. Day 3 was the coast back up to Portland.
Judging from this trip I can say that although I am happy to have seen a good portion of the state, I was seeing it all through rushed and tired eyes due to driving and trying to force everything in to a very small amount of time. Concentrate on one or two parts of the state instead of spending 50 percent of the time driving, stopping, taking some pictures and then driving again.
One could spend weeks alone exploring the Oregon coast, this is definetly worth at least a couple of days. Plus the Portland, Columbia River Gorge, Mt Hood area, all within 90 minutes of each other could easily take you a couple of days to explore, the same applies for the other areas you mentioned.
I hope you take the advice of the people on this board and enjoy one of this nations most beautiful states in a wiser way.
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06-24-2009, 05:40 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Fresno, CA
266 posts, read 131,876 times
Reputation: 281
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I would:
Day 1- Get a 6am start the first day and sharing driving go directly to Portland.
(Stop for a picnic lunch at the Railroad Motel just off I-5 up near Dunsmuir on the way.)
Day 2- Drive east from Portland along the Columbia River Gorge to Multnomah Falls.
Go back through Portland and drive to Astoria for the night.
Stay at the Crest Motel. Great view of the mouth of the Columbia 
Day 3 on- Dawdle along the coast at your leisure. Relax. Enjoy and take it easy .
If you have time left, Ferndale and Mendocino back in CA are nice for short stopovers.
I would save Burney Falls, Crater Lake and Bend for another trip.
Just me.  |
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06-24-2009, 07:21 PM
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Senior Member
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Join Date: May 2006
976 posts, read 1,017,952 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BayAreaDad
I am planning a family road-trip (Four adults and one 4-year old kid) to Oregon from the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's my plan - would you please tell me if this sounds reasonable and do-able?
Day 1: (Driving up from California)
Visit Burney Falls; drive to Medford (OR), stay the night in Medford
Day 2: (Crater Lake)
Drive from Medford to Crater Lake; spend time at Crater Lake - Rim Drive. (No boat tour.)
Drive to Bend, OR.
How is the Bend TO Mt. Hood road? Scenic?
Day 3: (Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge - part 1)
Drive from Bend to Mt.Hood/Columbia River Gorge area. Cover as much as possible. Stay the night near Columbia River Gorge.
Day 4: (Mt Hood and Columbia River Gorge - part 2)
More Mt. Hood and Columbia River Gorge. Stay the night nearby.
Day 5: Portland/Silver Falls [CAN USE SOME SUGGESTIONS]
Local Portland area sight-seeing. Stay the night nearby.
Day 6: Willamette Valley
Visit Willamette Valley - stay the night nearby.
Day 7: Newport/Coast. [CAN USE SOME SUGGESTIONS]
Drive to Newport and nearby attractions - drive along the coast. Stay the night somewhere in Southern Oregon? (SUGGESTIONS PLEASE - which city?)
Day 8: Drive back home
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I would save your money and just get a good Oregon travel video. The DVD "Oregon: A Tribute" has most of the same scenes that would be whizzing by your windshield on the if-this-is-Thursday-it-must-be-Portland itinerary outlined above.
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06-24-2009, 09:32 PM
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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jun 2009
2 posts, read 1,141 times
Reputation: 10
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LOL @ Steve97415.
Anyway - thanks to the input from all of you, I am going to make modifications to my itinerary and really try to enjoy my vacation.
Thanks, everyone!
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