Road trip for family of five. Need top 5 places to visit in OR. (Portland: houses, shop)

[Kaligirl]

ROAD TRIP...Please Help: I need to know your Top 5 (or so) fun places to visit your great state. We will be traveling by car and have three kids, ages 11, 8, and 6. Might be bringing the dog too.

Any good ideas of the "must sees". We love all types of things indoor and outdoor, nature, adventure, etc..... Plan to travel, end of July - beginning of August. We are starting from southern CA and trying to see parts of NV, UT, ID, MT, OR (probably Eastern heading south) and Northern CA.

And yes, I know it's crazy! hee hee
Thank you!

[Rob Allen]

Crater Lake comes to mind first.

Then the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.

Something along the Rogue River would probably be fun.

Ditto the southern coast - Brookings, Gold Beach, etc. Between the ocean and the redwoods, you should be able to have some fun.

I didn't get into anything in the Willamette Valley; not sure if you're going to be going that far north/west.

[Neal2009]

Since you will be coming from the east and heading south, you probably wont see what I consider my top 5 in the state of Oregon, but there are still some pretty fantastic places along that route.

1.) Start in the very eastern part of Oregon near the Idaho border and visit Hells Canyon. It is one of the deepest canyons in the world. I personally havent been there but have heard great things about it.

2.) Head northwest to Joseph Oregon and vist Wallowa lake. It is a beautiful lake surrounded by alpine lookking mountains to which there is a tram that takes you to an amazing overlook of the lake, mountains and beautiful eastern Oregon countryside. The town is also supposed to be very nice with many bed and breakfasts.

3.) From here head southwest to Central Oregon to the Bend area. About 30 miles outside of Bend is Smith Rock, one of the most underrated places in Oregon. I can barely describe this place, but it would remind you much more of Arizona and southern Utah than Oregon. It is a rock climbers paradise and there are some great trails that lead to the top of the rock which have breathtaking views of Mt. Jefferson and the Three Sisters.

4.) Bend-A great tourist town with lots of outdoor recreation. Lots of surrounding volcanoes, hiking trails and skiing in the winter.

5.) Crater Lake--This one is a no brainer if you are coming to Oregon. Late July to early August is the perfect time to visit this national park as the water is supposed to be very blue during this time and you can expect clear skies.

Hope this helps. Too bad you arent coming to the Wilamette Valley or to the coast, but I still think you will see plenty of beautiful attractions during your trip.

[mamh]

The willamette valley is a must,try all the fruit stands..Visit oregon gardens in silverton the puppy is welcome..
Even things there for the kids to see and do..
Have a great trip

[Nina-in-Ashland]

Good for you! This reminds me of the trips my parents would make with the 5 of us kids when I was young, stuffing us all in the stationwagon and heading west from Maryland for 2-3 weeks. Can't say that we fully appreciated it at the time, of course, but we made great memories that we definitely appreciate now that we are adults. Drive safe & hope you have a great time!
P.S. Be sure to see Crater Lake and if you can stop off in Bend, do so!

[Silverfall]

If you are coming from the east then I agree hit Bend and Smith Rock. You don't say how long you plan to stay but the Metolius River is beautiful and there is a fish hatchery there which your 6 and 8 year old will think is cool.

They have family rafting trips down the McKenzie River and maybe the Deschutes.

Crater Lake is, agreed, a no brainer. Not sure I'd take young kids to the Shakespeare festival, but that depends on their temperament. My kids wouldn't make it.

You can also consider hitting the coast towards Florence and the Oregon Dunes, or head to Bandon which is a cute little town with some gorgeous rocks in the Ocean.

If you head into the valley, Silverfalls State Park is fabulous for kids. It's a gorgeous park with 10 waterfalls in it. But for the sanity of your kids, I probably wouldn't head this way. I would do Bend to Crater Lake.

That's a lot of territory to cover!

[seashelly]

You just HAVE to go up and inside one of our Lighthouses. Since you're driving into Oregon from California, the Cape Blanco Lighthouse (Port Orford) is an awesome Lighthouse to check out or stop a little further North aong 101 in Bandon (Bullards Beach) and visit the little cute Coquille River Lighthouse - someone is almost always there to give tours. Have fun on your trip!

[Melissa E]

I say Astoria - home of the Goonies =) - it's an awesome little town and you can check to see if anything is going on at the time. Also, the Shakespear Festivle is really good .. but I don't know. It kindof bored me watching the music man just cause the story is so old fashioned. I like old fashioned, but not that .... I don't know ... you can watch clips of that at their website and decide for youself. I say Astoria!! You can drive across the huge astoria-megler bridge and be to washington. Downtown Portland is really awesome .. especially the Saturday market they have, which is the nation's largest, as I understand it.

[Melissa E]

oh yea there is a train that gives tours of the mount hood area i believe. we wanted to go but it was closed the day we went. it sounds really cool ... =) do a google search, or wait here it is Mount Hood Railroad - excursion trains (http://www.mthoodrr.com/excursions.htm - broken link). hope u had fun! we absolutely loved our recent oregon vacation. =)

[Melissa E]

one more thing ... on your way to astoria if you go, you will pass st helens - a small town where parts of the movie twilight was filmed ... it's a pretty cool little town, imo, and there is a resturaunt there on the corner downtown (across from that hollywood/or beverly hills little costume, ect. shop) it's really good! forgot the name of it.