Astoria

Garry and I are making ourselves comfortable in front of a cosy gas fireplace in our hotel room. We've booked ourselves into the Cannery Pier Hotel in Astoria.  It's located on the bank of the Columbia River, the largest river of the west coast of the entire Americas.

The view from our riverside room is spectacular! We look out across the broad reach of the mighty Columbia River. At this point, less than four miles from the Pacific Ocean the river's width exceeds two miles. As a result, massive sea-going ships are able to make their way up river as far as Portland, more than 60 miles inland. we've already seen two sail past our window.

The drive here was also a day of milestones. First, we clocked up 2,000 miles on the road. We're now closing in on 3,500 kms of driving. Second, it rained several times this afternoon as we drove towards Astoria. This is the firat time since arriving in te USA that we've had anything other than blue skies and sunshine (coastal fog not withstanding).

Portland

I’ve spent less than 24 hours in Portland until now.  Several years ago I briefly stopped here on a business trip while Garry flew on to Dallas, Texas where we had planned a vacation.  As a result, I saw very little of Portland, or its popular landmarks.  I recall the river and its many bridged but little else. 

Garry and I decided to base ourselves here for two nights as part of our West Coast road trip.  Originally it was simply a convenient midpoint between Crater Lake and Seattle.  However, we discovered there's plenty to admire about the city and its scenic location.

We arrived late on Friday after driving solidly for more than five hours from Crater Lake.  Our route took us north through the city of Bend and on past an elegant, snow-capped Mount Hood.  Our arrival at Mount Hood coincided with the region's annual Cascade to Coast fun run. Relay teams compete to run a route from Mount Hood to the Pacific Coast over a 12-hour period. 

As we drove towards Portland we found ourselves constantly passing runners, their supporters and race attendants along the highway. I must confess that Mount Hood proved a rather disappointing location. While the mountain is rather stunning, the township isn't. At one point I had  considered stopping here overnight rather than continuing on to Portland.  I'm glad we didn't.

On Saturday morning we drove into to town to soak up the atmosphere of the weekend market held along the banks of the Willamette River.  The markets get a prominent write up in every tourist reference.  Sadly, we found the market rather small and lacking character.  Ironically, we were more fascinated by the queue snaking out of Voodoo Doughnuts, another of the city’s iconic landmarks.  Voodoo sells all manner of sweet and savoury products including Maple Bacon favoured doughnuts.  We decided to give the queue a miss.

Instead we wandered through the old town and into the heart of downtown.  We discovered Macy’s Department Store was having a special one day sale.  Clothing already marked down up to 60% was being marked down an additional 25% if you agreed to donate $5 to a local charity.  It took very little maths to work out how much money we could save.  Needless to say both of us ended up spending hours at Macys buying an entire Summer wardrobe for a pittance.  For example, I grabbed a smart pair of Lacoste dress shorts for $11, marked down from an original retail price of $70

 With much of our sightseeing time consumed by shopping we decided to make our last stop of the day a little special.  We drove to Vista House located 30 miles out of town on a bluff overlooking the spectacular Columbia Gorge.  It was built in 1917 on one of the most beautiful scenic points on the original Columbia River Highway (a highway long since superseded by a non-descript interstate freeway).  The drive was worth every minute as the view was simply stunning.

Our final day in Portland actually saw us drive south out of town to McMinnville, home to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum.  I begged Garry to add this destination to our itinerary after learning that the infamous Spruce Goose was displayed here.  This aircraft, completed in 1947 under the personal instruction of Howard Hughes, is the largest ever built from wood.  At the time of its completion it was by far the world’s largest plane.

The Spruce Goose was decades ahead of its time.  This reality is brought into stark contrast by a small Douglas DC3 that sits under one of its wings.  At the time of its completion most commercial air passengers were still flying in these tiny aircraft.  It would be another 20 years before anything of a similar scale was built; that is, the Boeing 747.  It truly is an enormous aircraft.

The museum proved to be a pleasant surprise.  The complex consists of three spacious, light-filled, elegantly designed buildings.  Each contains cleverly designed exhibits that offer just the right level of detail to keep the most jaded visitor enthralled.  Even Garry had to admit that it was better than he’d expected.  This is high praise considering the number of similar venues I’ve reluctantly dragged him into over the years.

I was also excited to discover the original X-38 test vehicle on display.  This was originally developed as an emergency lifeboat for the International Space Station.  However, the entire project was cancelled in 2002 when space station construction over-runs gutted NASA’s annual budget.  Sadly, the 80% scale model on display was the only craft ever built.  It was used to test the X-38’s aero-dynamic characteristics. 

Images of Crater Lake

Without doubt the vivid blue vista of Crater Lake has been a real highlight of our road trip.  Here are just a few images of our all too brief visit.  The first two images above show a rock island on the lake's eastern shore called the Phantom Ship.  It's so named for the rocky crags said to resemble the sails of a tall mast ship.  The second island shown here is Watchman Island, the most prominent feature of Crater Lake.

I've also included a couple of panoramas that I've stiched together using an application called Autostitch.  Sadly, these barely do justice to the actual vista that literally wrapped around us as we stood on the rim of Crater Lake. Click on each panorama to bring up a more dramatic full screen image.

Finally, let me leave you with these two images.  The first is a friendly chipmunk that literally ran up to my feet during one outlook stop at Crater Lake.  The second shows the road leading east away from the National Park.  Crater Lake sits almost 7,000 feet above sea level.  As a result, all roads leading into the park progressively rise with every mile that passes.  The western entrance winds up through attractive river valleys while the eastern entrance crosses a broad plain of ancient volcanic ash that you can see in the final image.

 

A view you'll kill for

We've arrived at Crater Lake National Park. The view is everything you could imagine and then some. I literally gasped as we walked over the crater rim and the vibrant blue vista unfolded before us.

Furthermore, our 11th hour room reservation has exceeded expectations in spades! The room is spacious, sunny and contains one of the lodge's largest bathrooms. Even better, the lodge was able to secure us a reservation in its grand old dining room.

We're now relaxing by a log fire in the lodge's main hall sipping appropriately blue tinted cocktails. The fire is needed. Surprisingly we're 7,100 feet above sea level so the air is cool despite blue skies and sunshine.

Posted from my iPhone

The friendly train called Skunk

 

In 1956 National Geographic published an article about a scenic tourist train winding its way through the coastal Redwood forests of northern California. It described a local anecdote about the smell of the rail company's first petrol driven railcars. These fossil fuelled vehicles had replaced steam trains on the line in 1921 but according to local they came with a distinctly unpleasant oder. Shortly after this article appeared the rail company formally renamed itself the Skunk Train.

 It's an unusual rail journey crossing the coastal mountains between Fort Bragg on the Pacific Ocean and Willits, 40miles inland. Most trains coming from either terminal only travel halfway, stopping at Northspur, a remote redwood grove 21 miles from Fort Bragg. Garry and I caught one of these daily services this morning. We spent four delightful hours weaving our way through redwood forest and crossing tranquil mountain streams.

The train stopped at Northspur for 45 minutes, enough time for us to enjoy a light BBQ lunch and a cold beer under the shade of towering redwood trees. Sadly the route included only a handful of mature redwoods including one notable giant that's at least 1000 years old.

The railway was originally laid down in the early 20th Century by loggers keen to access a rich load of mature old growth trees lining the Noyo Canyon. Its location also reflected the fact that Fort Bragg had one of the region's few sheltered ports from which timber could be transported down the coast to build the city of San Francisco.

Posted from my iPhone

Location:Northspur, Fort Bragg

Road Trip!

We’ve got one heck of a road trip planned this month.  On Saturday Garry and I fly out for a three-week itinerary that takes us from Los Angeles to Seattle, via Yosemite National Park, Napa Valley and Crater Lake National Park.  Our vacation has been in planning since February.  Qantas was promoting a two-for-one sale on business class fare at time.  It didn’t take long to decide this was the perfect opportunity to undertake one of two road trips we’d often fantasized about.

Our first choice was a cross-country jaunt from Mount Rushmore in South Dakota to Seattle via Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park.  However, a little research revealed that this option was likely to cost several thousand more than a West Coast alternative.  It was also going to be a challenge to fit everything into a three-week period.

Our West Coast road trip begins with us collecting a car at LAX, then heading north to Malibu and on o Santa Barbara for a late leisurely lunch by the beach.  Our first night in the USA will be spent in Solvang.  This town was founded by Nordic immigrants resulting in a surprisingly European urban landscape.  From there we make our way to San Simeon.  It was made famous by Randolph Hearst who built a massive castle in foothills behind the town. Our final day on coastal Route One will take us north to Monterey Bay, the popular seaside playground of Bay Area residents. 

We’ll then head inland to spent three nights at Yosemite National Park, before moving on to spend two nights at a quaint B&B in the heart of Napa Valley.  With our first week under the belt we’ll then return to the coast, making our way as far north as Gold Beach in southern Oregon.  Our coastal route will take us through towering Redwood Forests, past beaches increasingly littered by flotsam from last year’s Japanese tsunami and over broad rivers sweeping down from the Cascade Mountains.

Our journey then turns inland again.  We stop for a night in Oregon vineyard cottage before making camp at Crater Lake National Park for two nights.  From here will head north again through the Cascade Mountains to Portland, before heading back to the coast for a night in Astoria.  This town sits at the mouth of the Columbia River, the largest river on the US West Coast.  We’ll finally reach Seattle on August 28 where we’ll spend 2.5 days soaking up the sights and sounds of the city that’s home for corporations as diverse as Starbucks, Boeing and Microsoft.

I've worked hard to ensure that each day's destination requires no more than three hours of driving, roughly 250 kms.  With a timely two day break in one location every 5-6 days on the road.  Our route has also been designed to ensure there's at least one memorable tourist highlight to experience every day.

Stay tuned for regular updates and plenty of fabulous photos!  Did I mention Garry’s applied for a points upgrade?  With a little luck we may find ourselves flying First Class across the Pacific.  Hooray!

UPDATE: 
Click here to read the first post from our vacation.  Then click on the newer post link to follow our journey north.