Rogue River fun
Our first stop in Oregon was Medford near the Rogue River recreational area. While there we took a jet boat excursion out of Grants Pass. We zoomed up the river 16 miles into Hellgate Canyon where scenes of the movie River Wild were filmed, doing thrilling spins along the way. We sat in the front row and were somewhat protected by the windshield, but everyone got wet. What a blast!
Crater Lake
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the U.S., and is a vibrant blue. However, smoke from nearby wildfires unfortunately obscured our view of the lake. The scenic drive from Roseburg to Crater Lake along the Umpqua Rogue rivers made up for it though.
Oregon Coast
The Oregon coast has so much to offer – cooler weather, beautiful giant evergreen trees and great beaches. The beach at Cape Lookout was extra special – we let the dogs off the leash and Monty zoomed up and down the beach chasing shore birds and splashing in the surf. Allie tried to keep up with him, but he was just too fast. Lexi did her thing – just sat and watched.
We also went to Cannon Beach, which we really liked. The town is cute and the beach was very wide. The tide was out while we were there, so the dogs romped in the shallow water and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Tillamook Creamery
Donya and I had discovered and fallen in love with Tillamook ice cream, so we were really excited when we learned that they had a factory that we could tour. We drove to Tillamook and as we approached the factory, we were shocked to see that the huge parking lot was jammed packed with cars. Evidently this is a very popular tourist stop. Upstairs at the visitor’s center we followed signs that explained the cheese making process and watched factory workers below us cutting and packaging blocks of cheese. We tasted several kinds of cheese before going downstairs to the store where we bought packages of smoked and white cheddar. On our way back to the RV park we stopped to buy a carton of salted caramel Tillamook ice cream – delicious!
Oregon Wineries
The Willamette Valley near Portland contains hundreds of wineries, producing mainly pinot noirs. We did wine tasting at two vineyards – Erath and Alexana. Alexana is the sister winery of Revana in Napa, which was recommended by Thomas Arvid’s assistant. Although we enjoyed two of the pinots, we didn’t buy any wine.
