Trip duration: 12 days, July 2021
Aaaaaaah! Finally I have material to write about.
After Amit shut down my rather terrible idea of traveling to Utah in the middle of the summer, we finally agreed upon planning a road trip to the Pacific Northwest. So we did our research, booked an SUV, made reservations at various hotels... and we were off!
Itinerary
This is what our high level itinerary looked like. I will dive deeper into certain legs in separate posts
Day 1: Home (Bay Area) -> Redding, CA
Day 2: Redding -> Eugene, OR
Day 3: Eugene -> Hoodsport, WA (Olympic National Park Staircase area)
Day 4: Hoodsport -> Port Angeles, WA (Olympic National Park)
Day 5: Port Angeles, WA (Olympic National Park)
Day 6: Port Angeles, WA (Olympic National Park)
Day 7: Port Angeles, WA -> Portland, OR
Day 8: Portland -> Bend, OR
Day 9: Bend, OR
Day 10: Bend, OR -> Crater Lake National Park (overnight at Chiloquin, OR)
Day 11: Chiloquin -> Redding, CA
Day 12: Redding -> Home
Day 1
Not much to report here.. We left after breakfast and drove straight to Redding after a small break for coffee and refreshments. We checked into Americana Modern Hotel. It was 100F, hence waited for it to cool down a bit and then explored the Sundial Bridge while explaining the science of a sundial to our kid.
We then got dinner at Fusion Lounge, where the food was decent albeit my Ramen did not really taste like Ramen, leaving me rather disappointed. We knew we had a long day the next day, hence took it easy after this.
Day 2
Another un-touristy day honestly... we continued driving north, up the I-5 until we crossed over into Oregon. For some reason it was quite crowded on the freeway which definitely made the 5 hour drive more exhausting. We stopped at Ashland, OR for lunch where we had some delicious sandwiches at Pangea. Once we reached Eugene, we checked into the super comfy Holiday Inn Express and hung out at the pool for a bit before heading out to meet my colleague at Beergarden. I was pretty impressed with the wide selection of beers on tap and all the food-trucks, true to Oregon tradition. The food was excellent.
Prior to dinner we also visited the beautiful Owen Memorial Rose Garden located along the Willamette river.
Day 3
After a massive breakfast at the hotel, we went out to explore Eugene a bit (can't be un-touristy for too long after all). We drove to the top of Skinner Butte to Skinner Butte Park for a nice view of the city. Located at the bottom of the hill was our next viewpoint.
We made a photo stop at the Shelton-McMurphey-Johnson House. Nicknamed the "Castle on the Hill", this is a Victorian era house named after the three families that called it home over the years. Its designated parking, if any, was a bit hard to find, so after circling around for a bit, we parked at the city lot across the street and walked from there.. straight up the flight of stairs.
Unfortunately we were too early for the tour, so we basically walked around the house and headed out. We continued our journey north, all the way to Hoodsport, WA. We stopped at Vancouver, WA for a quick lunch at a local Panda Express and also got a chance to admire the view of Mt Hood as we crossed the bridge into Washington State.
The rest of Day 3 all the way through half of Day 7 were spent at the gorgeous Olympic National Park, which is covered in a dedicated post.
Day 7
It was time to bid farewell to the beautiful Olympic National Park and begin our journey towards Central Oregon. We stopped for lunch at a local IHOP in Olympia, WA and then went on to explore Tumwater Falls located at Brewery Park.
Located on the Deschutes River, the Tumwater Falls are a series of cascades. Footbridges and walking trails surround the area, offering several view points.
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| Tumwater Falls |
We continued the drive all the way to Portland, OR our next stop. We were hit by brutal traffic going into the city, which definitely threw a big fat wrench into our plan to explore the city properly... something we had not done the last time we were there in 2015.
After checking into our Airbnb there, we headed straight to Pittock Mansion.
Constructed in early 20th century, Pittock Mansion is a French Renaissance style chateau located atop the West Hills of Portland. Thanks to the traffic I mentioned earlier we reached after the place had closed.. but we still got to enjoy the expansive views of Portland with Mt. Hood not too far away.
We then went to get some of the famous Portland-food-truck action for dinner, except they aren't quite there when it's past 7 pm. Sigh! We ended up getting some really good Asian fusion dinner at Buranko. (PS: Their Tokyo Fog drink is amazing!)
Our next attempt at sight seeing also backfired, with the Aerial Tram being closed to public due to the pandemic. By then it was pretty late, so we headed back to the Airbnb, where our host had left us puzzles and more to entertain ourselves with.
Day 8
Post breakfast and stocking up at doughnuts at the famous Voodoo Doughnut, we were off to Bend.
We spent the next 2 days exploring Bend and is documented in a separate post.
Day 10
Today we went back to familiar territory.. Crater Lake National Park, albeit it was our kid's first time. It was a short 2 hour drive to get to the lake. We got an early lunch at the Visitor center and started visiting the popular vista points.
We soaked in the sight of the blue blue waters, saw the Pirate Ship and hiked at Sun Notch and hiked to Plaikni Falls which thankfully had some water, unlike other falls in the area.
Post hike by the time we were back at the lake, the smoke from the nearby Bootleg Wildfire had rolled in and that pretty much put an end to any further exploration of the area. We drove to our motel for the night, Melita's Crater Lake Adventures, after picking up a quick dinner from a nearby restaurant.
If you are interested in reading the detailed post from an earlier trip to Crater Lake, please read this.
Day 11
After breakfast we began driving south towards Redding. It was pretty smoky but we were grateful that we had evaded the wildfire smoke for most of our trip.
We got lunch at Pizza Factory and then went on our merry way.
Our original plan was to visit Mossbrae Falls at Dunsmuir but on reaching there we realized that it's on private property and there's no easy way to get to it. So we switched plans and hiked to Hedge Creek Falls instead. There wasn't a lot of water (Thank you California drought) but it wasn't a total bust.
Post hike we decided to head straight to our hotel in Redding as the smoke continued to get worse. We checked into Oxford Suites with the temperature being a blistering 90 degrees. We didn't do much that afternoon/evening except popping out for a delicious sushi dinner at Tokyo Garden.
Day 12
Post breakfast we embarked on the final drive back home. As we drove south the skies got bluer and we were able to leave the wildfire smoke behind. In about 4 hours or so we arrived at Home Sweet Home!
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