Virgin America have left no doubt to which country they are supporting. The stars and stripes are painted on all the planes. The flight from San Fran to Portland was very scenic. We had great views of the big volcanos - The Sisters, Mt Jefferson and Mt Hood. And the stunning Crater Lake.
It was an interesting walk the next morning to the rental car office via the University of Oregon. The area is famous for it's spread of food stalls in mobile wagons.
Unfortunately the extensive view from the top was completely blocked by a thick haze - smoke from the disastrous Californian forest fires.
Heavy rain fell on the way home over Willamette Pass. We stopped to explore a lovely restored covered Bridge on Lake Dexter.
The USA has some great place names. Some are obvious, such as "Sweet Home", some less obvious, such as Drain. We didn't stop at Drain, nor at the classic diner down the road.
The views of the coast north of the Dunes made it hard to drive smoothly, as we were always pulling off the road for photos. Room with a view at the Whaler Inn at Newport.
Times are a changing for the better and now you can buy craft beer on board.
Our Ethiopian taxi driver delivered us safely to downtown Portland and we quickly found Fathead Brewery just two blocks away. The selection of different beer was outstanding.
You know you are in a craft beer town when the hotel has beer glasses instead of wine glasses. And provide a growler for take-away beer.
We loaded up the Nissan Sentra and took the SH5 to Eugene. The road south was through farms green with crop, tree seedlings, hops, grapes and fruit trees.
First stop was the giant Cabelas Outfitters store in Tualatin. After checking in our firearms we browsed the aisles of camo clothing, fishing paraphernalia, meat smokers and mincers, and guns, rifles and tactical weapons. Scary. Feeling a bit under-armed we left with just a few new fishing lures.
Another town another brew bar. All the bar tenders seemed to be young bearded hipsters.
Eugene, another university town, seemed very quiet, and it turned out to be a national holiday, Columbus day. The bars were open of course and we confirmed that the craft beer movement is alive and well in Eugene. Travis our waiter at Cornucopia, the best burger joint in town, gave us an extra tray of tastings on the house. We were getting up early the next morning for a trip to Crater lake so needed the extra drinks about as much as a deer needs a target-shaped birthmark.
We planned to walk up Mt Scott, the highest peak on the Crater Lake rim at 8929 feet. No metrics in good old US of A. We followed the road through Willamette Pass, pioneered by some tough surveyor explorers named Clark and Lewis in 1804. It took them 18 months to find a way through this amazing steep countryside in thick forested valleys with rocky rivers in the valleys. We took less than three hours to get to the crater.
The easy tramp to the top led through stunted native Douglas Fir forest, with snow from the last snow shower lingering in the shadows. We saw small furry critters including a marmot and pica.
Unfortunately the extensive view from the top was completely blocked by a thick haze - smoke from the disastrous Californian forest fires.
Heavy rain fell on the way home over Willamette Pass. We stopped to explore a lovely restored covered Bridge on Lake Dexter.
The USA has some great place names. Some are obvious, such as "Sweet Home", some less obvious, such as Drain. We didn't stop at Drain, nor at the classic diner down the road.
The scenery improved as we made our way east down the Umpque River. Our aim was to get to the Oregon Dunes National Park. These huge sand dunes run for about 100km up the coast and would appear from the advertising to be overrun with off-road enthusiasts. In the middle there is an area protected from petrol-heads. We stopped there at a carpark and on the spur of the moment, it being a nice sunny day and all that, decided to walk a "strenuous" 6 mile loop track taking in forest, sand dunes, beach, lake and more forest. It was nice and sunny when we hit the beach, still sunny when we thought we were lost and missed a crucial turn off the beach, and still sunny when we got lost on the wrong side of a very steep and high sand dune.
The dunes are famous for being the inspiration to the "Dune" series of science fiction books and films back in the 1960's. Luckily we saw no man-eating sand-worms.
The hail hit us in the forest after the otter stream and lake. The forest was primordial, dark, full of vibrant green moss, huge fir trees, fungi, and a little brown gecko. The rain that followed the hail was heavy and insistent, turning the fine dirt path to mud. At 5 miles we met our first fellow hikers, who through the loud patter of rain said it was not far to go.
We dried out in a lovely warm and cosy cafe in Florence, I can recommend the seafood chowder.
The views of the coast north of the Dunes made it hard to drive smoothly, as we were always pulling off the road for photos. Room with a view at the Whaler Inn at Newport.
At Pacific City the marijuana dispensary was open for business to anyone with photo ID showing they were over 21. According to the happy man in the photo, in the year since it's been legalised there's been less crime, and fewer drug problems.
Destination for the night - Manzanita, Spanish for "Little apple"!
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