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brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015


Wife and I are planning on taking a trip to Oregon this summer, and we're just starting to figure out where we want to go. Mt. Hood and Crater Lake are "obvious" stops we're planning, but I'm not really sure what else or where we should stay around those areas. We do lots of long day hikes but not really overnight trips yet. Probably be there about a week total, and we'd be flying into Portland.

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meselfs
Sep 26, 2015

The body may die, but the soul is always rotten
Well, you figured out your MoHo obligation apparently, but that mountain is big! So if you don't mind, some specific recommendations:


McNeil Pt is my #1 recommendation. You pass through several different kinds of forest, before the trees finally give up. Like, at the start you'll say "nice forest" and at the end "nice volcano". Not an easy stroll but not that long either. If it's too short, visit Eden park nearby.

If you don't mind a very strenuous long all-day adventure with probably walking in the night too, Yocum Ridge is a very good, with more variety and an incredible waterfall to pass by.

That waterfall alone, Ramona Falls, you've probably heard of, very popular. Careful crossing the river, but don't be to scareded by the signs either; I've seen people cross the logs with newborns in their arms.

A lesser known but IMO better waterfall is Tamanawas on the other side.

For less forest and more alpine, Paradise park is lots of fun. At the right time it has wildflowers like you wouldn't believe.

glowing-fish
Feb 18, 2013

Keep grinding,
I hope you level up! :)
It depends on where you are coming from, and how much of the West you've seen before. If you are a newbie to the West, you don't have to go to spectacular name-brand hikes. Just drive a highway into the mountains and find a trailhead.

If you are a connoisseur though, I would say go to each one of Oregon's geographical regions: the high desert, the Cascades, the Willamette Valley, and the Coast.

Does a bicycle trip through Yamhill County wine country where you stop for samples count as a "hike"? I think it does!

Canna Happy
Jul 11, 2004
The engine, code A855, has a cast iron closed deck block and split crankcase. It uses an 8.1:1 compression ratio with Mahle cast eutectic aluminum alloy pistons, forged connecting rods with cracked caps and threaded-in 9 mm rod bolts, and a cast high

I think spending a day or two in the gorge is worth it. The eagle creek trail is p. tits for a nice day hike, but its best done early morning and during the week. You're going to spend a fair amount of time in the car if you drive all the way to crater lake and back though...

Alpenglow
Mar 12, 2007


Silver Falls is ~90 minutes south of Portland and has 4-12 mile loops that walk :siren:behind:siren: multiple big waterfalls.

brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015


Awesome, I'll add it to the list of possible stops. I've seen Three Sisters Wilderness mentioned a ton in Backpacker, is that something worth checking out for day hikers?

glowing-fish posted:

It depends on where you are coming from, and how much of the West you've seen before. If you are a newbie to the West, you don't have to go to spectacular name-brand hikes. Just drive a highway into the mountains and find a trailhead.

If you are a connoisseur though, I would say go to each one of Oregon's geographical regions: the high desert, the Cascades, the Willamette Valley, and the Coast.

Does a bicycle trip through Yamhill County wine country where you stop for samples count as a "hike"? I think it does!

We're coming from Illinois (:(), but we've spent a decent amount of time out west in California, Washington, Utah and Montana over the past few years. Our favorite hikes tend to be more of the panaromic types e.g. Highline Trail in Glacier NP, Skyline at Mt. Rainier. We usually put about 500-700 miles on a rental car on our trips, so we're good with driving all over to get to the different spots, too. If we wanted to check out the high desert or the Coast (loved the Olympic coast in Washington), any particular spots you'd recommend?

Cerekk
Sep 24, 2004

Oh my god, JC!

brugroffil posted:

Awesome, I'll add it to the list of possible stops. I've seen Three Sisters Wilderness mentioned a ton in Backpacker, is that something worth checking out for day hikers?


We're coming from Illinois (:(), but we've spent a decent amount of time out west in California, Washington, Utah and Montana over the past few years. Our favorite hikes tend to be more of the panaromic types e.g. Highline Trail in Glacier NP, Skyline at Mt. Rainier. We usually put about 500-700 miles on a rental car on our trips, so we're good with driving all over to get to the different spots, too. If we wanted to check out the high desert or the Coast (loved the Olympic coast in Washington), any particular spots you'd recommend?

Ecola State Park between Seaside and Cannon Beach has some pretty nice views. The southern half of the main coastal trail is best but the whole thing is worth doing. Cannon Beach is a nice town to visit in the summer though it will be packed and it is probably too late to find a place to stay.

Three Sisters Wilderness for the most part doesn't have the panoramic views you're talking about until you get all the way to the top of whichever trail you're taking. South Sister is the most popular to climb; it's exerting but non-technical. Still snow on it this time of year.

Pander
Oct 9, 2007

Fear is the glue that holds society together. It's what makes people suppress their worst impulses. Fear is power.

And at the end of fear, oblivion.



brugroffil posted:

We're coming from Illinois (:(), but we've spent a decent amount of time out west in California, Washington, Utah and Montana over the past few years. Our favorite hikes tend to be more of the panaromic types e.g. Highline Trail in Glacier NP, Skyline at Mt. Rainier. We usually put about 500-700 miles on a rental car on our trips, so we're good with driving all over to get to the different spots, too. If we wanted to check out the high desert or the Coast (loved the Olympic coast in Washington), any particular spots you'd recommend?
I was from Illinois and kept coming out west to Yellowstone, Tetons, etc, and finally cut out the middle man and moved here.

Almost any gorge hike is great. Just be early, they get insanely packed every day by about 10 or 11am, especially as you get closer to I-84. I liked the view from Angel's Rest, near Bridal Veil. Fun hike. Windy as poo poo at the top as you gaze out over miles of the Columbia River.

On the Washington side Silver Star is pretty cool, got to see Rainier, Hood, St Helen's, Jefferson, and Adam's all from the same spot after an not too hard, scenic climb along a cliffside.

coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot
Cape Perpetua has like 80% of the hiking trails on the coast. Cascade Head is p nice coast hike too.

brugroffil
Nov 30, 2015


Got back last week, fantastic trip, Oregon owns. Some great recommendations in here.

meselfs posted:

Well, you figured out your MoHo obligation apparently, but that mountain is big! So if you don't mind, some specific recommendations:


McNeil Pt is my #1 recommendation. You pass through several different kinds of forest, before the trees finally give up. Like, at the start you'll say "nice forest" and at the end "nice volcano". Not an easy stroll but not that long either. If it's too short, visit Eden park nearby.

If you don't mind a very strenuous long all-day adventure with probably walking in the night too, Yocum Ridge is a very good, with more variety and an incredible waterfall to pass by.

That waterfall alone, Ramona Falls, you've probably heard of, very popular. Careful crossing the river, but don't be to scareded by the signs either; I've seen people cross the logs with newborns in their arms.

A lesser known but IMO better waterfall is Tamanawas on the other side.

For less forest and more alpine, Paradise park is lots of fun. At the right time it has wildflowers like you wouldn't believe.

McNeil Pt may have been the best hike of the trip. Definitely wouldn't have stumbled upon it without this tip, so thanks a bunch. We had planned on doing Ramona Falls the next day, but it was rainy on that side so we checked out Tamanawas instead--another solid recommendation.

We stopped at Timberline when we first got there, but the place was overflowing with douchebag snowboarder bros so we just hit some of the other trailheads.

Canna Happy posted:

I think spending a day or two in the gorge is worth it. The eagle creek trail is p. tits for a nice day hike, but its best done early morning and during the week. You're going to spend a fair amount of time in the car if you drive all the way to crater lake and back though...

Unfortunately our "gorge day" was a Saturday, but we were still able to find parking at both the Eagle Creek trail and Angel's Rest. As far as driving--yeah, we did about 1800 miles total in 11 days.

Cerekk posted:

Ecola State Park between Seaside and Cannon Beach has some pretty nice views. The southern half of the main coastal trail is best but the whole thing is worth doing. Cannon Beach is a nice town to visit in the summer though it will be packed and it is probably too late to find a place to stay.

Three Sisters Wilderness for the most part doesn't have the panoramic views you're talking about until you get all the way to the top of whichever trail you're taking. South Sister is the most popular to climb; it's exerting but non-technical. Still snow on it this time of year.

We stayed in Astoria our first night and Otter Rock our second night, so we checked out all those stops along the way. It was a little misty/cloudy at Ecola, but those coastal trails were still really nice.

For our portion of the trip in Bend (which owns and I just need to convince my wife to move there now), we did some hiking in Deschutes and Three Sisters. Through a combination of early rain driving people away and hitting the trail head fairly early, we were able to do the Green Lakes trail in near solitude, including about 15 minutes totally to ourselves at the lake.

Pander posted:

I was from Illinois and kept coming out west to Yellowstone, Tetons, etc, and finally cut out the middle man and moved here.

This may happen eventually. Worst case, our long-term retirement plan is to just gently caress about in the West with a smallish RV for months on end.


We also got an extra day due to a last minute overlapping work trip, so we checked out Mt. St Helen's. Never really understood the full scale of the devastation there.

meselfs
Sep 26, 2015

The body may die, but the soul is always rotten
YEAH! So glad that happened :). Thx for letting me know, made my day.

Incidentally, I was there a couple sundays ago (really cloudy), can't help but wonder if we crossed paths.

Pander
Oct 9, 2007

Fear is the glue that holds society together. It's what makes people suppress their worst impulses. Fear is power.

And at the end of fear, oblivion.



Yeah, Mt St Helen's is ridiculous. "you are now entering the blast zone" when you're like still 20 miles away. Chilling.

Pick
Jul 19, 2009
Nap Ghost
Go to the dunes if you can. Make sure you hike the right part and not the part where people own you with the dune buggies.

You seriously can't go wrong pretty much anywhere though.

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coyo7e
Aug 23, 2007

by zen death robot

Alpenglow posted:


Silver Falls is ~90 minutes south of Portland and has 4-12 mile loops that walk :siren:behind:siren: multiple big waterfalls.
Trestle Creek Falls, up Bryce Creek east of Cottage Grove and Dorena lake, also includes walking behind the falls' curtain about 80 feet up or so. It's a pleasant 4-5 mile hike with a small amount of moderate terrain. You're within arm's reach of the water and there's no handrails, none of this paved paths with guardrails bullshit - and nobody cares if you bring your dog.

Drive up Bryce Creek about 19 miles iirc, until you come to a bridge with some forest service bulletin boards and toilets next to it. Park where you want, then go east over the bridge, pass the trailhead on your left that's about 10 feet past the bridge, and go another 40-50 feet until you see the trail marker for the Upper loops of the trail.

When you finish the upper trailhead you are a couple hundred yards from your car BUT there's also a little half-mile trail to reach the lower falls - which has a really nice little gravel beach and pool to stop and eat lunch before driving home. Bryce Creek has a lot of gorgeous swimming holes but it's cold as gently caress and all the campsites are BYO everything.

If you time arriving at the bridge around 10am it stays nice and cool until you're leving, even when it's :fuckoff: hot in the summer for the rest of the day.

coyo7e fucked around with this message at 16:40 on Oct 7, 2016

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