Driving Through Oregon: 8 Day Roadtrip Itinerary

So, I skipped blogging about our Sedona and Orissa trips, but hope to get back to them some day. I am too excited to write about my first ever road trip with my sister. We had been talking about traveling together for ages, but it never materialized. And when it did, it was so easy and fun!!! So, why Oregon? Several people asked me about our choice. And quite honestly, we needed to pick a place that both of us had not visited. I love the west coast, but we didn't want to go to California. So, we picked Oregon. We really wanted to drive around and see multiple places and different landscapes. Oregon turned out to be as beautiful as California, but much less crowded. We were able to hike in solitude and take plenty of pictures without a whole bunch of tourists in the background. We were there during the week of July 4th holiday and except for Crater National Park did not find any crowded places. So, we truly enjoyed it. I used this itinerary as a starting point and modified it a little to meet our needs. We tried to keep our driving distance as less as possible.

I have to say that I absolutely missed my personal professional photographer :-) All the pictures used here are from my phone. As I started writing this post, I also realized that A and I became total selfie queens during this trip. While, we now have great memories of this trip, I don't have enough pictures of all the places without either of us in them :-(

Flying in to Portland:
First things first, you have to pick a window seat when flying to Portland. Going from the east, I sat in the left side window seat and was able to get this gorgeous view of Mount Hood while landing. According to some travel forums Mount St. Helens is on the right side, so either window seats should have worked. The other views from the flight were also beautiful.

View of Mount Hood

Day 1 Portland:

Most important thing to know about Portland is that you don't need a car. Parking is expensive, Uber is cheap and so is Light Rail. Walking is also an option. Our first stop in the city was the International Rose Test Garden. Entrance to the garden is free, the roses are beautiful and there are several trails to walk and take pictures. Extremely close to the rose garden is the Portland Japanese garden. This garden is not free, but it is very serene and beautiful. We enjoyed walking through this garden.

Koi fish at a lake in Japanese garden

After the Japanese garden we headed to Salt & Straw, an ice cream place. They had quite a few unique flavors and honestly, I could have just tried them all. The line was long, but moved quickly. We took a flight of ice-cream and got to taste 4 flavors. My favorite was Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero! Honey Lavender was good too and so was Freckled Woodblock Chocolate. They have several locations in Portland.

Ice cream flight at Salt & Straw

From Salt & Straw, we headed to Tom McCall waterfront park, a nice waterfront area where you can relax, people watch and/or walk along the water front. From the waterfront area we walked to Grassa for dinner. This place served the best pasta I have had in a very long time. The seating is mostly communal, but we lucked out and found a nice booth for ourselves.

Street art in Portland

Day 2: Columbia River Gorge

The next morning we drove down to Columbia River Gorge, about 45-60 min drive from Portland. It rained heavily this morning and we were glad that we were prepared! Hiking in rain was a lot of fun and the waterfalls looked beautiful. Our first hike was to Bridal Veil falls and there were several view points on the way.

Bridal Veil Falls

Lush green forest

The second hike was to Latourell falls, equally beautiful.

Latourell Falls

Trail heads for both of these hikes were nearby. From here we drove to Multnomah Falls, the most popular falls in Portland, I think. There were almost no crowds at both of the other falls, but Multnomah was super crowded. The parking was full and we had to wait to get in. The fire in the Columbia River Gorge that happened in 2017 had closed many places, including access to some of the parking for Multnomah Falls. The falls along with the bridge look beautiful, but it was quite crowded. It might be good to get here as early as possible.

Multnomah Falls

While we really wanted to do more waterfall hikes (and there are plenty at Columbia River Gorge), everything after Multnomah Falls was closed due to last year's fire. We missed the lovely hike through Oneonta Gorge, but I am hoping that one day we will go back for this hike. Since we couldn't do more hikes, we decided to stop at a place that wasn't on our original itinerary. What's a road trip without some spontaneous stops any way?

Our next stop was Bonneville Dam and fish hatchery. We didn't go here with much expectations, but were pleasantly surprised by how beautiful the surrounding landscapes were. There was a visitor center with an observation deck that offered beautiful views of the surrounding area. We then walked around the surrounding area to take in more views.

White Sturgeon Fish at the Hatchery

A hated the sight of these fish that we saw in the visitor center. I do not remember their names, but they were visible from a glass window in the basement of the visitor center.

View of the dam

After walking around and relaxing here, we drove down to Salem, where we spent the night.

Day 3: Willamette Valley and Painted Hills

Today was wine-tasting day! From Salem we drove down to Sokol Blosser,  a family owned winery in the Willamette Valley region. We were the first to get here, as day 3 was a long driving day. Sokol Blosser specializes in Pinot Noir. We sat on their front porch looking at the vineyards in front of us (and the 5 car parking, which I think they should move somewhere in the back) and tried both of their wine tasting selections. One had a mix of whites, sparkling and some reds, while the other one focused largely on reds. A charcuterie board goes perfect with the wines. They do not have a restaurant on the premises, but we were happy with the wines, the cheeses and the meats. A and I really "caught up" here! We sat here for about 3 hours and chatted our hearts away. After that we walked around the vineyards and then drove away.

Wine tasting

Vineyards

From here we drove to Prineville and spent the night there. This was the longest of our drives, 4.5 hours! Prineville was still an an hour away from Painted Hills, where we wanted to go for sunset. Painted Hills are part of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, which has three units in three remote locations. We only visited Painted Hills, but others are supposed to be good too. Considering the long drive, we had debated about making this stop during our planning phase. The photos that we saw online were beautiful, but we weren't sure if that was the only thing to do there. There were also some people on various forums that said that they were disappointed. Having said all of this, I am glad we made this stop! Painted Hills is my favorite place on this trip. Going there at sunset was the best decision we made. There are a few trails at this place, however we stuck to Painted Hills Overlook trail and enjoyed the views from there.

Painted Hills at Sunset

Day 4: Bend

The next morning we discussed about going back to Painted Hills for a couple of hikes, but the long drive and the high temperatures discouraged us. Instead we drove to Bend. Again, this turned out to be a surprise, as I wasn't sure if we would enjoy the hikes in Bend as much. The pictures that I saw online, made it look really barren. Our first stop in Bend was Sun Country Tours. We booked a white water rafting trip with them and had lots of fun rafting on Big Eddy. We went on a 10:30 am tour to avoid the heat and our guide was awesome! On our drive to the rafting spot, we also saw some deer. It was a fun 1 hour on the water.

Bend had great food options

Bend was a great, lively place with several good restaurants. The Old Mill District was pretty and we spent quite some time walking around here. We loved the food at Flatbread Neopolitan Pizzeria. After lunch, we headed to Deschutes National Forest in search of Paulina Hot Springs. It was a bit hot probably for hot springs, but this was something we hadn't done before and were curious about. It took us a while to find the lake and the hot springs and eventually when we found the spot that they were supposed to be, it turned out that they were still submerged under water. Apparently late July is the best time to try them. The same park also has a lake called as East Lake and there are some hot springs in that region as well. The Outdoor Project site has good information about the trail to Paulina Hot Springs. Nevertheless, the lakes were beautiful, so we walked around the lake for a bit. We also hiked to Paulina Falls, which was pretty stunning.

East Lake

Paulina Falls

Day 5: Bend

We spent another day hiking in Bend! The entire two days that we spent in Bend were unplanned. But they turned out to be fun. We started day 5 with a hike to Tumalo Falls. The parking lot here was full by the time we finished our hike. So, it certainly paid to get an early start. The parking fee here has to be paid in cash and there is no attendant on duty to give you change. However, a really smart guy sells coffee out of a truck. So, we bought some coffee and got our change. Once again, this was a tall waterfall, really pretty!!! When we hiked all the way up and looked down, we realized that there were some people at the bottom of the falls. While there was no official trail to get to the bottom, visitors had made one. We followed the trail too and enjoyed the sight of a whole bunch of butterflies and flowers on this trail.

View from beginning of the trail

View from top

View from the lower trail

Our next stop from here was the Lava Lands Visitor Center. This is at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument and you can see completely different terrain here. We first rented some lanterns and went on a hike through the lava tube, also referred to as lava river cave. The cave is completely dark and the hike cannot be done without renting at least one lantern. The complete hike takes at least an hour and it is quite cold inside the cave. You will need a jacket to stay warm through your hike. After the hike, we took a shuttle to the lava butte. The shuttle is the only way to get up there. The views from the top were nice and an easy 1 mile hike around the rim of the crater is recommended. You can enjoy some pretty neat views of the mountain range in distance.

View of Mount Hood from Crater Rim Trail

After this quick hike, we hiked the Trail of the Molten Land. This was also an easy 1 mile hike, but it takes you through molten lava rocks, so it's an interesting experience. We did this in the afternoon and it was pretty hot. We needed to stop after this hike.

Trail of the Molten Land

Next stop was Crater Lake National Park. Quite honestly, I had not heard of this park before, but I am so glad that I got to visit. The water in the lake is such a beautiful blue. I kept taking the same pictures again and again!!!

Crater Lake

The island in the middle is called Wizard Island and you can take either a boat tour or a shuttle to get there. Reservations for these have to be done in advance as they get sold out pretty quickly during peak season. The first thing I recommend doing at Crater Lake National Park is to drive around the rim and stop at some of the scenic lookouts. On day 5 we reached the park in the evening and did the rim drive before heading to our hotel. We stayed in the nearby town of Prospect, which was still an hour's drive from the park. There is a lodge inside the park, but has to be reserved well in advance.

Day 6: Crater Lake National Park

On day 6 we decided to hike a few trails before leaving the park. We got an early start as the traffic in the park had been bad the evening before. Our first stop was a lookout point, called Phantom Ship.

Phantom Ship

The next was a hike called Pinnacles, which provided views of volcanic spires. This is a very easy 0.8 mile hike.

The Pinnacles

On our way back from the Pinnacles we stopped at the trailhead for Plakini Falls. Again an easy 2 mile hike with beautiful wildflowers on the trail.

Plakini Falls

Next hike on our list was Sun Notch. This provided views of the Phantom Ship once again.

View of Phantom Ship from Sun Notch Trail

Last stop was Vidae Falls, no trail here, just stop and look. These are the tallest falls in the park.

Vidae Falls

Wizard Island

We found the park's newsletter to be most helpful in our planning. We ate at the lodge and even the waiting area of the restaurant had lovely views all over!

Tired, dusty and happy!

After walking around some more and collecting souvenirs, we drove to Florence to get to the coast of Oregon. This was a long 3.5 hour drive. There was an elk viewing area on the way and we spotted several elks hanging out in that area. We spent the evening walking around and enjoying some seafood in Florence. But other than that I didn't find this place too exciting.

Day 7: Oregon Coast

We again had an early start to our day as the plan was to drive up the coastal highway back to Portland. The first stop was Heceta Head Lighthouse. We checked this out from a lookout.

Heceta Head Lighthouse

From here we went to the rocky shores looking for Devil's Punchbowl, Thor's well and other such interesting spots on these rocky shores. What we hadn't come across in any of our research was the existence of tide pools! The tide pools are visible in these rocky shores during low tide and you can see colorful seastars, sea urchins and anemones. We had a great time tidepooling both here and at Yaquina Head Lighthouse.

Shore near Heceta Head Lighthouse

Sea Star

Colorful anemones

Yaquina Head Lighthouse

The Yaquina Head Lighthouse area is beautiful to walk around. You can also see sea lions and a ton of birds perched nearby. You can also go tidepooling here during low tide.

Black beach and tidepooling at Yaquina Head Lighthouse

From here we stopped at nearby Newport to gorge on delicious seafood and pick up some souvenirs. Then we headed to Cannon Beach which required a little bit of driving. There are plenty of small towns on the way, but we didn't stop until reaching our destination. Cannon Beach was quite pretty. The parking in this town is free, which was great! The popular landmark at Cannon Beach is the Haystack Rock.

Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach

After strolling and spending some lazy time at the beach we drove back to Portland and spent the night there.

Day 8: Portland and Amboy (Washington)

So, our last day was supposed to be in Portland. However, we were both not quite impressed with Portland as much. So, we decided to something else instead. We decided to go bungee jumping in a town called Amboy in the neighboring state of Washington. Before heading there, however, we stopped by at Voodoo Donuts and picked some to munch on. They had several good flavors. I think you have to try the Voodoo doll!

Voodoo doll donut

After picking up the donuts and some lunch at one of the food trucks, we drove to Amboy, WA for our adventure. Bungee Masters have been in the business for 30 years and our experience was great. I would definitely recommend them.

Bungee Jumping from the Pacific Northwest bridge

Once this was done, we then drove back to Portland for our last stop, which was the Saturday Market. The Saturday Market actually meets on Saturday and Sunday. After reading the online descriptions, I thought I would find little knick-knacks here, but it turned out to be a great market with lots of high quality items on sale. It was similar to the Dogwood Festival in Atlanta. I was glad that I finally bought something from my trip in addition to my usual fridge magnets! Overall, A and I had a lovely time driving around the state and hopefully, we will make this an annual tradition.

Roadtrip Itinerary Map