My buddy and I hadn’t climbed anything in a long time. Saturday, February 7 was going to be nice, and we knew it. I’ve always wanted to climb Saddle Mountain in the Coast Range, and this day was going to be clear. Off we went, but not before doing a quick warm-up on the trails of the Sunset Wayside (and warm-up was exactly what we needed, since there was still ice on the ground).

By the time we got up the 7-mile paved road to the Saddle Mountain Natural Area, the sun was reflecting off the bone-white alders. Another hiker told us to take a short side-trail up a massive rock for a great view of the mountain, and, as he said, so we could “look down and say, ‘We were there!’” Even from this small peak, the views of the coastal mountains were tremendous.

Though the Saddle Mountain climb is famous for its ruggedness, the trail has been improved greatly. Trails have been braced and secured by wire, thus halting erosion. Sure, it’s still a steep climb up 1,623 feet but not terrible. Elk, deer, and black bear roam the area and in summer, the meadows atop the peak are a wildflower festival.

In fact, from where we sat on the 3,283-foot-high peak we could see not only Astoria, the Columbia River, the tides at Seaside, and five Cascade peaks from Rainier to Jefferson, we could also look down on the soaring bald eagles. These same eagles—eight of them—stayed high in the sky on our descent. I like to think on them while I’m rubbing my sore calves.

This past January saw a gloomy cold hanging over most of the state. Mostly, that is, except for the Coast, where temperatures were doing their best imitation of spring. So I took a couple days away from the lingering patches of snow and ice and cold, cold air and headed west.

The first day I went out with my wife and drove the Three Capes Loop. Starting in Tillamook, we meandered down to Cape Meares State Park, stopping briefly on the Bayocean Spit to get some of those “negative ions” we’ve been hearing so much about. Back in the car, we drove up to Cape Meares itself to visit the lighthouse, the Octopus Tree, and an enormous Spruce hiding back in the forest.

Onward, up and over the shoulder of Cape Lookout—a great place to watch migrating whales—and on down to Sand lake for lunch in Whalen Island County Park. We ended the day exploring around Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City. As the tide went out, we saw rockfish in the tidal pools left on the sandstone bluffs. Temperature? A balmy 68 degrees.

Undaunted by the travel, I took my friend Andy and went for a second day, this time up the massive Cascade Head to see firsthand the nature Conservancy Trail, preserved for the threatened Oregon Silverspot Butterfly and the rare Checkermallow it feeds on. The undulating meadows provided a vast view over the Pacific and distant Lincoln City, where we dropped into next. Down on the beach, we wandered the Road’s End Wayside down to a secret cove, where a couple was picking through the myriad of colored stones and agates. I never did get to check temperature, most likely in the 50s, but you can be sure by the time I got back home I could see your breath.

Honeyman Dunes

Of all my wife’s great ideas, this one is possibly her best: a camping expedition to the vast Sahara-like landscapes on the Oregon Coast known as “the Dunes.”

Our campsite—especially uncrowded in the off-season past Labor Day—was at Honeyman State Park, one of Oregon’s largest. Host to two lakes, Douglas-fir and red-cedar forests, a 1930’s store built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, and wave after wave of sand dunes climbing as high as 250 feet, Honeyman makes an excellent jump-off point to some of the best windswept formations visitors can find.

Footprints

Beginning just south of Florence and the Siuslaw River, the Oregon Dunes stretch as far as Coos Bay, but the best hiking areas lie mostly between Florence and Reedsport. Honeyman has trails into the northernmost dunes starting right at our campsite: after an exerting slog up a cascade of sand, the breathtaking views begin. What better way to start a morning than climbing a big dune, then running back down?

More dunes are easily accessible off Highway 101. With a packed lunch and plenty of water, we bounded down into the “deflation plain” beneath the Oregon Dunes Overlook. This plain is a hollow left between the smaller, grassy foredune along the shore and the towering sand castles, a great place to see wildlife like deer and birds.

Umpqua Dunes

Further south, we had ourselves an exerting hike through the Tahkenitch Dunes to the ocean, a 3 ¼-mile thigh-burner through thick sand to the estuary of Tahkenitch Creek, where brown pelicans bathed in the meeting place of freshwater and sea. Nearby, another easy trail leads to the Carter Dunes, and a much closer shore.

The best, by far, are the awe-inspiring Umpqua Dunes, also known as the John Dellenback Dunes, named for the U.S. Congressman who helped establish the Dunes Recreation Area. These monolithic dunes extend two-miles over the ridges of bare sand known as oblique dunes, carved and shaped by the wind. We sat down to watch the moon rise over the biggest one, the sand swept by a never-ending wind. We stopped, too, at the Umpqua Lighthouse State Park to see the lighthouse, a gray whale jawbone, and the museum.

After two days of tiring but rewarding exploration over sand and through forests of Pacific madrone, we could find no better way to relax than a trip into Old Town Florence, and a couple of lattes from Siuslaw River Coffee Roasters, overlooking the beautiful bridge over the bay. We also headed north to the Kalmiopsis Wayside, a short trail to a marsh of the Darlingtonia, the California pitcher plants, a bog of bug-devouring green cobra lilies.

For more information on local beaches and dunes, please visit our Oregon Coast section.

Darlingtonia californica

Kids painting a car

As summer wound down to its close, the artists were still out in force for the increasingly popular Art Walks throughout Portland. Whether monthly or yearly events, there’s plenty to see in late summer and into autumn. Whether its painting, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, jewelry, photography, or even a band or two, the art scene is Portland has more than enough to keep anyone gazing.

August came to an end with Last Thursday on Alberta Street in Northeast Portland. What started out as a number of artists lined up along the sidewalks and interested people squeezing through the sidewalks, popping in and out of the little shops and galleries, has now evolved into a huge venture where part of the street has been closed to traffic. The music of folk and funk bands wafted off the corners by the doughnut shops and side streets, and the famous Clown House—as always—had some crazy performances going on.

Metalworking

Labor Day Weekend offers Art in the Pearl on the North Park Blocks in what is arguably the center of Portland’s gallery scene. My wife and I bought a ceramic French butter dish and four matted photographs of children from around the world. Though a bit of rain fell, the day eventually cleared. We even got a demonstration of a working foundry.

Next came First Thursday, the vibrant and busy art walk in the Pearl District. Some of Oregon’s best-known galleries participate, showing many of Oregon’s best-known artists. Near Chinatown, the Everett Street Lofts lends space for up-and-coming young artists to show in intimate studio spaces with DJ’s and occasional free beer. As with Alberta, there are street performers galore—this night, a drum set of plastic tubs and glass bottles pounded into the humid night.

If you missed it this month, no worries: Alberta is having one more Last Thursday in September, and the Pearl’s First Thursday goes all year long.

For more information on events taking place in the Pearl District, please visit our Portland Metro section.

Mt. Hood and Barn

Our first time to Hood River, my wife and I had absolutely no idea of what lay behind the town, on the way up to Mt. Hood. So we took a Saturday afternoon and did the Fruit Loop, 36 different stands that banded together 15 years ago to sell the bounty of the Hood River Valley directly. Looping mostly along Highways 35 and 281, with plenty of back road ventures, we spent the better part of the day driving, eating, and picking.

Photo: Lavender Valley

And what a tour: we arrived at the very tail end of cherry season, but managed to buy two pounds of Bings from Cherry Karma’s “Purple Pit Spot,” enough to make a pie.
Just beyond, we stopped at Panorama Point for picture-perfect views of Mt. Hood. Further on, the Gorge White House—a 1910 Dutch Colonial Revival, and only occupied in its time by two families—hosts wine tastings and a 9-acre garden of snapdragons, lilies, dahlias, and sunflowers with views to Washington’s Mt. Adams.

We stopped at Rasmussen’s Farms for apricots, and the Cookie Stop Bakery for snicker doodles and molasses cookies for our picnic lunch at the Toll Bridge County Park. There were family reunions, horseshoe games, and the East Fork Hood River flowing through, milky with glacial silt—camping, too.

Shade Lovin' Annuals

At Nelson’s Blueberry Farm, “the blueberry farm with the best view of Mt. Hood,” says the owner, we bucketed five quarts of fat, no-spray berries in no time flat. Down the road, I stopped to gawk at the alpacas on the Good Fortune Farms, source of an extravagant and luxurious wool. And the Lavender Valley Lavender Farm—well, imagine that kind of color with a mountain backdrop.

No trip to the Gorge is complete without a bit of wine tasting, which we took in at Cathedral Ridge Winery—five free tastings—and Hood River Vineyards. We came out of the Valley with cherries, apricots, blueberries, an ’07 Halbtrocken, an ’03 Sangiovese, and stained fingers.

Rasmussen Farms

For more information on local Hood River wine and cuisine, please visit www.TravelOregon.com/bounty. Now is the perfect time to visit!

Nest on Toe Island as taken through a spotting scope

A group of interested birders, some amateur and some experienced, joined Mike Houck, an Urban Naturalist with the Portland Audubon Society, for a three-hour tour of Oaks Bottom Wildlife Refuge, Portland’s first urban refuge. Across the 170-acres managed by Portland Parks and Recreation, you can spot many of the 209 bird species that call this complex of wetlands, meadows, and woodlands home—at least part of the year. Being on the Pacific Flyway, many birds are seasonal, or “just passing through.”

When Houck asked, “Does anybody see anything?” the kids start shouting out names: osprey, red-tailed hawks, scrub jays. Using his knowledge of calls, Houck managed to draw some birds a bit closer.

Tour Guide and Audubon Urban Naturalist Mike Houck

The tour descended from Sellwood Park on the bluff to the South Meadow, formerly a floodplain for the Willamette River, but now changed by years of industrial activity, the addition of a railroad grade, and flood control apparatus. Still, as Houck points out, the land has recovered dramatically. Oregon ash, western maple, thimbleberry, and spirea have re-colonized damaged areas—and created a paradise for birds.

The tour followed along the Springwater Corridor to views of osprey nests on Toe Island, and to the North Meadow for views of lesser goldfinches, Bewick’s wrens, and brown creepers. Some birds you hear rather than see. And some are hard to identify: is that a Sharp-shinned hawk or Cooper’s hawk? Is it male or female?

I saw birds I’d never seen before. Oaks Bottom, smack in the middle of the city, is an excellent place to spot Bald eagles, kingfishers, and Great blue herons. The three hour-tour, offered free by Portland Audubon, was punctuated by a walk around the lake that dwindles to a shallow puddle as summer wears on. Just don’t forget your binoculars.

For more information on exploring the great outdoors of Oregon, please visit our Outdoor Recreation section.

Spencers Butte, by Sean Patrick Hill

Editor’s Note: Sean Patrick Hill is our newest blogger from Portland. He has previously written for The Oregonian and The Source Weekly in Bend. Check out his first Travel Oregon blog entry below!

My wife and I, who live in Portland, decided to make a day of Eugene—easy enough to do, since a lot can be compressed into a single day, and especially on a summer Saturday.

The trip paid for itself by selling thirty dollars worth of books to Smith Family Bookstore. We visited both stores, one at 768 East 13th in the University area, the other downtown at 525 Willamette, and easily spent a few hours browsing poetry, art, and history. It took over thirty years for the bookstore to go from a few boxes of books to the chaotic shelves and piles of today. Best thing about the store is you can find some rare tomes, and cheap.

Next, I showed my wife around the Eugene Saturday Market on the downtown Park Blocks, browsing the handmade clothing, jewelry, drums, and recycled art. We then skipped across the street to the Farmer’s Market, in their full height of summer harvest selling not only fruits and vegetables, but bread, honey, cheese, and potted plants.

My wife at Saturday Market, by Sean Patrick Hill

Being a sunny day, we decided to climb 2,054-foot Spencers Butte, the best view this corner of the state offers, clear enough this day to see from the Three Sisters and Mt. Jefferson to the Coast Range. Though we had to gingerly pick our way through poison oak at times, we got close to a wheeling flock of turkey vultures and a juvenile rattlesnake digesting something.

Eugene Farmers

By mid-afternoon, the heat picking up, we went for the shade in the Hendricks Park Rhododendron Garden, 12-acres of rhodies of all sorts, plus wildflowers and stately trees such as white oak, western maple, and Doug-fir. By July, the rhododendrons are long past flowering—April is the best time—but there’s still plenty of shade and people watching. We drove by nearby Pre Rock, a memorial left for Steve Prefontaine on a small basalt outcrop.

Hendricks Park, by Sean Patrick Hill

And though my wife says I never try anything different, I can’t leave Eugene without going to the 5th Street Beanery. Housed in an old brick building once used for chickens, it has character; and anyway, I love their mocha with Mexican chocolate. It keeps me awake for the drive home.

For more great ideas on things to do and places to see near Eugene, please visit our Willamette Valley section.