Mt. Hood and Hood River

October 17 -

View from Drake Park

Once again we woke up to a beautiful day in Bend. After an early breakfast, we checked out of the Fairfield Inn and headed out to downtown Bend in search of a Post Office in order to mail DS's postcards to his friends. We didnt find a post office there but stopped at Drake Park right next to the Deschutes River in downtown Bend. The park offers stunning views of the surrounding foliage and the faraway Mt. Bachelor.

After getting our fill of fall pictures in the park, we headed out towards Hwy 97 and found a post-office right off the hwy. Our drive towards Mt. Hood took us through some scenic countryside, through the small town of Madras (where we stopped for food) and onto Timberline Lodge - listed as a historic landmark site. We spent some time here admiring the history of the lodge but most of its facilities like the Blue Ox Bar etc were closed. The bar upstairs was open and the view from there is pretty good. We spent some time playing shuffleboard in the game room.

DH in our rental car in front of Mt. Hood at Timberline Lodge

From Timberline Lodge, we drove to Hood River to our hotel for the night - Best Western Plus. The hotel is in a nice location right next to the Hood River bridge. Our room, the Oneanta Suite, is pretty nice too with a view of the Columbia River and the bridge.

After unloading our bags and freshening up, we drove north into Washington and then west on hwy 14 (also known as the Lewis and Clark Hwy) hoping to stop on the way to see the sunset. We started driving around 5pm and stopped at Drano Lake. Then continued on, thinking we would find lookout spots to catch the sunset. Unfortunately, there are no such points. We ended up back on the Oregon side after crossing over the Bridges of Gods past the town of Stevenson. On the Oregon side, we stopped by the river side and got some pics of the sky past sunset. We headed back to our hotel and had dinner at the Riverside Grill which is the restaurant in the Best Western. The restaurant is rated pretty high on Yelp but is nothing to write home about. It has typical American-Italian fare. The tomato soup and house garlic bread are pretty good. We also got a fairly good bottle of 2009 Merlot. But the main entrees were all lackluster.

Sunset sky at Hood River seen from the Oregon side near the Bridge Of Gods

Bend and a trip back to Crater Lake!

October 16 -

Benham Falls trail from the park

Benham Falls

We woke up to a bright, sunny day. No rains in the forecast! yaay! After the included breakfast at Fairfield Inn (MIL went on a long walk by the river park which she thoroughly enjoyed), we headed out south on Hwy 97. We were deciding whether to make the trip to Crater Lake considering the sunny weather forecast. Meanwhile we pulled over towards the Lava Lands National Park. This is the exit I was told to take, to go to Newberry National Monument but the park entrance seemed to be closed. So I continued driving towards Benham Falls state park. The road ends in a small parking lot by the river where a trailhead marks the trail to Benham Falls (~0.5m) and other falls in the area (3-7 miles distance). The walk to Benham falls was very nice - the cooperating weather made it even more enjoyable. The falls itself wasnt really a waterfall ... just the river gushing over an outcropping of rock. Nevertheless we had a good time with the walk and taking pics (of course!)

A road to the clouds... drive around the Crater Lake rim

We walked back to our car and decided to take a chance and drive to Crater Lake. We did the 2 hour drive with a short stop to fill gas before hitting hwy 138 and buying some snacks (there are no real restaurants close to Crater Lake unless you count the snack shop/restaurant at Rim Village). We reached the north entrance to the park close to 1 pm. We decided to go around the lake going from the west towards the east. The weather was clear blue sunny skies! Our first stop at Pumice Point did not disappoint - it offered us breathtaking views of the vista. The lake is all it is made out to be - a deep blue like no other and fantastic panoramic views. Our next stop was at Cleetwood Cove trail. There is no lookout here but the start of a 1m trail that leads to the lake and (in summer) to the boat tours. We went a short distance down but skipped the full hike down. It seemed worth doing but we decided it was better to focus on going around the lake. We then stopped at Cloudcap overlook and Phantom ship overlook - both give different views of the lake. From the Phantom ship overlook, a short drive away from the lake is The Pinnacles. A 7 mile drive takes you to this stop where you can see a view of the volcanic fumaroles.

The Pinnacles

After a short break here and being mesmerized by these volcanic formations, we drove out to the rim road. We continued on the east rim route and intended to stop at Vidae falls. This falls is right next to the rim road on the right. But we took a left turn away from the lake after reading a sign for "Vidae". This happens to be the road to the Vidae picnic area and the entrance to the trailhead for several hikes. These hiking trails were closed at this time but looked pretty tempting for a summer visit. After a confusing roundabout near the picnic area (where we thankfully found restrooms - there are no restrooms at any other point from Pumice Point!!) - we headed out, only to realize the falls was to our right on the rim road itself. The falls was pretty tiny - no snow yet to feed the falls. It looked like it might be pretty spectacular in spring or early summer with all the melting snow. We continued our drive along the east rim road to the Rim Village, where we grabbed a bite to eat ($4 for PB&J, anyone??? yikes!) and had some really good latte and cappuccino. The views from behind the restaurant and gift shop are pretty neat too. DH got some postcards to mail his friends from school at the gift shop. After a couple of more stops at Discovery Point and Watchman Overlook we headed back to Bend. Discovery Point is the location from where the lake was discovered by a mule rider whose mule suddenly stopped at the edge of the crater and surprised his rider. DH wondered how many stops we could possibly take to view the same lake??!! We had spent 4 hours at Crater Lake and the view from every angle is completely worth it if you are a fan of landscapes and the beauty of nature! My camera certainly loved it! :P

A pano view of the lake & Wizard Island

The drive back to Bend was uneventful and took us 2 hours. DH chose a Lebanese/middle eastern cuisine restaurant after our debacle with the Indian one the previous night. Joolz, the restaurant in downtown Bend, turned out to be very nice. The decor is quite impressive and we walked into lively chatter and very welcoming servers/hosts. Our server, Fibia (I think) was fantastic. We had several vegetarian tapas - every one of which was scrumptious! DH had a cod dish which was also very good. The cocktails were excellent and so was the date cake we ordered for dessert. I definitely recommend the place!

An awesome end to an amazing day of visual treats followed by culinary delights! :D

Crater lake

October 15 - 

The next morning our plans to go for a walk/hike up to the nearby waterfalls were squashed by the continuous rains. So instead we got ready and took in the beauty and charm of the resort and the log cabins! We really loved our accommodations and resolved to return in the summer - such is the charm of Oregon!! After a very hearty and heavy breakfast at Beckie's (which is a 85-year old tradition on Hwy 62), we checked out of the resort and decided to see some of the falls nearby.

Natural Bridges Falls

The road to Natural bridge viewpoint is 1 mile south of union creek on Hwy 62 to the right. Drive on the road till you get to the parking lot. A short walk later is a bridge to view the falls. The falls is quite lovely and you can see some amazing "natural bridges" formed from lava tubes. 

After walking around the falls and taking plenty of pics, we headed towards Crater Lake which is about 23 miles from Union Creek resort. Unfortunately for us, the visibility today was extremely poor. We attempted a drive along the west rim road but after stopping at a lookout and being blasted by cold, almost freezing winds - we gave up on seeing Crater Lake! This was a huge disappointment since we made this long detour and drive just to see the lake. It was not to be! So we just started driving towards Bend. In retrospect, we should have checked out some more falls in the area. We didnt stop to think or plan. Drive to Bend was smooth for the most part, except for some traffic congestion along hwy 97. On the way, we stopped at the High Desert Museum. This is definitely worth a short visit but its $15 pp. If you are in the area to do other activities this can be skipped. I certainly enjoyed taking pics of the butterflies in the live butterflies and hummingbird exhibit, the rattlers, owls, eagles etc. We also saw some nice fall colors on the way to Bend as well as in downtown Bend where we stopped for coffee at Looney Bean Roasting Company. This place has good coffee and an even better view of the river. We were staying at the Fairfield Inn, in downtown Bend. Its a nice place - nothing special - but good enough. We decided to have dinner at an Indian restaurant for my in-laws' sake. Dinner at Taj Palace on Wall St. in downtown Bend was probably one of the worst Indian food I have eaten! :(

Its been raining considerably this evening in Bend. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a clearer day so we can enjoy the town.

Note: the Fairfield Inn is next to train tracks. So expect to hear trains going by and hooting at all odd hours of the night! :-/

Lincoln city to Union Creek

October 14 -
Note about Surfrider Resort: like I mentioned the buildings are old, so if your room is on the first floor and you have noisy folks upstairs (like we did) you will hear every footstep! In case you are a light sleeper ask for a room upstairs during reservation. The resort does have excellent WiFi connection though. Kinda makes up for being kept awake, since you can post and update your blogs then!!! :P

I woke up early and attempted to take pictures of the beautiful shoreline. But there was a light drizzle and mist so visibility was pretty low. 

View from our room at the Surfrider Resort, Depoe Bay

We then headed towards Lincoln City to Beach Dog cafe. Once again, the Google maps marker was incorrect and the cafe was a little south of the marker. We found it after some looking around (& sending several bug reports to Google). This is a fun little place right on hwy 101, dedicated to dogs but serving food to two-legged folks...excellent food! I had 'kristina's stuffed French toast'...as mentioned on 4sq, its excellent. Every thing else ordered on the table was pretty good too. We left completely satisfied and with very full tummies. We then headed further south to Captain Dan's pirate pastry shop in the hopes of grabbing some 'world famous cinnamon rolls'. World famous..they certainly were not!
We then started on our journey south towards Newport. The Oregon coastline is beautiful - rugged tall cliffs facing the waves of the ocean while lined up with tall pine trees and other trees starting to show fall colors. We  stopped on the way several times to take pictures....finally reaching Newport around noon. We stopped at historic Nye beach, which looked lovely but rain kept us from exploring it further. Took another stop on the other side of the bridge for taking pictures, then headed south on 101 towards Reedsport. On the way, we halted near the Yaquina bay bridge, got a glimpse of the lighthouse...then made our way further south to the sea lion caves. We paid $10 a pop to walk down to the elevator in the hillside and descend 200ft into the caves. There were no sea lions today but the cave looked fascinating. Maybe not worth $10 though. However on a bright day, the views alone would be worth the price! My aim was to head south to go to the Oregon sand dunes national park. Again google maps kinda ruined this for us. We followed the directions and ended up way south of the actual location (which we never figured out cuz we got so late trying to figure where we were). The navigation led us off hwy 101 on Sparrow Park Rd towards the beach for some 4-5 miles. The road was unpaved and looked suspect but I wouldn't give up my faith in google! :-/

Much to my DH's annoyance, I insisted we go to the end of the unpaved path... we ended up at one of the most pristine beaches I have seen but the wind and cold weather made hanging out there impossible. I flexed some photography muscles and we headed out of there. 

Umpqua Beach at Reedsport - mistakenly ended up here thinking its the Sand Dunes!!

Deciding to give up on finding the actual Sand Dunes, we headed into Reedsport. My search abilities got us into Reedsport Natural Foods store - where we had some smoothies, paninis and burger. Its a mom-n-pop natural food store and cafe with a small town feel and speed. We had to wait a good half hour or longer to get our food! The subway 2 blocks up the street might have been a better choice! :P After a somewhat slow and late lunch, we loaded up on some groceries in Safeway and headed out towards Crater Lake. The drive was going to be a good 3.5 hours long and it was already about 4pm when we started out. A short distance out of Reedsport we saw a whole herd of Elk grazing! This was at a viewpoint just before Deens Creek. They looked magnificent but we didnt stop (unfortunately) coz we wanted to cover most of the distance to Union Creek before nightfall.  Inspite of the urgency to reach our destination, we stopped at a small park called Scottsburg Park to satisfy my need to take a family portrait with the fall colors as background! :-P

View from Scottsburg Park

I managed to take some more pics along the mighty Umpqua River enroute to Union Creek. The drive from Roseburg off of I-5 to Union Creek is long - 84 miles along state hwy 138, then on route 230, onto 62. At mile marker 56 is Union Creek Resort. We reached after nightfall, so couldnt tell how pretty the resort is. We got a 6-sleeper cabin - C#7 - which is cozy and charming and can easily sleep 6. It has a spacious kitchen and bathroom. There is absolutely no cell coverage in the area and for most of the drive into the area. No television. Very rustic and charming getaway! We reached a little after 8pm and both the convenience store in the resort and the restaurant close by 8pm. Luckily we had some food to cook up that we picked up from the grocery store in Reedsport. Maggi noodles would have been a great choice but we didnt think of that before. Yet rice+buttermilk+chips wasnt too bad! :) We retired early tonight.

Oregon coast

Walkway in RiverPlace

October 13 - we woke up to a cloudy sky but thankfully no rains. The weather was perfect for a nice long morning walk. DS and I took a walk along the Willamette river, while DH went for a 7 mile run around it. It was a refreshing walk and the entire area called Riverplace is very charming and boutique-ish! :) I didnt have the chance to actually explore the shops or restaurants along the path but they looked enticing enough to warrant another trip to the city! Since our plan was to drive to the coast today, we headed back to Residence Inn for our "included" breakfast (available till 10 am. After a hearty breakfast of oatmeal, scrambled eggs, pancakes, waffles and some pretty decent coffee, we started towards Lincoln city around 11 am. 

View Oregon Roadtrip in a larger map

We headed south on I-5, then took state hwy 99W. Driving south-west on 99W we passed many wineries, so decided to stop by one of them. We took a pit stop at Sokol Blosser Winery. The drive into the vineyard was nice and the humidity in the air made the surroundings look crisp and clean. We did the $15 wine tasting of 6 different wines - a pinot gris, 4 different pinot noir and 1 dessert wine. The desert wine was pretty good but at $40 a pop we didnt think it was worth buying. After walking around, taking a few pictures and picnicking on some food that we had brought along, we started on the route towards Lincoln City. We made another detour to look at Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum where we drove around and looked at the planes outside but did not go into the museum. We also stopped at a farm and bought some hazelnuts - had never had those before so it was an experience eating them. We reached Lincoln City a little after 2 pm and the fall kite festival was in progress at the D River State Park. It was cloudy and chilly but the kite flyers were out there in full force! We stood mesmerized as a team of 6 flew kites in sync with the musical theme of Star Wars - it was so perfectly choreographed that we stunned to see the kites go up, down, around and even do bows in the air! Absolutely amazing. Then DS got the chance to try his hand at some kite flying - it was pretty neat to watch him learn to control a 4-string kite!

6 kites flying in sync with the Star Wars theme music

We then headed to our place of stay for the night: Surfrider Resort at Depoe Bay, about 20 mins south of Lincoln City. The resort is set on a cliff facing the ocean - so ocean views for every room. The resort itself is very old which is noticeable in the room construction and furnishings but its a clean place. Also, in the summer and possibly into Autumn, one can see whales in the ocean. Unfortunately, we didnt see any although they were spotted a few days before we got there! It has a restaurant on property which we did not try. Instead we ended up at a Thai restaurant called Thai Bay in Depoe Bay. Note that Google maps (as of Oct 13, 2012) gives the location of this place incorrectly. Its next to the Whale Museum, after one crosses the bridge in Depoe Bay. Its a hole in the wall but very clean and utilitarian furnishings. The portions are large (and I mean large!) and their "medium" is pretty spicy (coming from an Indian - this means SPICY). But the food is good, especially on a freezing cold day! We packed plenty of leftovers and headed back. The rest of the evening was spent in the warmth of the hotel room at the resort... it was too cold to venture out and explore anything at all although the beach at the back of the resort looked very interesting.

On our way to Portland, Oregon

Our flights from SD to Portland via Salt Lake City went without incident. We have to pay now for every check in bag!!! Yikes!! Landed in Portland around 11 pm to clear skies (after much rain all day, apparently) & to DH waiting in a rental car. After a 20 min drive, we arrived at the Residence Inn by Marriott in downtown Portland. This is a rather conveniently located hotel in downtown with free continental breakfast and clean rooms.

Salt Lake City, Utah

A weekend trip to salt lake city just sort of happened and we flew in on Delta airlines on January 27, 2012. We had an interesting landing where the plane started taxiing on the runway, probably the plane over-shot (not sure but could be due to wind...the pilot did not explain) and took off again after touching ground!! After a second safe attempt, we disembarked, got our Cadillac Escalade from Hertz car rental at the airport and headed to Cottonwood. We were booked at the Residence Inn by Marriott, which is a clean and nice hotel to stay in and not too far from Brighton ski resort. After freshening up we took a drive up the mountain to Brighton. The drive is beautiful, with brown-red rock mountains covered with snow and conifers lining up the mountainside, their branches laden with pure white snow!! After getting familiar with our options at Brighton, we headed back and drove to downtown Salt Lake city. We drove past the state capitol building, stopping for some pictures, then headed over to Temple Square.

Salt Lake Temple

I took some pictures of the Salt Lake Temple which looked beautiful under the night sky.
We then visited the north visitors center, which is home to an impressive 11-foot statue of Jesus Christ known as the Christus. After looking at a few exhibits describing Mormon philosophy and beliefs, we headed back towards Cottonwood. Dinner was at Market street grill - decent seafood place in Cottonwood. We called it an early night!