Oregon is most famous for its beautiful coastline, but there’s much more to this state than pretty beaches!

Each of these adventures deserves its own blog post, but since that will never happen (who has time for that?!?) I thought we’d give a quick run down of where we went and how we spent our time. If I have blogged about it, I’ll link to the specific post that will have more details.

Along the Coast

Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond: Most famous for the Wreck of the Peter Irendale, this is also a beautiful state park. The battery/fort was also fun to explore. blog post, website, google maps.

Lewis & Clark National Historic Park, Astoria: Great history, small fort, and we learned how to correctly pronounce Sacajawea’s name.  nps.gov, google maps.

Astoria Column, Astoria: Fun to climb up to the top, and you can even buy a small wooden airplane from the gift shop to throw off the top. blog post, website, google maps.

Saraha Pizza, Astoria: Great local pizza place where we chatted with another full time family we met at the column. Love local pizza! website, google maps.

Crabbing in Nehalem Bay: One of our favorite adventures to date! We rented a boat at Kelly’s Brighton Marina and tried our hand at catching crab along the Oregon Coast. blog post, website, google maps.

Hike Cascade Head near Lincoln City: Took advantage of a break from the rain and did an amazingly beautiful hike! blog post, website, google maps.

Driftwood Public Library, Lincoln City: Great library with a really fun children’s section. Attended their annual Halloween Party. blog post, website, google maps.

Swimming at the Lincoln City Community Center: WAY awesome pool with a slide, diving board, and a rope swing. The kids were in heaven! website, google maps.

Tillamock Cheese Factory: Great for a rainy afternoon (or any day for that matter). Short, self-led tour with signs and windows into the factory. Yummy cheese samples & then eat some ice cream! website, google maps.

Portland

Downtown Portland: Ride a bike along the river and over the bridges, visit the Children’s Museum or the Science Center, eat at the Stepping Stone Cafe (delicious pancakes), visit Powell’s Bookstore, eat at the Food Trucks, and get a donut from Blue Star (better than VooDoo).

Colombia River Gorge National Scenic Area: Beautiful vistas, and the famous Multnomah Falls. Totally worth the drive out there. blog post, google maps.

Vaux’s Swift Birds: seasonal in September, but so much fun if you are there at the right time! blog post, website, google maps

Inland

Valley of the Rogue State Park, Gold Hill: Spent quite a bit of time in this area over two visits. Visited the LDS Temple in Medford, the ScienceWorks Museum in Ashland, swam at the community pool, road the Bear Creek Greenway paved trail, datenight at Hellgate Jetboat excursions. website (state park), google maps.

High Desert Museum, Bend: Great outdoor/indoor museum and zoo that highlights the animals of the area. I found it a bit expensive for what was there, but we are zoo snobs. Porcupine talk was awesome. website, google maps.

Camp Dakota, Scotts Mills: Andrew specifically wanted to zip line for his birthday and this place was fantastic! Lots of other activities in addition to the zip line and a great place to stay. blog post, website, google maps.

Crater Lake National Park, Klamath: Worth hitting during the busy season to be able to tour the lake on a boat and hike Wizard Island. blog post, nps.gov, google maps.

Silver Falls State Park, Silverton: Hike the Trail of 10 falls in this beautifully scenic state park. blog post, website, google maps.

Oregon Caves National Monument, Cave Junction: Dropped the trailer at the chamber of commerce and did a day trip. Added to our long list of visited caves! blog post, nps.gov, google maps.

Lava River Cave, Bend: blog post, website, google maps

Eastern Side

John Day Fossil Beds National Monument: An out of the way park with three distinct units. We visited 2 of them. blog post,  nps.gov, google maps.

Clyde Holliday State Park