mohaus: Discovering Oregon

Showing posts with label Discovering Oregon. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 12 (Oregon)

Day 12 was more low key for us. We slept in, did some school work, did laundry, then took the kids sledding at Annie’s Creek. It was icy and slushy thanks to recent warm afternoons, but the kids still had a good time. We are soaking in our last 24 hours with cousins.

Monday, March 29, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 11 (Smith Rock in Oregon)

It's our 11th day of our trip and we got up and drove to Bend to visit Smith Rock State Park. It was pretty epic! Stunning views. We hiked a little over five miles on the Misery Ridge Trail. We started in the river canyon before making our way up past Monkey Rock and over Smith Rock. It was challenging and miserable but amazing. And we all did it. It might have taken some “angry” hiking for one or two littles but angry hiking is better than whiny hiking! It was a beautiful day and I’m grateful to be spending this time with my siblings. My brother ended his time with us after the hike and our family has a couple more days left in this area.

We had such a fun (and tiring) day hiking at Smith Mountain State Park today. The kids were troopers and did a 5 mile loop, including the Misery Trail right over the top of the ridge. It was rated Extremely Difficult, but they did it with minimal complaining.

This was our 24th hike in 2021 (24/52) and we walked 6 miles next to a river and up over a mountain on a trail called Misery. This brings us to 70 miles hiked this year.

Friday, March 26, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 8 (Crater Lake in Oregon)

We spent the morning at Crater Lake with family. It was a gorgeous day to be up there. Thankfully we went early and missed the crowds. Daniel and I visited here back in 2005 in the summer. Loved coming back with our kids and exploring from the south entrance in the snow. We got out park stamp here but will have to mail in for our Jr. Ranger badge later since their program is currently suspended due to COVID.

Day 8 of our trip had a rocky start. The boys woke me up at 5am saying they couldn’t stop shivering. Evidently our heater had stopped working in the middle of the night. It got down to 21 last night, so a little chilly! Electric blankets have been the MVPs of this trip, but the boy’s blankets weren’t on. So when the heat stopped, they froze. We were supposed to get up early and go to Crater Lake this morning, but we weren’t sure if Daniel would get it fixed in time to go. We set a goal of leaving by 9:30am and thankfully D got the heat working in time to go to Crater with us — after a lot of troubleshooting, he discovered there was fuzz blocking a switch inside the heater. Crater Lake was a fun day trip, we are all a little sunburned though.

This was our 21st hike in 2021 (21/52). Though not on an official trail, we walked 2.5 miles in the snow around the south rim of Crater Lake. This brings us to 59.5 miles hiked this year.

Thursday, March 25, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 7 (Lake of the Woods in Oregon)

We have had a good start to our time in Oregon. We went to Lake of the Woods where we spent the afternoon playing on the frozen lake. It is so fun to do this with my brother, and my sister and her family.

Building a 6+ foot snowman on top of the frozen lake with Uncle Mark.

We spent most of our time at Lake of the Woods building an igloo put on the snow. It was a group effort. We stopped to eat lunch (the boys ate in the half finished igloo). While there it went from sunny to snowy and back to sunny and then windy and frigid. The kids stuck with it and finished by the time we were ready to leave. Then the boys had a blast knocking it over!

Day 7 of our trip and our first full day in Oregon. We did a grocery run. Grabbed coffee from a local place (Dutch Bros.) then headed up to Lake of the Woods for the day (see last three posts). We wore ourselves out having snowball fights, building a gigantic snowman and an igloo. The boys voted the igloo as the best part of the day. Isaac said he wants to come here every winter and that it was totally worth driving for six days to get here. I spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry while Daniel ran some errands in town. We ended the night with my brother-in-laws amazing fajitas and a movie.

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Moores Go West: Day 6 (Oregon and FAMILY)

We stayed at the Knolls OHV land just east of the Bonneville Salt Flats last night. I have a feeling we will be back to this spot in a few years, but with dirt bikes in tow. We couldn’t cross the salt flats without stopping to check them out. We all licked salt and Jack found several large crystals. After the salt flats we continued our trek northwest.

Day 6 of our trip was a big travel day to complete the first leg of this trip. We have now driven about 2,700 miles. After leaving the Knolls and Salt Flats, we drove through some pretty desolate sections of northern Nevada and then into southern Oregon. We noticed that this area of Nevada doesn’t put much stock in guard rails! It was a really pretty, though lonely area of the country. At one point we went 154 miles without seeing a single gas station! Thankfully we have a second fuel tank on our truck and we’re able to make the drive with the fuel we had on board. After a full day of driving, we rolled into the campground my sister and her family are currently staying at in time for a late dinner. The next leg of our trip will be visiting and site seeing in southern Oregon with my siblings. Looking forward for slower days and having some fun.

Monday, June 18, 2007

Marketing a "State"

Crater Lake

The state or Oregon has done an excellent job of marketing their tourist industry. I am always intrigued by their print ads that can be seen in Backpacker magazine. The marketing also ties beautifully into their web site. The site and ads feature clean, crisp design, good typography and excellent photography that all work together to tell a story.

Last summer my husband and I took a 10-day trip to Oregon. We rented a car, visited some college friends and drove all over the state. During the course of our trip, we visited the Columbia River Gorge, picturesque Multnomah Falls, we hiked up 9000+ foot South Sister Mountain, toured a lava tube, drove around Crater Lake and drove up the scenic coastal highway. It was a wonderful experience and every time I see the Oregon advertising, it reminds me of my adventures the summer of 2006. Oregon really does live up to its advertising.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Outdoor Adventures | 2006 edition

I have journaled regularly since I was kid. 2006 was the year I shifted from writing about our adventures in a journal to writing on this blog. I still have stacks of journals that I may try to convert to a digital format some day. This little space is my personal effort to document life as we know it and the adventures we take.

We took two big trips in 2006. We also started mountain biking pretty regularly in the Charlotte area, but no blogs posts about those experiences. Renovating pretty much took all of our time

February
My first ski trip | Snow Shoe, WV

July
Vacation in Oregon | Multnomah Falls, Mount Hood, South Sister, Bend, Crater Lake, Oregon Dunes Recreation Area, Haceeta Head

Friday, July 14, 2006

Oregon 2006

We are back from our much needed vacation to Oregon. We had a wonderful time and were able to see a good portion of the state of Oregon.

We spent our first couple of day's with Lisa & Erik Granberg (Lisa was one of my college roommates). We met their little guy, David, who seemed to be instantly attached to Daniel. Our time there we constantly heard David calling out: Where's Daniel?

Day 1 of sightseeing included a trip to Multnomah Falls, followed by a drive around Mt Hood and camping at Lost Lake.

Day 2 of sightseeing involved driving to Bend and then out to Elk Lake. Attempting a hike to the Six Lakes Area and turning back after a mosquito feeding fest. Staying at a rustic cabin at Elk Lake.

Day 3 of sightseeing was spent hiking on the South Sister Moutain - we made it to the lip of the crater of this extinct volcano but decided that we could not endure the hiking on scree to the actual summit. We rewarded ourselves to a nice hotel with a soft bed and hot shower after this long day of hiking.

Day 4 we explored Bend, OR and then tried to find a wild Lava Cave. It was blocked. We then went to an Ice Cave that is now full of water instead of ice. We then paid to go to the National Forest Lava River Cave. Due to time restraints we only saw a portion - this type of cave is definitely different from the limestone caves we are used to. We the drove on to Crater Lake where we camped.

Day 5 we headed for the coast and experienced riding 4-wheelers on 200 ft sand dunes at the Oregon Dunes Recreational Area. We drove up the coast and camped at Cape Perpetua where we were rewarded to an awesome sunset over the Pacific Ocean.

Day 6 we continued up the coast in the fog, taking time to see the Haceeta Head Lighthouse and then the fishing town of Newport before heading back to the Granbergs in Salem, OR.

We had a wonderful time reconnecting with old friends as well as spending time doing the things we love.

mohaus