Wow…… that’s all I can say! Oregon was amazing, even though we hit torrential downpours, snow and everything in between. The scenery was stunning to say the least.
The first day was just a short trip – from home to Bellingham. Spent a wonderful night together enjoying a seafood buffet and then crashing early, as we had a long drive the following morning. So nothing fantastic on this day…… but…..
The following morning started with a fantastic breakfast buffet….. sure glad we had our fill as this was going to be a very long day – over 600km, and unfortunately, in mixed weather conditions. Regardless, we were excited, new roads, new territories and a completely new adventure. We’ve done a fair bit of Washington State, so seeing the south east portion along with part of Oregon would be exciting regardless of the the weather. As we were driving down Hwy 405 just outside of Bellevue, I happened to notice another couple traveling from BC. They had a beautiful setup, truck and 5th wheel. I tried to get their attention, but being on the highway, I had little hope. None the less, I noticed they had a sign on their rig ” start living again “….. and thought what an awesome idea. Low and behold, I noticed it was the name of their YouTube channel!!! Sent them a message, and subscribed – hope to hear from them once they return – or at least see some footage of their travels!!!
Finally we hit the Columbia River, Maryhill WA on one side, Biggs Junction in Oregon – a new milestone for Fiona, Tracey and myself. This was now the furthest south we had driven. I do kind of wish that we had MavBittopia with us, but at this time of year, its pretty difficult to dry out a tent in BC – especially when you don’t have indoor or underground parking. Not to mention the fact that I had already removed the tent and awning for winter storage. So we decided to cheat and hotel this trip. Saving up all our “points” over the year, really paid off – think we only had to pay for 2 nights out of 7, so it wasn’t bad at all. Finally we were in Oregon…. but wait… this doesn’t look like “another world”… it just looks like another part of BC & Washington….. little did we know what were would find on our trek!!! After almost 9 hours of “bombing down the highway”… we had arrived at our “home” for the next 2 nights – Prineville.
After crossing this river, we came to a small community called Grass Valley. A VERY fitting name, considering what their “major” crop was – literally grass – Mary Jane, smoke or whatever you want to call it. At first we thought the “unusual” smell was someone walking down the road – then we notice and entire field of freshly cut “grass” Sorry the picture is a bit blurry, but I’m sure you get the idea. Needless to say, considering we were in the USA, we sure didn’t expect to see this, let alone smell this!!!
Once we arrived – it was pretty much, dinner, shower, die…. I was exhausted, so we called it an early night. Not before Tracey did a bit more research though…. she found one of the only Rock Hounds still in existance in Prineville. Bill Quant. Very nice gent, tons of storys and an incredible back yard. It turned out to be a nice find for Tracey and her rock collection!!! Not so nice for poor Fiona – who had to carry 70lbs+ of rocks another 1200km!!
After we left the Rock Shop – we continued our adventure through the Oregon forest and found our way to Mount Pisgah. At almost 2100m about sea level we shouldn’t have been surprised, but we were when we encountered SNOW!!! I’ll be posting a video of this trip on our YouTube channel shortly. If you click on the link, it will take you to the Painted Hills video – a simply stunning place to visit!!
Well its dinner time…. so I’ll have to complete this another day….. I’ve got so much more to add…. but I think I’ll put the Oregon Coast in a separate blog….
If you are so inclined, you can view our route, via our Gaia site here: Oregon – Washington Loop
Thanks for sticking around – feel free to leave your comments below – we’d love to hear from you!!
