Part 1. Northern Yellowstone. I have lost count of how many times I have been to Yellowstone National Park. I have been there in the spring, summer, fall, and once a cursory drive by in very late winter, but it has long been on my bucket list to make a trip to the interior of […]
Sweet Creek Falls Although Sweet Creek Falls is the ultimate prize, this 2.2 mile roundtrip out-and-back trail is a beautiful and easy hike along a creek that cascades and tumbles through a canyon in the Coast Range near Mapleton, Oregon. The hike stretches to 2.4 miles if you climb to the upper viewpoint of Sweet […]
All Viewable in a Single Day! Tillamook State Forest is in the Coast Range between the Willamette Valley and the town of Tillamook on the Oregon coast. This area was devastated by four of the worst forest fires in Oregon history which occurred at six year intervals in 1933, 1939, 1945 and 1951. These wildfires […]
Oregon is blessed with many scenic waterfalls, and most are at their best during winter and spring when water flow is high. In this post, I am going to take you to five that are less than an hour from I-5, and all can be enjoyed in a single day. Four are in McDowell Creek […]
A Tectonic Masterpiece California has more national parks than any other state in the union with nine – Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Death Valley, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, Lassen, Redwood, Channel Islands, and the one that few people even know exists, Pinnacles National Park. Pinnacles National Park protects 26,685 acres of the southern region of the Gabilan […]
Natural Bridges State Beach Natural Bridges State Beach is a 65-acre park in California located between the Pacific Ocean and the city of Santa Cruz just to the north of Monterey Bay. The park is known for its tide pools, opportunities to view wildlife such as shorebirds, migrating whales and otters, and monarch butterfly visitors. […]
Elkhorn Slough is a seven-mile arm of the Monterey Bay between the cities of Santa Cruz and Monterey on the California Coast. This arm bends as it goes inland, and the Elkhorn Reserve lies at this bend. The Reserve is owned and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) which partners with […]
Part 4. Clarno Unit – John Day Fossil Beds. Today we will go from the most visited unit of the Fossil Beds (the Painted Hills) to the least visited (Clarno). Mitchell is the best epicenter for visiting all the units of the National Monument although it is a very small town. There are three restaurants, […]
Part 3. The Painted Hills. The tour route from Shaniko on OR-218 heads eastward through Cross Hollows into a remoteness that truly makes you feel as if you have been transported to another time and place. Today’s journey takes us east to Service Creek on OR-218 and then south on the OR-207 spur to Mitchell […]
Part 2. A Living Ghost Town. There are more than 80 ghost towns sprinkled throughout Oregon. The first stop on Oregon’s Journey Through Time Byway is 58 miles southeast of Biggs in Wasco County at the ghost town of Shanico. Shaniko traces its beginnings to August Scherneckau, a Civil War veteran, who began operating a […]