Grants Pass – RDZ Photography

We have reached the end of the trail – the Oregon Trail. Welcome to Oregon.

State Capital & History

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The Oregon State Capitol is in the city of Salem. This building was completed in the 1930s, replacing a more traditional looking building that dated from the 1870s. This building was destroyed in a major fire in 1935.

Symbols of the Day

State Crustacean – Dungeness Crab (photos from statesymbols.org)

State Mother – Tabitha Moffatt Brown. Tabitha was 66 years old in 1946 when she traveled the Oregon Trail from Missouri. Once there she built a home and school for orphans, as well as provided writings that gave a female view of the times she lived.

The traditional end of the Oregon Trail was in the town of Oregon City, now a Portland suburb.

Portland is the largest city in Oregon, and the center of business and industry. While Portland borrowed the expression ‘Keep … weird’ from Austin, Texas, it is well deserved, as the city has it’s own unique vibe in the arts, culture and entertainment.

It is a beautiful city, one of my favorites.

Portland is known as the Rose City – and it is appropriate. They even have an evening Rose Parade in May, but in true fashion it is not a bunch of floats of flowers like Pasadena, it is a colorful event that is billed as ‘The Cleanest Parade in the Country’, as the last few things to pass are street cleaners, and all the attendees put their trash away!

2016 06 04 137 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 100 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 131 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 96 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 92 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 126 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 115 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 104 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

2016 06 04 101 Portland Illuminated Rose Parade

Eugene is home to the University of Oregon. Along with nearby Cottage Grove it was also the filming location for Animal House.

Grants Pass has a number of fiberglass, decorated bears around town. Many are made and sold to raise money for local non profits.

Jacksonville is a picturesque small southern Oregon town. In the 1850s it was a gold rush town, today it thrives on tourism.

The Oregon Coast

1967 1969 1998

Florence, Oregon is a town of 9000 along the Oregon Coast, where it meets the Siuslaw River. It is also home to Sea Lion Caves, This massive cave is at the bottom of a 300′ high cliff.

Heceta Head Lighthouse is one of the postcard views of the coast.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse is another picturesque lighthouse just up the coast. Nearby coastal areas are teeming with life.

Tillamook once had a naval air station with blimps. As a result they have a massive World War II era hangar.

Lincoln City has a motel with a great collection of giant Tiki Men.

As we moved north we arrived in Seaside, which has a statue of Lewis and Clark at the Ocean, but they actually arrived further north at Astoria (next).

Astoria, Oregon is where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean. As noted it is where Lewis and Clark founded Fort Clatsop. It has a long fishing industry history.

Volcanoes and Mountains

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Oregon is filled with volcanoes.

Crater Lakes is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been. It is situated high in the mountains, and gets pounded by snow all winter. We arrived in early June when the roads had just opened.

Crater Lake is a result of a collapse of a volcano. As a result it is the deepest lake in the country, with a depth of almost 2000′.

It is home to a National Park.

Waterfalls

1974 20000 2015

Oregon has numerous beautiful waterfalls, most are along the Columbia River Gorge east of Portland.

Multnomah Falls is the tallest at 611′, but there are many beautiful waterfalls in this area and beyond,

The Rouge Gorge downhill from Crater Lake has a number of smaller ones, but still a beautiful setting.

Day 11 was a fairly uneventful day. Leaving Ashland going north on I-5 up the Rogue Valley, with our first stop being Grants Pass, where their effort at public art are fiberglass bears decorated with local flair.

Our first stop is at a Wildlife Safari, where we opted to just walk around the small animal park bypassing the alternative of an extensive drive through the open range of large animals but chose to walk the path of the small animal park. I saw a kookaburra for the first time, a Burmese python, maned wolf, and a few other small animals before we took off on Interstate 5 North.

Cottage Grove is the town where the parade scene for the movie Animal House and some scenes for Stand by Me were filmed. There was not much for us to do there but walk about trying to recall movie scenes. I recalled certain spots in the movie as we walked down the street, specifically the store where Bluto (John Belushi) came flying down from the roof holding onto a torn banner. The town also had more than a dozen painted murals.

Eugene, Oregon was our next stop and this town also provided areas for filming the movie Animal House. We saw the fraternity house where the actor, Kevin Bacon, in his first movie asked, “May I have another, sir.”

Keeping with our goal to eat local as much as possible we had lunch at the First National Tap house in Eugene. After lunch we went to the industrial west side of town to find the clock museum, which was on the list for us to see in Eugene but it was closed. The clock shop across the street said the clock museum closed permanently a month earlier when the owner retired.

Eugene is known as Track Town, a result of their long history of track and field, as well as the birthplace of Nike shoes. On campus in town is Hayward Field, one of the most well known track and field stadiums in America, built in 1921.

As we continued walking around the campus, we decided to take a break. While sitting there two ducks waddled in front of the bench where I sat. Thoroughly amused since the mascot of the University of Oregon are the Ducks, thus provided the perfect photo op, I started clicking away.

Later we drove to the edge of town where a newer football stadium is located, which of course I needed to check out, as well as a visit to the gift shop for a Oregon Ducks t shirt.

After checking Tripadvisor.com, we went to McMenamin’s Pub for dinner, sitting outside on the deck overlooking the Willamette River, perfect for watching people jog and bike on the path next to us. It was only a short walk for us from our hotel, La Quinta through the park and up the bike path.

The restaurant had an eclectic menu, including out choices of pasta with elk meatballs and a spicy sauce and a hamburger with bacon and fried egg.

On the walk back to the hotel, quite a few homeless people set up camp to spend the night. In the end this was the least interesting day, but the beautiful 85^oF weather with no clouds all day made up for it.