Although Jacqui and I have lived in the USA now for over 30 years, we had never visited Oregon. Last year we explored Washington State with our Cascades Road Trip and so earlier in 2026 we decided to book vacation resorts for our Oregon exploration. But where to go? This sounds somewhat foolish in retrospect, but as we have a points-based timeshare with Wyndham, I decided to look at their locations in Oregon and see what was available for August. It turned out I could book three Worldmark locations – Bend, Klamath Falls and Seaside. Great, I thought – mountains, waterfalls and the coast. What could be better? And so, without even glancing at a map, I booked our vacation in those locations and organized some flights to Portland with 13 days to see the best of Oregon.
As you can see from this map of the main driving route, Klamath Falls was a long way away from anywhere and doesn’t even have waterfalls! As I will explain later, after arriving late in the afternoon after hours of driving, we actually stayed just one night there and then visited the Lava Beds before hightailing it back to Bend the next day! I’ve got nothing against the resort there, but the location was just not what we expected. You live and learn, I guess!
The adjusted 13-day Oregon Adventure Itinerary
- Day 1 – travel from Austin to Portland and drive to Bend
- Days 2 and 3 – Exploring Bend and surrounding areas
- Day 4 – Drive to Klamath Falls via the Cascade Lakes and Crater Lake
- Day 5 – Lava Beds National Monument and return to Bend
- Days 6 and 7 – Further exploration around Bend and Central Oregon
- Day 8 – Drive via the McKenzie Pass to the coast and Seaside
- Days 9 and 10 – Exploring the north Oregon Coast and Astoria
- Day 11 – Drive to Portland
- Day 12 – Explore the Columbia Valley and historic Portland
- Day 13 – Back to the airport and fly to Austin
What to expect on this extended photo trip to Oregon
I’m a professional photographer and as you will see from my many articles on this website, I love to travel around the world and capture images that people will enjoy as prints on their wall. My wife is less keen on sitting for hours waiting for the perfect light! So, every trip needs to be a balance between some photo excursions and some interesting historic and educational sites. This trip was no different, in fact, it turned out to be the perfect balance as I hope will become clear as the articles develop. Incidentally, if you would like a wall print of any of these images, I will be linking through to my portfolio as I complete work on them. In the meantime, please contact me.
This first article gives an overview of the entire vacation and then I will dig deeper into each area in separate articles, all illustrated by the best photographs I was able to capture. A word for budding photographers though. I often try to see the galleries of professional photographers in the areas we visit. In Cannon Beach, for instance, there is a fantastic gallery, Images of the West, full of the most dramatic metal prints of Oregon, Washington State and beyond. Did I capture anything like that? No. A local photographer has so many opportunities to visit places when the light is just right – fantastic sunset, dramatic sea waves, clear air (we faced the smoky skies from the 2026 wildfires). So, you just have to do your best and perhaps focus on scenes where the weather has less impact – waterfalls, for instance.
These are the articles I am planning. I will link to them as they are completed in the coming weeks.
- Central Oregon and Bend highlights
- Southern Volcanic Loop and Klamath Falls
- Crossing the Cascades to the Pacific Coast
- Northern Oregon Coast and Astoria
- The Columbia River Gorge
Oregon Tour Overview – the road to Bend
If you’ve ever planned a photo excursion around precise golden hours and dramatic mountain landscapes, you know that the travel gods don’t always check your itinerary. Jacqui and I set out for a multi-week exploration of Oregon with a clear photographic focus: raw volcanic geology, roaring water features, and the rugged Pacific coastline. But right out of the gate, United Airlines handed us a three-hour delay into Portland.
Arriving late in the afternoon made tackling the dark mountain passes toward Bend completely unfeasible. Rather than risk a stressful night drive, we used some of our Wyndham points for an emergency overnight near PDX and forfeited our first night at our timeshare. In retrospect, this turned out to be a great move. We were able to leave our hotel reasonably early and take our time exploring that first part of the trip. In fact, we didn’t arrive in Bend until around 4pm that day, having visited Little Zigzag Falls and the original Barlow Road over the mountains here, Government Camp for coffee, the historic Timberline Lodge and then Trillium Lake. Just a bit of advice. We drove to the Lake, then realized that we should have purchased the Annual US Forestry pass that lets you into many of the lakes and parking areas. We drove back to Government Camp to buy one (at $30) but later realized that the America the Beautiful card which we have as a Senior Lifetime pass would also have allowed us into exactly the same areas. A bit of advance research is a wonderful thing!
Exploring Bend and Central Oregon
As I explained above, we had two distinct times in Bend. On our Cascades Loop Tour in Washington State, we booked a series of hotels and so each day was started with packing our cases and checking out. If you are a young hiker with just a backpack, that is no trouble, but as you get older, the things you bring with you tend to grow as your waistband grows. This time, I planned it differently and actually reserved seven nights in the Worldmark Seventh Mountain resort even though we planned to head to Klamath Falls for three nights in the middle of that. We also used the trick of keeping our clothes on the hangers from Seventh Mountain and simply laying them across the rear seat of our car for the trip. Packing was then no trouble. This worked so well that we bought a set of 14 plastic hangers from Walmart for about $3 and repeated the trick for our move to Seaside.
Bend is a lovely city and this resort was perfect. With a rear balcony overlooking the river in the distance, we had an endless series of birds and small mammals entertain us when we rested in the evening.
I’m a big believer in making use of the 2-hour time difference between Texas and Oregon to get up early for sunrise and so the next morning I was at Sparks Lake while it was still dark and make my way by flashlight along the paved trail to the water. The sunrise was not brilliant (in the sense of magical cloud formations) but the calm water reflections made up for it.
So just what did we do in our extended time in Bend? A great dinner on the first evening at Zydeco Kitchen in downtown – great service and a wide range of Gluten-free options from starters to desserts. We probably ate too much, but it was a fantastic start to our vacation. Over the days, we visited Paulina Peak and the big Obsidian Flow, Tumalo Falls, the walk up Pilot Butte in Bend for an early sunrise view of the city, an early morning (and also late evening) viewing of Benham Falls which are just a short drive from our resort, Smith Rock State Park.
I took my drone to Oregon for this trip and carefully researched where I could fly without breaking the rules or annoying people. This view of Benham Falls was taken just after sunrise when the temperature was just above freezing, and I must admit to being a little worried as I lowered the drone into the canyon in the mist off the raging water to capture this view.
We did also take the advice of our AI planner to visit Lava Butte and drive to the summit. But, of course, you cannot do that – there is a shuttle that you take to the summit and we just missed it. Another word of advice – triple check what an AI system tells you! But we did continue our trip to spend the afternoon at the High Desert Museum and had a great lunch there before exploring the exhibits and the grounds. A very worthwhile excursion.
Scenic Drive from Bend to Klamath Falls
Speaking of believing AI systems – I asked for a scenic driving plan from Bend to Klamath Falls. The plan called for a drive along the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway, followed by a detour to Crater Lake, entering in the north entrance and driving the rim to the south entrance and finally heading along to Klamath Falls. Total distance was estimated at 137 miles and around 2.5 hours of driving. What actually happened – the true driving distance was 220 miles and around five hours of driving on these small winding roads! When I later asked what had gone wrong, I got the usual apology that AI systems can get things wrong, and it had estimated the distance and time on the direct route even though it was recommending a very different plan. We did enjoy it but were weary when we arrived at the Running Y resort and told that the nearest store to get some milk and a bit of food was another 8 miles away. When I then asked the AI for the most interesting places to visit near Klamath Falls, I didn’t get very many! That was when our plan to return to Bend started to develop. But before that, the journey down there was actually pretty spectacular.
The Lava Dams of Davis Lake
One of our favorite explorations in this section of the vacation was taking the drive south along the Cascade Lakes scenic routes toward Davis Lake. We had first seen the obsidian blocks by the side of the road, but it is hard to believe that before this time we didn’t really know very much about the volcanic history of Oregon. But just driving along the road we saw the massive lava flow just off to the right. What on earth was that, and it was so devoid of vegetation that we assumed it was a recent eruption. We had seen the lava on the Big Island of Hawaii but rarely had seen lava so close. We saw a small road which appeared to go around the end of the lava flow and so ended up by Davis Lake. We now know that approximately 5,200 years ago, a massive eruption sent a thick wall of dark blocky andesite lava pouring down the valley, completely damming Odell Creek and impounding the water to form the lake itself.
Onwards to Crater Lake and Klamath Falls
As we continued our drive, I thought that we just need to detour to Crater Lake but would be in Klamath Falls pretty soon! Little did I know! Crater Lake is as impressive as you think it is going to be. High, clear mountain air and impossibly blue water in the crater. A little difficult to get something really unique to photograph as you are obviously restricted to the overlooks as you drive south.
Some of the trees overlooking the crater are really attractive though – shaped into grotesque formations and I didn’t even notice the moss or more likely lichen on this one until I processed the image. Definitely a highlight of the day.
Klamath Falls and the Lava Beds National Monument
At long last, we arrived at Klamath Falls and the Worldmark Resort. But where are the falls. It seems like they were swallowed into some hydroelectric project some years ago! And our drive into town to visit Walmart didn’t fill us with enthusiasm for the area. I can’t complain about the view from our balcony though:
The next morning, we left early to head to the Lava Beds National Monument over the border in California. This location was another completely unknown destination to us, and we were very pleasantly surprised. The visitor center was very informative about both the geology and also the very unfortunate history of the native people in this area and we first toured the only lit cave system in the park, the Mushpot. The caves themselves are lava tubes left as the lava flows cooled after the eruptions that covered the area and range from very large to narrow and small which definitely require hard hats and a lot of care. I decided to try my luck with the Valentine Cave and headed down with my tripod and provided flashlight (a phone light just will not cut it in these completely dark caves). With a 30 second exposure and moving my flashlight round to try to highlight the interesting parts of the cave, I ended up with this view.
We had decided that we would head back to Bend at this point, and so we drove back to Klamath Falls, had something to eat in our room, packed up and headed back on the direct route to the Seventh Mountain Resort in Bend for another couple of days.
The Scenic Transfer: Sisters, McKenzie Pass & Sahalie Falls
Leaving Bend for the coast, we crafted an itinerary that turned a standard transfer drive into a full day of exploration.
McKenzie Pass (OR-242) & Dee Wright Observatory
We had planned to visit Sisters from Bend as a day trip, but we decided to turn it into a stop on our route to the coast. We found it to be a great little place for our morning coffee at Angeline’s Bakery and Cafe with a wide range of Gluten-free cakes and snacks on offer as well! After being topped up with caffeine, we turned onto Highway 242 and the narrow, winding pass which cuts directly through 65 square miles of black lava fields.
At the summit sits the Dee Wright Observatory, an open-stone structure built from local lava rock by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. Peak-viewing portals built into the stone walls frame Mount Washington, North Sister, and Belknap Crater perfectly.
Sahalie Falls
Descending the west side of the pass onto Highway 126, we stopped at Sahalie Falls. An effortless 100-yard walk from the parking area leads to a sturdy wooden viewing platform directly overlooking a 100-foot vertical sheet of water plunging into a roaring foam pool below. Although as usual, I found myself climbing down the hillside to the river itself for a photo of what was perhaps my favorite waterfall of the trip so far.
Onto the Pacific Coast
Continuing our drive to the coast, we stopped for lunch (sandwiches) by the interesting Goodpasture covered bridge built in 1938.
We rolled into the WorldMark Seaside around 6:30 PM – with more than an hour of daylight to spare before the 8:01 PM sunset over the Pacific. That bit was my AI again telling me about the photo opportunities, but of course it was cloudy over the coast! Seaside was not exactly what we had in our minds for an interesting Oregon coast scene and we had only been able to reserve a studio apartment here. It would have been pretty nice if it had a normal bed, but instead it had a Murphy bed that was OK, but not great.
I did head to Cannon Beach for dawn, but with clouds again on the horizon, those dramatic sea views eluded me. Some great opportunities to see some marine life down by the rock though.
Cannon Beach itself was great – lovely old streets, galleries, shops and restaurants and so we strolled the streets before having a great lunch at The Wayfarer Restaurant overlooking the Haystack rock formation.
The forecast was for cloudy conditions all day and so a drive north seemed in order. We thought that high tide at Cape Disappointment Lighthouse in Washington would be interesting – large waves crashing over the rocks perhaps? I’m sure this joke has been repeated many times, but what a disappointment! Pretty flat ocean conditions, not a wave in sight and a drizzle started just as we arrived!
On the return trip, the wreck of the Peter Iredale was much more interesting. The tide was low, but the light was definitely better.
I saw someone flying a drone over the wreck here and took a chance to tell him that flying over the coast and from a State Park was illegal in Oregon. Needless to say, he wasn’t impressed by my approach!
Astoria’s Indoor Heritage
We headed north the next day to Astoria to spend a dry, comfortable morning exploring indoor cultural landmarks. The Columbia River Maritime Museum offered world-class galleries detailing Columbia River Bar shipwrecks and Coast Guard rescue operations, complete with floor-to-ceiling glass windows overlooking active shipping channels. There was so much to see and learn in that museum that we could easily have spent the day there, but they had no restaurant to keep our stomachs happy. So, we decided on lunch overlooking cargo ships along the river at Bridgewater Bistro – another fantastic location for gluten free food although we didn’t have room for a dessert here!
Just minutes away, we took a self-guided tour through the Flavel House Museum, a magnificently restored 1885 Queen Anne Victorian mansion built by Columbia River bar pilot Captain George Flavel. The intricate woodwork, original tile fireplaces, and period furnishings offered an elegant look into 19th-century Pacific Northwest history.
The wind was rising and also there were real signs of a break in the clouds, so we first visited the viewing tower by the South Jetty by the Columbia River, and then stopped at the Peter Iredale wreck once more.
This almost ended in disaster. I saw a log that had washed up the beach and by standing on this and letting the waves pass me by, I could get this shot. I thought the water would quickly roll back and I could escape to dry land, but it didn’t really do that. With a larger wave headed my way and a wobbly log under my feet, I decided to run for it, much to the amusement of other beachgoers!
With relatively clear skies, a trip back to Cannon Beach seemed to be in order and so we headed south to Ecola State Park, but that seemed to be where the clear skies came to an abrupt end!
See that mist in the distance? Although the sun was finally shining on the beach in front of us, it was hardly any time before the rain drops started to fall and we raced back up the hill to the car. I think I can safely say that the weather in Oregon is changeable!
Change of Plans once again – return to Portland
Our original plan had been to stay in Seaside until the final morning and drive directly back to the airport in Portland, but we decided to change our plans once again. The murphy bed was not that comfortable, and we realized there were things around Portland that we were missing – photographically and historically. So, we spent some Hilton points to book two nights in the Duniway Portland hotel and have some luxury before finally leaving Oregon. And a very pleasant hotel it is!
Portland Japanese Gardens
Our plans called for the drive from Seaside to head towards the Japanese Gardens first before heading downtown to the hotel. I had been warned to avoid having anything visible in the car as we parked and bought our tickets for the garden and headed up all the stairs. To be honest, we were desperate for the toilets after that drive from Seaside and the only ones available were by the shop and gallery, so it was a little bit of a rush. As we came out, relieved, we realized that it looked like rain and Jacqui’s coat was in the car, so, gentleman that I am, I walked all the way down again to the car to get it. Funny, I thought, the rear hatchback of our car was fully open with all our luggage and my camera bag on view. For whatever reason, the rear hatch had failed to shut and, in our hurry, to buy tickets, we had never even glanced back. And nothing was missing! A telephoto lens, drone and my memory cards were all in view. What an end to the vacation that could have been!
The gardens were great – it did drizzle on and off, and we bought a couple of umbrellas in the shop, but we really enjoyed the visit.
We had dinner in the hotel restaurant and started out the next morning on our final adventure – along the Columbia River Gorge and the famous waterfalls.
The Columbia River Gorge Morning Excursion
With the weather forecast calling for a partly sunny morning window followed by increasing afternoon rain, we got an early start to hit the iconic Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area before peak crowds and cloud cover arrived.
Crown Point & Vista House
We joined the winding Historic Columbia River Highway (US-30) and our first stop was Portland Women’s Forum (Chanticleer Point) for the classic postcard vista looking east down the 30-mile basalt canyon.
Two minutes further up the highway sits Vista House at Crown Point, a 1918 octagonal stone observatory perched 733 feet directly above the swirling Columbia River. A great historical introduction to the road we were on and the area.
Latourell Falls & The Base Trail
Further down the Historic Highway, we pulled into Latourell Falls. While the paved upper viewpoint offers a great look at the 249-foot plunge, we took the short trail descending down into the canyon base.
Crossing the wooden footbridge over Latourell Creek puts you right near the splash zone. Standing on the bridge with my tripod balanced on the handrail, I captured this close up of the final section of the falls. Every time someone stepped onto the bridge, I had to wait for the vibrations to end!
Multnomah Falls and Lunch
We visited quite a number of the waterfalls along this part of the route with the aim of ending up at the historic Mutnomah Lodge for lunch. To bypass the seasonal Recreation.gov timed-use parking permits at Multnomah Falls, we secured a lunch reservation at noon. Blame my AI again (or me) but I thought we would drive up to the lodge on Route 30 and park. Of course not! The parking is in the middle of I-84 and so I dropped Jacqui off to claim our table and drove 3 miles up the winding road, 3 miles down the interstate to get to that parking spot. Yes, presenting our dining reservation got us straight into the tunnel to the falls and the lodge, but it was not as simple as I had expected! The lunch was fine (not great) with impressive views of the falls from the dining room, and it certainly was a nice way to spend an hour or more. The falls themselves are not as impressive as I had hoped – they are physically impressive, but there are people everywhere and those falls have been photographed so many times that it is hard to get anywhere near to an interesting shot. Here is an alternative view:
After lunch we headed back to our car and into Portland for the last event of the vacation – a visit to Pittock Mansion in the West Hills of the city. Built in 1914, this 16,000-square-foot French Renaissance-style château features 23 rooms, local Tenino sandstone exterior, and a grand circular marble staircase and we really enjoyed this view of luxury in early 20th Century Portland. There even was a painting by one of the family of the scene I had failed to capture with my camera. Mutnomah Falls!
And with that visit, our visit to Oregon came to an end. A smooth drive to the airport, a smooth flight to Austin via Denver and a smooth drive home that night. Everything worked out well in the end.
