Oregon
September 14, 2022
We left Portland and headed south through attractive farm country (lots of blueberries and hazelnut trees) to Silver Falls State Park, one of the biggest and nicest state parks in Oregon.
We took two short walks to Upper North Falls and to North Falls, with a 130 foot waterfall. We drove back to the north to see one of the best preserved covered bridges in Oregon (they have a lot of them), the over 100-year old Gallon House Bridge.
We then visited the very nice town of Silverton, with its bustling downtown and beautiful Victorian and early twentieth century houses. We visited Gordon House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and finished in 1963, and had a one hour tour/lecture about the design. The house had been built in another nearby location, but was moved to the Oregon Gardens for preservation when the new owner who bought the property after the Gordons died did not want to keep it. We enjoyed this and were glad to have made time on our way home to visit.
North Falls, Gallon House Bridge and Gordon House.
After lunch in Silverton, we drove to Salem to see the state capitol building and then continued south on I-5 on to Eugene, home of the University of Oregon. It was a bit too late to visit any of the University museums, so instead we took a driving tour through downtown and the University. Apparently classes would not start for another week or so, but there was a bit of bustle with students being dropped off by their parents for the school year. We spent the night in Eugene.
September 15, 2022
We left Eugene and drove south for an hour and a quarter to Wildlife Safari Park near Winston. We drove through the self-drive portion of the Park and saw animals from Africa, Asia and North America roaming free while we stayed in the car. There was one section where you could feet the animals from your car. We then parked the car and walked through a small zoo area and saw smaller animals.
Next, we drove south to the Rogue River Valley and saw a lot of agricultural land. While there, we stopped at the Rogue Creamery and had a short tour of the facility and tasted cheeses made there.
After that, we visited Jacksonville, the oldest city in southern Oregon. It has many nicely preserved buildings from the nineteenth century. We then drove through vineyards on the way to Medford, where we spent the night.
Jacksonville
This map shows several of the places we visited in Central Oregon including the sights near Bend at the outset of the trip.
September 16, 2022
We headed south to California. We stopped in Redding and looked at the Sundial Bridge over the Sacramento River that was designed by Calatrava (similar to the bridge we saw in Buenos Aires way back in 2007 and the designs in Valencia we visited in 2010). It is part of a nice park area with museums, and we remarked that we should return to check it all out, but we were anxious to get home.
From there, we drove home, a bit over 3 hours. Our trip covered 2,604 miles (plus ferries!).
Our five driving trips since 2020 have totaled over 17,000 miles and we’ve seen some fantastic things in the US, including 16 national parks and five national monuments, along with several national recreation areas and national historic parks.
We hope to return to international travel in 2023.
