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Hwy 58 to Crater Lake

April 20, 2023 by Leave a Comment

In July of 2022, I took a trip to one of the top of my Oregon wishlist destinations – Crater Lake. I had always wanted to visit since I moved to Oregon 13 years ago, but I also specifically wanted to stay inside the park at the only lodging with views of the lake, Crater Lake Lodge. In this first post of my series, let me walk you through some logistics of planning in case it will help you plan your Crater Lake adventure. In particular, I will highlight the route from Portland using Highway (Hwy) 58 to Crater Lake.
Crater Lake, Oregon Hwy 58 to Crater Lake - on the way visit Lowell Covered Bridge, the widest covered bridge in Oregon Hwy 58 to Crater Lake - on the way visit Salt Creek Falls, Oregon's second highest single drop waterfall (after Multnomah Falls), cascading 286 feet.

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Easy Guide to Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor

November 3, 2022 by 4 Comments

The Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor is an iconic area of the Oregon Coast and is a state park that you can travel to between Bandon and Brookings offering miles of rock formations among lush green forests with cliff overlooks, sea stacks and arch formations, and quiet beaches. And, it’s all free- no park pass needed. You can make this a day trip as it is just a 2 hour drive between these two seaside towns, but expect to add on a few hours with the many scenic stops and hikes available before and within Samuel Boardman State Park. Even if you do not want to do much hiking, it is still worth a visit as most viewpoints are easy accessible right along the corridor that you can park and do very short walks to viewpoints. Here’s my guide to Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor based on my day trip. This was a leisurely drive from after sleeping in and breakfast and first walking Circle in the Sands, to a lunch to go, no hike more then 30 minutes roundtrip, and then returning back to Bandon with a stop at Prehistoric Gardens, all in time for watching sunset at Coquille Point.
Guide to Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor: Secret Beach Guide to Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor: Secret Beach

I covered Circle in the Sands and the sunset views at Coquille Point already at the linked posts, so this post will focus on my take on a guide to the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor iconic views, whimsy nostalgia of the Prehistoric Gardens experience, along with a lunch with a famous hot dog!

Don’t worry whether the weather is sunny which will look beautiful with blue skies and blue seas in your views, or if it is a gloomy grey day that is also IMHO atmospheric: I think all weather conditions make the scenic viewpoints look special. I recommend driving from north to south for the trip so you are always pulling to the right side into the viewpoints.
Guide to Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor: Secret Beach Guide to Samuel H Boardman Scenic Corridor: Natural Bridges

A Famous Oregon Coast Hot Dog

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Planning a Trip to the Painted Hills

April 9, 2022 by Leave a Comment

One of the seven great wonders of Oregon as Travel Oregon promotes is the Painted Hills. Located 4 hours east of Portland, the Painted Hills are actually just one unit of three that comprise the John Day Fossil Beds National Park. Besides the Painted Hills Unit, you can also visit Sheep Rock Unit (the location of Blue Basin) or Clarno Unit (location of dramatic Palisades). We visited all three March 25-26 2022, and we’re happy to share our tips in planning a trip to the Painted Hills and other units. This post will focus on getting to the area, and future posts will cover visiting each of the park’s units.
Planning a Trip to the Painted Hills - visit all three units that comprise the John Day Fossil Beds National Park in Oregon like we did. From top to bottom, the Clarno Unit, Painted Hills,and Sheep Rock Unit Blue Basin

Timing Your Visit, and Planning the Drive

Because this area is in the high desert, the best times of year to visit this National Park is in spring and fall, when the weather isn’t as hot, and you don’t have to check the weather conditions of the winter passes which could require chains or have limited alternate routes when there are vehicle accidents or poor conditions. During our visit in end of March, we enjoyed temperatures in the comfortable 60s-70s during the day that cooled off to the 50s (Fahrenheit) in the evenings. Even though we went on hikes that had no shade, it was pleasant because of the cooperative weather. We enjoyed partly cloudy skies and sunshine, but even if you get some rain during your visit, it’s a treat because it will intensify the colors you see in the rocks and soils of the Fossil Beds units. There is no entrance fee to enter any of the units, but note that only the Sheep Rock Unit offers a visitor’s center. Each of the units is about an hour drive from each other.
Planning a Trip to the Painted Hills - visit all three units that comprise the John Day Fossil Beds National Park in Oregon like we did. Here's a look at the Painted Hills from the Carroll Rim Trail

If you are coming from Portland, there are several routes you can take to the area depending on what you would like to see. The fastest route is to take Highway 26 through Mt Hood Village and Government Camp, and Madras and Prineville to get to Mitchell. This is the fastest route and has the best access to food options, gas stations, and cell phone service. Taking this route will give you views of driving to and through Mt Hood. It wasn’t open yet in 2022, but this route also can take you pass by Kahneeta hot springs. I opted to take this route on the way back, versus to, the national park – take two different routes to and from to make a circle.

Another route you can take is I-84 through the Columbia River Gorge, giving yourself scenic views there past Multnomah Falls and Hood River and part of the Dalles, and then taking Highway 197 or 97 down. Going this way, you can make a stop by going on Highway 218 to visit Shaniko Ghost Town, and also the Clarno Unit on your way as your first unit of the John Day Fossil Beds. You can also choose to swing up to Fossil to do your own fossil digging at the only legal fossil dig site in Oregon behind a high school (great overview here at YesDirt!)Planning a Trip to the Painted Hills - visit all three units that comprise the John Day Fossil Beds National Park in Oregon like we did. We took a circle route from Portland to and from Mitchell which we used as our home base to the three units

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YāYā Portland bringing Chinese barbecue to NE Alberta

July 27, 2021 by Leave a Comment

Chinese barbecue in Portland has generally been somewhat of an inside track – you had to know which place (and they were all different) for your crispy roast pork fix, your Cantonese roast duck, for good char siu. The locations for these Chinese BBQ treasures were out far from the Portland city core – often in strip malls in the East Portland (“New Chinatown” past SE 82nd) or Westside suburbs, from your Asian owned restaurant or grocery with non-descript storefronts to procure your goal protein. There is no central Chinatown that you would head towards like in New York, San Fran, Chicago, etc. where you explore a street of businesses looking for the tell tale hanging duck and pork on hooks in a window. Recently a joint venture from restaurateur Micah Camden (who has also brought Portland the famed Blue Star Donuts, Boxer Ramen, Super Deluxe, Little Chickpea, Bae’s Chicken, Rock Paper Fish, and formerly Little Big Burger) and lead by chef Steven Chin has opened. Chinese BBQ in Portland now has a very accessible, and very high quality, place that anyone and everyone can trust for some easy Chinese barbecue fix, with their venture YāYā Portland (Yā is duck in Mandarin).
YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland - Char siu pork is thick cut bbq roasted pork

Steven Chin’s background in Chinese barbecue started with a childhood in New York and with his grandparent’s grocery with a bbq station in Chinatown (a photo of his grandfather and store is featured on the YāYā Portland wall). Chinese BBQ was further refined with mentorship with his friend and legend Martin Yan, famously known for the Yan Can Cook show that I remember watching all the time, one of the few representations of a face like mine on TV back then. He has combined tradition from those learnings also with American business practices such that many American bbq places use where they prep and bbq the meats up to a certain level then finish based on the incoming orders.
YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland - one of the partners is Steven Chin. Steven Chin's background in Chinese barbecue started with a childhood in New York and Cantonese barbecue with his grandparent's grocery with a bbq station in Chinatown YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland - one of the partners is Steven Chin. Steven Chin's background in Chinese barbecue started with a childhood in New York and Cantonese barbecue with his grandparent's grocery with a bbq station in Chinatown

The YāYā Portland storefront on NE Alberta Avenue is a takeout only operation, so no indoor seating or service, though there are some picnic tables outside under a shady tree and a patio covering overhead if you want to eat it immediately. You can order online for pickup from their website YāYā Portland, or via a few delivery apps. Chinese BBQ is not usually served hot, so this is perfect for grabbing to take home and can survive a delivery time window. Usually you buy Chinese barbecue meats by the pound but the orders from YāYā Portland already come on white rice, ready to eat.
YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland YāYā Portland bringing accessible Chinese barbecue in Portland

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Low Tide at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach

July 2, 2021 by Leave a Comment

A few months a year is when you can find super low tide – you can look up online almanacs for daily tide charts for the year. They list daily high and low tides both in terms of the time and amount of feet that is predicted, and what you are looking for are negative numbers. Super low tides tend to be very close to negative 2 feet. It may easier to search for your area (say Oregon Coast or Cannon Beach, or any beach city in the world) and “super low tide” or “minus tide” – to find them. They usually occur for 4 months, over a few days in those months. In 2021 for the Oregon Coast these were April 29, May 27, June 25 and July 24, according to predictions by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, with May and June being the lowest of the entire year. So I planned a trip specifically to check out the super low tide at Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach in June.
Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide

Planning

It worked out that it also happened to be during a crazy heat wave in Oregon where we were over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s always much cooler at the Coast. Good thing I planned months ahead of time before all the rentals were sold out. Many places during the summer high season want you to stay 2 days, so keep that in consideration if you are going to stay overnight that you may need to stay longer or you will have some limited choices of where to stay. You can drive early in the morning, but as the low tide was early in the morning (around 7 am) I didn’t want to drive in that early, even if it is only 1.5 hour from Portland barring any traffic or accidents.
Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide Haystack Rock and The Needles in Cannon Beach at low tide

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