On Thursday of our journey through three byways in Oregon, we started the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. However, it is a long byway so we did not finish it. We drove through the Hells Canyon area and ended up just past Joseph in the town of Enterprise. Today, Friday, we would finish the byway and begin to make our journey back home. In looking over the guide for Hells Canyon Scenic Byway, I realized we had missed an important stop,…
Continue Reading “Driving From Wallowa Lake to Pendleton, Oregon”
During our trip to Northeastern Oregon, we have followed two different scenic byways. On Thursday we would begin the third and final byway, the Hells Canyon Scenic Byway. This route starts in Baker City and goes for over 200 miles so we will not finish it in a day. While there is an emphasis on the Hells Canyon, this byway offers more than just that particular location. The first place we stopped goes back to the storied history of Oregon.…
Continue Reading “Cruising Oregon’s Hells Canyon Scenic Byway”
When we drove through Tillamook on previous trips, I never saw any beaches. The town is actually some distance from the ocean. I always wondered if there were any beaches in the area worth visiting. Monday was the day we were going to figure this out. We planned to drive the designated Three Capes Byway and discover what beaches existed along the way. Highway 101 goes along much of the Oregon coastline with beautiful ocean views. However, as it nears…
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We don’t usually go anywhere over Memorial Day weekend as we don’t want to fight with the traffic and crowds. However, this Memorial Day weekend would be a bit different. The last of my uncles died recently, and his family was having a memorial service for him on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. The service was in Salem, Oregon. We decided to go to the service and then drive over to the coast to explore the Tillamook area. To…
Continue Reading “Neskowin and Nestucca, Great Sites South of Tillamook, Oregon”
As our journey through Southern Colorado was coming to an end, it was time to decide how we were going to get to the airport in Denver. That may not sound like such a big deal, but it turned out to be more difficult than one would expect. My initial plan was to return to Denver via a road that was not quite as far south as we had come, but would still be in the southern part of the…
Continue Reading “An Unexpected Stay in Glenwood Springs, Colorado”
One of the important lessons one must learn about traveling is the need to be flexible. When I booked our hotel in the wrong town, we ended up closer to our next destination so we visited Black Canyon of the Gunnison a day earlier than planned. So with an extra day on our hands, I cast about for something to do. We decided to visit Colorado National Monument. Colorado Monument is a little over an hour north of Montrose where…
Continue Reading “Colorado Monument Offers More Amazing Sights to See”
To be perfectly honest I was not aware of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park until recently. However, it was a good one to add to our list of national park visits in Colorado. Someone told me it was like Grand Canyon National Park. To some extent that’s true, but the Black Canyon seems deeper and more narrow with its own beauty so it is worth visiting. We didn’t make an effort to leave Ourey very early. The…
Continue Reading “Driving Along Black Canyon of the Gunnison’s Stunning Cliffs”
When I was planning for this trip, I was focused on the three national parks we would be visiting. However, I couldn’t help notice on the map that we would be traveling near Telluride. If you don’t know, Telluride is a ski resort often visited by the rich and famous. I thought why not spend a night there if it’s not too expensive? So I searched on my travel sites, found a room I thought was quite reasonable, and booked…
Continue Reading “Are We Staying in Telluride or Ouray, Colorado?”
They say timing is everything. We discovered that to be true in a number of ways as we visited Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest of Colorado. This was our second of three national parks on our agenda for this trip. It was quite a different experience from our visit to Great Sand Dunes National Park. The main focus of Mesa Verde National Park is preserving the Native American structures and sharing about their culture. Established in 1906, the…
Continue Reading “Colorado’s Mesa Verde National Park Yields Amazing Vistas”
When I think of the southwest Native Americans, I generally think of Arizona or New Mexico. However, it turns out that in southwest Colorado a large population of Native Americans lived and thrived. In many ways they had connections to those native groups in New Mexico and Arizona. Because of that The Four Corners has become a place where various native groups can come together. The Four Corners is located where four state lines all meet in the same spot.…
Continue Reading “The Four Corners and Canyon of the Ancients”
