When SacagAwea, Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and his family’s slave, York, and the rest of the weary band of explorers reached the edge of the tumbling Pacific in 1805, the list of fun stuff to do in Seaside was fairly short. Namely, collect salt.
All the things I’ve missed by driving this route are now gliding by in new context. There are loading docks for staging wheat, stone and lumber bound for Japan by way of the Port of Portland. There are stacked pallets, the underpinnings of economic growth. There are long-necked conveyor belts drawing grains from trucks and depositing them up and into railcars, like brontosauruses that modernity forgot.
SPORT | Marathon SwimmingHOMETOWN | PortlandAGE | 37
We anxiously watched a veil of rain move toward and then over us as we cranked our loaded touring bicycles along a two-lane road in Eastern Oregon. My cycling partner, Donnie Kolb, and I still had ten miles to go before we reached Big Bend campsite along the John Day River. We knew that if we wanted to make it before dark, we needed to keep pedaling, even if it meant getting completely drenched.
Most of the Fort Rock homesteaders did not make it financially, but they left behind evidence of the community they forged out of this vast, sparse, high desert land. The Fort Rock Valley Historical Homestead Village Museum tells the pioneers’ stories through buildings from the early 1900s. Tour the doctor’s office, church, general store, one-room schoolhouse, blacksmith shop and chuck wagon. It all seems like recent history compared to the neighboring Fort Rock National Historic Landmark, a prehistoric, towering, jagged, volcanic tuff ring.
Last One to Have Fun in the Sun by Chris Angelus
Locks of Love by Jen Newberry
Oregon Waves by Chris Nanoski
If you’re looking for the quintessential beach getaway, The Cottages at Cape Kiwanda offer sweeping ocean views, luxurious yet comfortable amenities, and quick, convenient access to the classic beach town attractions of Pacific City.
