Oregon Postcard: Meaghan Leigh Keffer
This is from Austin, Oregon. About 50 miles west of Baker City. The mountain is Dixie Mountain.
Explore Oregon
Pleasures of the Palate at Cape Kiwanda
Travel is a multi-sensory experience, extending well beyond just what you see, and Pacific City is a virtual playground for the senses, especially the palate. A prime spot for savoring is at the oceanfront suites of the Cottages at Cape Kiwanda, steps from the world-renowned microbrews and expert food pairings at Pelican Pub & Brewery and locally roasted coffee at Stimulus Espresso Cafe. With a charming and luxurious beachfront cottage that includes a fully equipped, contemporary kitchen, you also can hit the local seafood and farmers’ markets and enjoy summer’s bounty right at your own table, with one of the West Coast’s most spectacular views, of Haystack Rock and the Pacific Ocean.
Cozy Luxury in a Classic Little Beach Town: Cottages at Cape Kiwanda
A century-and-a-half ago, this was the place where Oregon Trail pioneers, who had trekked from the Midwest, would come for their first glimpse of an ocean. In the late 1800s, the bountiful salmon fishing took hold here, and since the 1960s, when surfing culture swept the West Coast, this endures as a revered spot. Throughout the ages, Pacific City has remained a classic little beach town whose visitors claim it as their own.
Kick off Summer, Wine Country Style
Memorial Day weekend is the turning point of the season, making short days of rain and cold a thing of the past. It’s a weekend filled with optimism, looking forward to long days spent outside. Oregonians have a special appreciation for the sun and the many ways we get to enjoy it in the summer months.
Pittock Mansion
Henry Pittock arrived in Oregon via wagon train in 1853 at just 19 years old. In 1860, as payment for back wages, he became owner of The Oregonian and subsequently married his wife, Georgiana. So began a life of entrepreneurism for Pittock and one of philanthropy for Georgiana. In 1914, the grand home designed for the Pittocks by Oregon architect Edward Foulkes was completed, and eleven family members moved into the mansion that overlooks Portland and Mt. Hood from the city’s northwestern hills. By the early 1960s, the home lay vacant. The City of Portland bought the property for $225,000 and has since restored the home to its original grandeur. Stroll the lush gardens, take in the views and tour the museum daily. pittockmansion.org
The Fairway
In most parts of the civilized world, it’s probably unusual to use your four-wheel drive option on the way to the golf course. Of course, this isn’t anywhere in the world. This is Oregon, where there is no off-season on the golf course. No matter what the weather, somewhere, someone in Oregon is playing golf. To emphasize that point, I packed my clubs and headed out on an odyssey to play through what could have been challenging March conditions, but ended up perfectly playable.
Oregon Travel: Grants Pass
Throughout the history of Grants Pass, or Perkinsville as it was first called, slogans have spanned downtown archways.
Travel Spotlight: Imnaha Store and Tavern
Travel Spotlight Imnaha Store and Tavern This is a little tavern in a little town with a big menu and big opinions. Frog legs leap off the menu selections, for example. Signs are posted around at least four varieties of taxidermied local wildlife. The décor is a sounding board for owners Dave and Sallie Tanzey’s opinions on various matters—from wolves (kill) to rattlesnakes (kill many). Opened in 1902, the tavern is also Imnaha’s only grocery stop for the community’s 200-or-so residents, visiting hunters or anglers. Imnaha is thirty miles from the nearest Eastern Oregon town of Joseph. The tavern is a good stopping point for sightseers heading up the dirt road to Hat Point, a Snake River overlook with Hells Canyon below.
Road Reconsidered: Highway 58
Trip Tracks Elijah Bristow would recognize much of the trail he pioneered across the Cascades and into the southern Willamette Valley, even though it has been 167 years since he made the trek. Bristow was among the first to make his way down what would become Lane County’s Free Emigrant Trail, today’s Highway 58, following Salt Creek and other tributaries of the Willamette River. He settled in the community he named, Pleasant Hill, as the first white settler to stake a claim there in 1846. Sure, there have been some social changes since then, but the terrain remains much the same. It’s still a beautiful tree-lined corridor filled with natural—and a few man-made—wonders along the way. photo by Peter Murphy Others followed Bristow on the wagon road that was an alternative to the Barlow Road across the northern Oregon Cascades. Unlike the Barlow, this one did not charge a…
