Explore Oregon

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Autumn in Oregon

Fall brings gorgeous vistas from the coast to Steens Mountain and up to the Wallowas. Take a visual journey across the state with us.

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McKenzie River Highway

The McKenzie River Highway is home to hot springs, cold swimming, fishing and some of the best mountain biking for those who are ready for a little technical riding. 

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The Toughest Job on Water

Columbia River Bar Pilots put their lives—and millions of dollars of commerce—into play each day as they jump aboard commercial vessels trying to navigate the turbulent mouth of the Columbia River and a narrow channel where inches are the difference between success and failure. 

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Oregon Travel: Wallowas

There’s a good reason it’s known as the Wallowa Country. An hour east of La Grande, you drop into a canyon along the Wallowa River, pinball around the bends and drive into a valley of small towns with a high-alpine backdrop worthy of a red-eye to the Alps. This is a vertical world that sits on the precipice of the Hell’s Canyon gorge and is home to more than thirty 9,000-plus-foot peaks, the most in the Pacific Northwest.

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Stand-up Paddling

About five years ago, surfing legend and Bend resident Gerry Lopez went into his shop in Maui and built his first stand-up paddle board, a one-off job for a special client. A week and a half later, big wave legend Laird Hamilton, walked into Lopez’s shop to claim the stand-up board that would launch a frenzy over the emergent sport.

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Say Cheese

Historical lore dates Tillamook County’s first cheese to around 1856, when William W. Raymond separated curds and whey in a large vat. The growing season was too short, so settlers resorted to cows and surplus milk. Over the past century, Tillamook became synonymous with the 100-year-old Tillamook Creamery, whose medium cheddar was awarded the best at the World Champion Cheese Contest in Madison, Wisconsin this March. That quality no doubt contributes to the little-known fact that Tillamook Cheese Factory is the second most visited site in the state of Oregon. More than one million people each year peer through the observation deck windows to see one of the world’s best cheeses being sliced. Leisha Mizee-Riggert’s forebears emigrated from other cheese-producing nations of Holland and Switzerland and began to raise dairy cows four generations ago in Tillamook. Their family dairy farm, as with 110 others in the area, is a member…

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Guile before Guns

Nearly a century ago, a deft-minded Governor Oswald West put his hand to his holster and drew out political genius rather than his pistol.

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Rogue River Adventure

On May 14th, seven of us departed from the bridge at Grave Creek for a three-day float trip down the Wild & Scenic section of the Rogue River. 

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Highway 199

An interesting stretch from Grants Pass to the California Border reveals cavemen as political pranksters, The Duke, treehouses and Dutch Brothers’ origin.