Silverton rolls out of the Cascades to the west and over valley soils that support sheep farms, tree nurseries, a handful of vineyards and other agriculture. Fifteen miles west lies the state capitol, Salem, and forty-five miles north is Portland. Silverton takes after neither. Depending on where you look, Silverton is a sliver of artistic Ashland, a dash of Dundee wine country and dose of Eugene oddity.
This spectacular forest preserve off the Santiam Highway (Hwy 22) was mostly unheard of until 1859 when gold was discovered in the area. That led to years of misuse of the resource.
A Man vs. Wild attache teaches city-slickers how to survive in the wilderness of the Oregon Coastal Range in the dead of winter. The result was wet, hungry and tired—but true primal survival nonetheless. The lessons learned along the path, invaluable.
Nestled on the east side of the Cascade Range, Bend is home to the Deschutes Brewery, Mt. Bachelor and the lesser-known Virginia Meissner Sno-Park. Meissner is 15 miles south of Bend on the west side of Century Drive. Maintained by the Tumalo Langlauf Club and funded entirely by donations, Meissner offers more than thirty kilometers of groomed Nordic trails and snowshoe routes.
Winters are a delight for Lloyd Scroggins, a ski coach at Mt. Hood. Summers are a close second with hikes and mountain bike trails crawling all over Government Camp.
Wake up your recondite historian and geologist and the events of Highway 20 are perhaps Oregon’s most interesting combination of geology, and Native American and pioneer culture in one stretch.
“My father’s a great fisherman, and he always says that in crabbing, there’s the quick and the dead,” says Rock, 38. “There’s only so much crab out there, and they’ll all be caught up. It’s just a matter of who’s going to do it.”
Steve Amen, OPB’s Oregon Field Guide, discusses his top Oregon winter destinations, from the Elkhorn Mountains, the highest range in the Blue Mountains of Northeast Oregon, to Anthony Lakes Ski Resort, one of the more beautiful, uncrowded and out-of-the-way ski areas, to the Oregon Coast, where winter storms provide non-stop entertainment as wind-whipped waves pound the beach.
Follow your nose through the Pinot Passage, the floodgate to the Willamette Valley wine country. Here’s a sip of history to pair with your next oenophile journey into Oregon’s Burgundian region.
