Where art, ancestry and an unhurried coastline reward the curious traveler
written by Cathy Carroll
Oregon has always rewarded those willing to look past the obvious. This summer three experiences—a sacred homecoming, a reimagined museum and a coastal town seemingly unchanged since 1890—make that case compellingly. Gearhart offers a rare and unhurried step back. In Portland, a decadelong transformation has reinvented the only major art museum between San Francisco and Seattle. And in the Wallowa Valley, the Tamkaliks Celebration offers the chance to experience one of Oregon’s most breathtaking landscapes through the eyes of the people who have always called it home.
An Oregon Summer, the Old-School Way
Oregon Coast culture as it was at the turn of the last century—unhurried, unvarnished and beautifully analog, unfolds effortlessly in Gearhart—a town that has been quietly, deliberately itself since it was platted as a resort community in 1890.
In the mornings, the marine layer rolls in off the Pacific, at Gearhart Golf Links, one of the oldest courses west of the Mississippi, hearkens to misty St Andrews Links, the Scottish birthplace of golf. By midday, the fog lifts to reveal the coastline that shaped American culinary legend James Beard, who summered here as a boy, gathering driftwood with his mother on the beach to build fires and roast hot dogs on sticks.
Happily, it’s easy to indulge in both histories here. Summon Beard while planning the day over fortifying espresso, flaky pastries and savory tarts at beloved local favorite King Tide Bakery, where framed oil portraits and clean white wainscotting fits the town’s 1900s vibe. Head to the beach for a ritual that Beard celebrated in Cook It Outdoors—roaming the shoreline searching for wild greens. Heed his mid-century evangelizing of razor clamming: Grab a clam gun to extricate the mollusks from wet sand at low tide. Beard’s philosophy—cooking close to the source, honest and unglamorous in the best way—endures here.
After a round at Gearhart Golf Links, retreat to McMenamins Gearhart Hotel and its sprawling back lawn, where fire pits, lawn games and weekend live music invite guests to linger over a craft beverage. A stay at the Cape Cod-style hotel, built on the site where coastal resorts have stood—and burned—since 1890, feels like stepping into Gearhart’s original golf retreat. Bring your dog and an unhurried mindset.
Bring your tweeds for the nineteenth annual U.S. Hickory Open at Gearhart Golf Links on September 11 through 13.
Portland Art Museum, Reborn
To take in a Mark Rothko canvas, with its large scale and evocative embrace of color, is akin to watching a sunset—the full experience must be in person. It’s a fitting centerpiece for the Portland Art Museum, where an expansion and renovation a decade in the making came to fruition in November. Reborn as an immersive cultural hub, the redesigned campus invites visitors to move seamlessly between world-class collections, rooftop terraces, plazas and the glass-fronted Mark Rothko Pavilion—a light-filled new entrance named for the artist who grew up in Portland, after emigrating from Latvia. He took his first art classes at the museum.
The expansion adds nearly 100,000 square feet of gallery and public space, revolutionizing accessibility. Open-air spaces connecting its historic brick buildings allow for quiet reflection, something not commonly found in many major metropolitan museums. By day, the pavilion offers glimpses of art and activity within, and by night, it glows as a beacon in downtown Portland’s cultural district.
Reinstalled galleries draw fresh thematic connections between works, elevating the visibility of Native American, Black and Pacific Northwest artists throughout the collection. As the only major art museum between San Francisco and Seattle, the reimagined campus makes that role undeniable.
Discovering Waláwa in Wallowa County
Wallowa Lake—a glassy, long ribbon of water cradled by steep glacial moraines and the largest concentration of 9,000-foot summits in Oregon—can be appreciated especially in summer. But the valley carries equal weight as the ancestral homeland of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce). The annual Tamkaliks Celebration and Friendship Feast on July 17 through 19 is a chance to experience this land through the eyes of its original inhabitants, with drumming and dancers in full regalia.
Forcibly removed in 1877 and scattered across reservations in the Pacific Northwest, Canada and Oklahoma, Nimiipuu descendants gather as part of the powwow first envisioned by Earl “Taz” Conner, a descendant of Old Chief Joseph, in 1989.
Tamkaliks—a Nimiipuu word meaning “from where you can see the mountains”—has since grown into a three-day celebration of culture, reunion and community, featuring Grand Entry, traditional dance contests, drum circles and a Sunday walasit service at the Wallowa Longhouse, capped by a Friendship Feast open to all.
