A Weekend In Oregon

You find yourself working a full-time job with limited time off from work, you burn up all your vacation days travelling, but you are still craving to travel more. Sometimes, all you can do is squeeze your trips on the weekends. Me and Piyusha did one such jammed pack trip to Oregon. You’d be surprised how much you can do on a weekend if you plan it just right. We were able to somehow take an extra day off from work, and soon we were flying three time zones away to the other side of the country.

After a bumpy plane ride and with no sleep in the past 18 hours, we somehow pushed ourselves to get on the road. With long stretches of empty roads and accessible natural beauty, few places are more suited to road tripping than Oregon. We made a quick stop in Portland to grab camping / backpacking gear, and then made our way North-East towards the Columbia River George. If you’re ever in Portland for a short visit and looking for a touch of the Oregon wilderness without having to travel too far into the Oregon wilderness, there are some gorgeous waterfalls within close proximity totally worth visiting. Fed by underground springs from Larch Mountain, and dropping 620 spectacular feet, Multnomah Falls is the classic Portland tourist experience. Whereas the nearby 242 feet high Wahkeena Falls is unlike the former, in which the water does not directly plunge to the ground, but rather, has a more subtle cascading flow.

A trip to Oregon is incomplete without enjoying the epic view of Mount Hood. While the mountain is a popular destination year-round, summer offers the perfect combination of accessibility and solitude. Sparkling alpine lakes dot Mount Hood’s flanks. Each offer their own inspiring views of the mountain, and on a calm morning, the reflections will take your breath away. We found ourselves backpacking on icy trails and racing against sunlight to reach Mirror Lake. We made it to the pristine lake just in time to watch the sun go down behind Mount Hood, showcasing an array of spectacular colors perfectly reflecting in the half-frozen lake.

The camping season hadn’t officially started yet. We called the ranger station ahead of time to get permission to back-country backpack / camp at Mirror Lake. That night, we got lucky to have the whole lake to ourselves. If you’ve noticed, the vibe in the wilderness changes as the sun sets and as darkness quietly engulfs the mountains. There is a sense of fright in the air, and even the most beautiful places begin to look eerie. While the sky was lit up with a million stars, it was as cold as it could get. We built a little fire and had our freeze-dried dinner, set up camp and quickly snuck into our sleeping sacks. Next morning, we woke up to a beautiful frozen lake, a warm sun and chirping birds. We eventually made our way through icy trails and back to civilization.

There is no wrong direction in Oregon. The more lost you get the better. We headed South towards Carter Lake hoping to make a quick stop at one of the waterfalls about which we had read a blog. Abiqua Falls is arguably my favorite waterfall in Oregon. The 92-foot waterfall is perfectly framed by an enormous basalt amphitheater adorned with bright green moss. But what makes the hike to the cascade so special is the approach. A rough trail through thick forest takes you steeply down to the river bed, and then along the river until it terminates abruptly at the falls. Abiqua Falls is located on a private land and they have generously allowed the public to have access here, and this generosity demands the utmost respect. Lost in memorization, we ended up spending the whole evening admiring this waterfall.

Heart full, soul satiated, we were ready for the next leg of the adventure. After a 5-hour drive through rolling hills and windy mountain roads, we spent the night in the little town of Chemult, and then continued for Crater Lake next morning. Home to the deepest lake in America, and Oregon’s only National Park, Crater Lake National Park is nothing short of otherworldly. With deep blue waters surrounded by 2,000 feet high cliffs, and punctuated by a picturesque island, there’s literally nowhere else on earth quite like it. The roads had just been snowplowed the previous week, and backhoes were still digging out the visitor center and other buildings buried under snow. We did a short hike in the snow and enjoyed some great views of this magnificent lake before making our way back North towards Cannon Beach.

The winding drive to get into the park through massive trees, the viewpoints looking down onto Cannon Beach, and the most perfect little hidden beach all combined to make it pretty special. It was a little piece of heaven here on earth for sure! Cannon Beach is just so different and unique from any other beaches I’ve walked on. As you walk on the limitless beach, you can’t help but notice a rock standing tall in the ocean, and as you get closer, it blows you away with its massive size. Haystack Rock is one of Oregon’s most recognizable landmarks, home to colorful tide-pools and diverse bird life, and rises 235 feet from the edge of the shoreline. I don’t know what it is about Haystack Rock, but it is completely mesmerizing, and I could have stayed on that beach forever, gazing at it. As the sun passes over the rock and is swallowed by the ocean the whole sky turns a golden hew that brings an air of comfort and peace.

Satisfied with our weekend jam-packed trip, we were ready to head home. Dead tired, we slept through the flight until we were woken up by the loud announcement of the pilot asking everyone to prepare for landing. We landed back in our hometown Monday morning, and realizing we were still full-time employees and needed to be at work in time, we raced through the terminal, said our goodbyes, got in our car and headed straight to office as if we had just been woken up from a dream.

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