1859 Oregon's Magazine + Special Insert: Canadian Getaways | May/June 2025
What if ?
What if your idea started a program that saved thousands of acres from wildfire?
What if you funded a school lunch program that fed the next generation of Oregonian ingenuity?
What if your generosity helped a rural science class generate new ways to harness energy?
And what if you gave yourself the audacity to ponder how to make Oregon even better?
What if your head talked to your heart and they agreed to dream even bigger?
Maybe you start a scholarship.
Or launch a nonprofit.
Become a volunteer.
Or maybe you start a conversation with us, your statewide community foundation, and together we turn your ‘What ifs’ into powerful ‘Why nots.’
What if you joined us?
American History Americana
Road-tripping to the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Spanish-American philosopher George Santayana wrote in his book The Life of Reason in 1905.
There may be no better American history teacher than the Oregon Trail itself. One of the largest voluntary mass migrations in America, the Oregon Trail is an homage to the bravery, strength and resilience of its travelers. These immigrants from different backgrounds put aside their differences to work together—acts that may be vanishing from modern memory. Some 400,000 immigrants streamed into the ancestral lands of Indigenous people creating impacts that are still felt today.
The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Just about 6 miles northeast of Baker City, you’ll come across a symbol of hardship and the pioneering spirit of early America’s westward migration. The National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center sits on 500 acres at the top of Flagstaff Hill overlooking a vast valley between the Wallowa Mountains to the east, the Blue Mountains to the west. Wagons once crawled along these lower regions, nearly 2,000 miles from their origination at Independence, Missouri. The worn ruts of four decades of migration are still baked into the ground in the sparse and beautiful Baker County—a reminder the lengths people go in search of a better life.
After thirty months of closure due to the pandemic and an extensive eco-renovation, the Interpretive Center reopened to the public last year. This year, visitors will feel those improvements as they move through the space and time with the stories of families who risked all to make the journey. This year, you will also hear deeper perspectives of the Native American tribes during this period of upheaval and transformation.
A renovated Native American exhibit is updated to incorporate both Euro-American and Native American perspectives, with special consideration for the regional tribes most affected—the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Reservation, which includes the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla; Nez Perce; Shoshone; and Paiute. Indeed, the Interpretive Center itself is sited on land ceded by the Cayuse people to the U.S. government in 1855.
“Expect new storytelling that takes us deeper into the Native American experience, the complex trade networks, their views on property ownership—the culture,” said Bobby Reis, curator of collections and exhibits at the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
More Features of the Interpretive Center
The Interpretive Center is known for its replica wagon camp and engaging life-size displays of life on the Trail. There are interactive galleries for kids and 4 miles of outdoor paved trails, including an easy out-and-back to historical wagon ruts.
On Fridays and Saturdays at 1 p.m., join a park ranger in the lobby of the Center to learn more about the Trail.
Art, Culture and Extraordinary Craft Beer
Why not combine two great American traditions—the Oregon Trail and the family road trip?
In Baker City, you’ll encounter a burgeoning arts and culture scene in a historic downtown setting. Try the year-round First Friday Art Walk, which started at Crossroads Carnegie Art Center, built in 1909 with a grant from Andrew Carnegie, and is known for its art exhibits, theater and dance parties.
You won’t want to miss Barley Brown’s tasting room or its brewpub. Now in its twenty-seventh year of brewing, Barley Brown’s is consistently one of Oregon’s top and tastiest craft brewers.
Grab a hearty barbeque pork or roast beef sandwich for lunch at Little Pig. For dinner, head to Latitude 45 Grille for Pacific
manicotti, noodles stuffed with wild cod and gulf shrimp. Or try the barbacoa tostadas with a classic old-fashioned at The Cabyn Cocktail Bar & Kitchen. Stay in the historical vibe at the Geiser Grand Hotel, a lovely 1889-era specimen of Victorian grandeur with an intriguing history of its own.
If your schedule allows, time your trip so it lands you in Baker City on June 14 to combine American history with Americana. Oregon Trail Days in Baker City’s Geiser-Pollman Park is celebrated with stories, traditional crafts, demonstrations, games and activities the whole family can enjoy.
Visit the National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center in Baker City to explore the legacy and embrace the adventure. At the end of the Trail, you may even feel the faint echo of those who came before us, the sacrifices they made and the unity and perseverance that made the journey possible.
National Historic Oregon Trail Interpretive Center
Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day through fall 2025 22267 OR-86, Baker City, OR 97814 541-523-1843 | www.nhotic.com
Rock On
Two hours south of Bend near Christmas Valley, Crack-in-the-Ground runs cool in the summer, making it good for a family outing. (pg. 80) photography by
Cody Rheault
By Land, Water and Air
Three ways to experience Oregon this summer.
wri en by Jean Chen Smith
66
The Price of Popularity
Oregon’s $14 billion tourism industry faces growing pains under the emergence of “overtourism.” Is the paradoxical “sustainable tourism” the answer?
wri en by Daniel O’Neil
72
Ghost Nets
Emily Jung Miller uses material reclaimed from the ocean to pay homage to it.
wri en by Kerry Newberry
More than a dozen colorful hot-air balloons will ascend above Tigard during its annual Festival of Balloons this June.
Smith Rock State Park
(see “Experience Oregon by Land, Water and Air,” pg. 58)
18 NOTEBOOK
James Beard Public Market events, Darci Phenix’s new album, modern rockhounds.
22 FOOD + DRINK
Aji Fish Butchery, vegan festivals.
26 FARM TO TABLE Blueberries, plus recipes.
34 HOME + DESIGN
A designer and a landscape architect come together in Eugene for a home in the garden.
45 ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Sara Siestreem explores her Hanis Coos ancestry with art.
50 MY WORKSPACE Falconer Alina Blankenship.
52 GAME CHANGER
The Gambler 500, Oregon’s junker-fueled garbage gala.
LIVE EXPLORE THINK
80 TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT Crack-in-the-Ground.
84 ADVENTURE
Ra ing the Wild and Scenic Rogue River.
88 LODGING
Cascada hotel, Portland.
90 TRIP PLANNER
Camp Sherman and Sisters.
98 NW DESTINATION
Walla Walla and its Spring Release.
COVER photo by Rich Bacon
Peter Dawson Daniel O’Neil
Alicia Mariah Elfving
JAMES SINKS
Writer Game Changer
“A late high-school friend from Klamath Falls once bought a junker Subaru and painted it half like a zebra, half like a Holstein cow. On every drive we took goggles because there was no windshield, and his tools in case he happened across someone needing mechanic help. It isn’t hard to imagine Scott and his ‘ZebraMoo,’ if he was still around, joining the oldcar-focused Gambler 500. More than a homegrown Oregon cleanup and fundraiser, it’s a life lesson: We can make the world a little better, even while on the verge of breakdowns.” (pg. 52)
When award-winning journalist James Sinks is not hunting for stories in his rattletrap 2003 pickup, he lives in Salem.
CONTRIBUTORS
CODY RHEAULT Photographer Travel Spotlight
“An earthly feature like Crack-inthe-Ground feels otherworldly. The sky becomes a faint blue trail far above your head, and the 20-degree temperature drop from the surface chills. My family came along for this assignment, a rarity. They were quickly swallowed by the towering walls, dwarfed in the frame. I would hear my young daughters look up with open jaws and say, ‘Wow,’ as I captured the moments.” (pg. 80)
Cody Rheault is a freelance photographer and videographer based in Sisters. As a habitual generalist, he loves capturing a variety of stories, but spending time with family is always assignment #1.
KATY FREEMAN Illustrator Beerlandia
“As I write at my desk, staring out the window of my Brooklyn walk-up apartment, I catch myself remembering a trip that I took to Oregon after my first year of college. My friend and I went kayaking down a small, winding river near her childhood home, and at some point, we found ourselves completely immersed in nature. Any sounds of human life vanished—I’d never heard silence like that before. Only sounds of the wind rustling through the trees and the slow whisk of our paddles into the water. Suddenly, a car honks its horn outside my window, and I’m rushed back to reality.” (pg. 22)
Katy Freeman is an illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York. She enjoys using traditional materials to create illustrations and comics that center around relationships, humor and health.
DANIEL O’NEIL Writer
The Price of Popularity
“Having grown up in Oregon during the 1980s and 1990s, I gathered an impression of solitude in nature and calm in the city and towns. The baseline has since shifted toward something more crowded, but Oregon is an attractive place. Growth here was, and remains, inevitable. Now it’s up to Oregonians to decide how to protect this Pacific wonderland and its residents, while also sharing it with, and benefitting from, the new influx of visitors.” (pg. 66)
Daniel O’Neil writes and photographs stories that affect the Pacific Northwest and its environment, in search of understanding and solutions. He lives on the north Oregon Coast.
EDITOR Kevin Max
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Allison Bye
WEB MANAGER Aaron Opsahl
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER Joni Kabana
OFFICE MANAGER Cindy Miskowiec
DIRECTOR OF SALES Jenny Kamprath
HOMEGROWN C HEF Thor Erickson
BEERLANDIA COLUMNIST Jeremy Storton
C ONTRIBUTING WRITERS Cathy Carroll, Jean Chen Smith, Melissa Dalton, Joni Kabana, Julie Lee, Kerry Newberry, Daniel O’Neil, Ben Salmon, James Sinks
C ONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Rich Bacon, Richard Darbonne, Peter Dawson, Alicia Mariah Elfving, Joni Kabana, Tambi Lane, Karl Maasdam, Daniel O’Neil, Cody Rheault, Katie Sox, Arian Stevens
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS Yoko Baum, Katy Freeman, Kate Wong
Mail
70 SW Century Dr. Suite 100-218 Bend, Oregon 97702
Headquarters
592 N. Sisters Park Ct. Suite B Sisters, OR 97759
www.1859magazine.com /subscribe @1859oregon
All rights reserved. No part of this publiCation may be reproduCed or transmitted in any form or by any means, eleCtroniCally or meChaniCally, inCluding photoCopy, reCording or any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of Statehood Media. ArtiCles and photographs appearing in 1859 Oregon’s Magazine may not be reproduCed in whole or in part without the express written Consent of the publisher. 1859 Oregon’s Magazine and Statehood Media are not responsible for the return of unsoliCited materials. The views and opinions expressed in these artiCles are not neCessarily those of 1859 Oregon’s Magazine, Statehood Media or its employees, staff or management.
FROM THE EDITOR
I WANT to use this space to pay homage to an Oregon institution—Bob Woodward. He was a stooped 6-foot-3 with stupid-looking glasses that would scare a Martian and a mischievous smile that already knew the trouble we would get into down the road.
“Max-man, how’s it going? Woody.”
It didn’t take long to get from hello to a pint or two with Woody, for it was stories he was after. The best stories were always his and recalled in such detail that they defied what science tells us about aging brains.
As the grandson of an Irish immigrant, I grew up around many raconteurs. Still none could tell a story like Woody. His weren’t stories, they were well-directed movies, with vivid and ridiculous characters, innocent flaws, character foils entering to render the protagonist in stark relief, the thickening plot, a twist (often taking the form of wardrobe anomalies or faulty sporting gear), a hilarious climax followed by a detailed denouement.
Woody came to Bend in 1976, started working with locals to build the iconic mountain biking trail system that Bend later became famous for; he was an advocate for Nordic skiing and was instrumental in building the lower mountain ski culture at Virginia Meissner Sno-Park. He was a key figure in saving the historic Tower Theatre downtown. Early on, he wrote for me under his own name and various pseudonyms if he had more than two bylined pieces in an issue of 1859, which he often did.
“Max-man, did I ever tell you about my folder, ‘Too Bad to be Believed’?” Woody hadn’t even taken off his biking helmet or swapped out his Martian prescription sunglasses for his Martian prescription regular glasses when he produced a manila file from his backpack. Woody and I easily bonded around magazine journalism and New York. His
experience was from Life magazine and Sports Illustrated—the Henry Luce heyday that I had only read about while at Time Inc. years later.
On corn-colored pieces of paper, there were typed query letters to him as an editor at Luce’s magazines. In the long vowels and crisped-up consonants of aristocracy, he’d say, “As I sit here on my yaaaacht in Côte d’Azuuuur, I think how niiiice it would be if I could wriiiite up something for Sports …”
He’d switch to the piercing vowel struggle of an 80-year-old woman from New Jersey and pull out a hand-written pitch. “Baaab? How bout a meeeeyaaander on the Joisey Shorer? Would you like a piece on thayat?” And on it went.
Bob was one of the smartest people I’ve known. Though he had an undergraduate degree from Berkeley and a CV that made the lives of most other men appear uninspired, Woody would rather connive his way through life’s side door, then walk in the front with the rest. Maybe jazz was still considered a degenerate art form when he studied it in college. Maybe Bend was still swashbuckling when he served as mayor in the late 1990s. Was his name really inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in Fairfax, California? Probably, it was just more fun to live in a natural world in whose formations he thrived but on the lam from another world whose excesses drove him mad. “Max-man, did you hear what shit So-and-So did on the city council? What a giveaway to developers!”
These conversations were almost always postponed until we had pint in hand at BroJo’s or M&J Tavern to kvetch and plan our revenge on civilization. These conversations started so innocently and lasted well past our wives’ repeated text threats outweighed the craic that was our lifeblood. I know I’m not alone in saying, thank you, Woody, yours was one amazing story.
More ways to connect with your favorite Oregon
SHOP LOCAL
Stop by Local, our curated online shop of goods made by businesses in the Pacific Northwest. Find jewelry, specialty foods and more. Or show your state pride with 1859 T-shirts, hats and other apparel. Buy local. Feel good.
YOUR PNW NEWSLETTER
More Pacific Northwest, delivered to your inbox! Sign up for our Adventure Mail newsletter and get access to the latest Northwest getaways, giveaways and more.
HAVE A PHOTO THAT SHOWS OFF YOUR OREGON EXPERIENCE?
Share it with us by filling out the Oregon Postcard form on our website. If chosen, you’ll be published here.
Descending from No Name Lake in the Three Sisters Wilderness on a beautiful July day.
www.1859oregonmagazine.com | #1859oregon | @1859oregon NEVER MISS AN ISSUE
Read 1859 Oregon’s Magazine and 1889 Washington’s Magazine anywhere, on any device, with our digital edition. Follow us today on Issuu.com.
www.bit.ly/statehood mediadigital
photo by Dmitriy Popov
NOTEBOOK 18
FOOD + DRINK 22
FARM TO TABLE 26
HOME + DESIGN 34
ARTIST IN RESIDENCE 45
Oregon strawberry jam, a treat from our Homegrown Chef.
Tambi Lane
Tidbits + To-dos
written by Cathy Carroll
River of Renewal
This new book by Stephen Most tells the remarkable story of the Klamath Basin, which has witnessed, since the Gold Rush, genocide, war and conflicts over resources, amplifying differences among inhabitants of a land united by water, and divided by people. Yet when faced with ecological catastrophe, farmers, tribes and others forged a consensus that led to the largest dam removal and watershedrestoration project in history. It’s a documentary film, too.
James Beard Public Market Oregon Taste of the Month
Monthly experiences celebrating Oregon food culture include All About Asparagus on May 15 and James Beard Strawberry Shortcake Week held June 22 through 29. James Beard Public Market’s immersive, free public events throughout 2025 showcase Oregon’s finest seasonal products, with farmers, restaurants and chefs engaging with the food-loving community. The new Oregon Taste of the Month Winemaker Dinner Series will also support the nonprofit market’s vision to create a daily year-round, indoor-outdoor Oregon food marketplace.
www.oregontaste.com/taste-of-the-month
European-Style Organic Butter
Third-generation, family-owned Springfield Creamery in Eugene has launched Nancy’s Organic Butter, a cultured and creamy European-style butter. The new butter, with slowly churned organic cultured cream, elevates the simplest meals. The secret is the luscious, high-butterfat content. Use the sea salted butter for finishing dishes and unsalted butter for baking. Both have lower water content, which gives them a creamier texture and make cookies, pastries and crusts more tender and flaky.
www.nancysyogurt.com
Oregon Taste
Nancy’s
NuNaturals Collagen
NuNaturals of Eugene has been offering healthy food alternatives since it began in 1989, and one of the newest is NuNaturals Collagen Peptides. It stands out from other protein sources because it’s from hormone-free, pasture-raised Brazilian cattle and packs a powerful punch of amino acids. It’s tasteless and dissolves and absorbs quickly in coffee, tea, juice, smoothies, oatmeal, yogurt, soups or baked goods. www.nunaturals.com
Honoring Label-Defying Artists
Saturday Night Live’s Sarah Sherman of Portland (pictured) is one of five boundary-pushing artist honorees at Portland Art Museum’s PAM CUT Cinema Unbound Awards on May 30. Fellow Portland honorees are Carson Ellis and Colin Meloy (of The Decemberists), the duo behind the screen-bound young adult book series Wildwood Chronicles; James Beard Award–winning chef Earl Ninsom (EEM); and filmmaker Marco Brambilla of New York City.
Salt & Straw ice cream and Urban Gleaners are making sustainability scrumptious. Pioneering industry innovation, Salt & Straw has saved nearly 48,000 pounds of food that might otherwise have been discarded, and made it delicious. They work with Urban Gleaners, a local nonprofit that rescues fresh food before it’s wasted and gets it to people who need it at twenty-one public Free Food Markets at area schools, parks, community centers and housing communities.
www.saltandstraw.com www.urbangleaners.org
Urban Gleaners
NuNaturals
Musician
Phenix Rising
Darci Phenix’s new album turns inward for success
written by Ben Salmon
THE LIST of Darci Phenix’s creative pursuits is long and varied: Rug making. Stained glass. Quilting. Textile sculpture. Handdyeing fibers.
And songwriting. In fact, the music comes first, she says.
“Everything feeds the music,” Phenix said. “ e art feeds the music. e textiles feed the music. e music is the thing.”
It has been that way for a long time. Phenix was raised in a home where artistic practice was not only valued but encouraged by her musician mother, and she wrote her first full-length album when she was just 16 years old.
“It’s kind of a ghost in its own way,” she said.
Her second album—2021’s Wishbone—made more of a splash, and it taught Phenix an important lesson about music making: You can’t just write a great song by trying really hard to write a great song. And trying really hard to write a great song can be intense and exhausting.
“I was trying to make something people would like and something that would work for a career,” she said. “I think a lot of artists struggle with their relationship with their audience at certain points.”
So when she started working on her third album, Phenix turned her focus inward. She worked hard to forget about what people might think about her music and replace it with a steady focus on sustainability—in her art, in her work, in life and in love. Her other creative interests play an important role in that effort, she said.
“It’s mostly, like, a conscious effort not to perceive myself … and to just watch myself existing,” Phenix said. “ e textiles are a huge part of that.”
Her new approach worked. Phenix’s third full-length, Sable, is an eight-track collection of gorgeous, gauzy indie-folk that sounds like it was imported from some distant, mossy dream-world. A quick trip through the song titles sets the scene: “Wildwood” and “Hummingbird” and “Shadow of the Pines” and “Truth and Clear Water” and so on. Dig a bit deeper, and you’ll find healthy doses of reminiscence and self-reflection, love and loss, loneliness, melancholy, self-discovery, stability and hope for the future.
Phenix moved to Portland in 2018, and the city played a big role in Sable’s journey to fruition: It was recorded locally. More than fifteen local artists were involved in bringing it to life. Part of the post-production work was funded by a Portland arts grant, and the vinyl records were pressed about fifteen minutes from her home.
Last but not least, the record is named after Phenix’s beloved cat, Sable.
“It’s funny, but it’s true. She’s a huge part of why I ended up with the partner I ended up with,” she said. “She’s just a very wise being, and I trust her.”
Listen on Spotify
Sarah Phenix
Bibliophile
Modern Rockhounds
Portland
author’s
new book harnesses fresh energy and ethics around rockhounding
interview by Cathy Carroll
ALISON JEAN COLE is at the forefront of a new interest in the Northwest that’s no longer your granduncle’s pastime—rockhounding. Her second book on the topic, A Rockhound’s Guide to Oregon & Washington, has just been released amid a growing, youthful enthusiasm for the hobby that promises another way to connect with nature. The book covers rockhounding basics, sustainable collecting, Leave No Trace principles and, for sixty sites, the geologic history along with what types of rocks and fossils you may find.
The region is a treasure trove for rockhounds who can explore ancient seafloors, epic lava flows, glacier-carved landscapes and evidence of 200 million years of tectonic action. This guide helps beginners find agates and jaspers in the volcanic Cascade Range, marine fossils along the Coast, petrified wood in the Owyhee Uplands and more. Cole includes collection limits, clear driving directions with GPS coordinates, road quality and trip safety information, the best season to go and informative maps.
The Portland-based author and artist travels throughout the western U.S. in search of material to use in her lapidary jewelry cra . She runs a geology festival in Utah, is a proud member of the Mount Hood Rock Club and is the author of Beautiful Rocks & How to Find Them. She also publishes THUNDEREGG, a zine that focuses on the changing face of rockhounding culture, and guides weekendlong rockhounding excursions in the Oregon and Nevada deserts.
Why should someone consider going rockhounding?
Rockhounding is an opportunity to commune with the Earth, with the raw material it’s made from.
If you’re willing to take a li le time to be curious about rocks, learning about their geological histories will lead you down endless fascinating paths. Intellectual interest aside, the activity of rockhounding is a meditative pursuit that takes place in beautiful environments. Rocks show up in abundance in places of erosion, which means the hobby takes us to scenic beaches, misty gravel bars and rugged desert canyons.
What are some of your most memorable rockhounding moments?
I love this question. Perhaps it was finding a candy-pink chunk of rhodonite in the Chetco River last November, or maybe it was that single glendonite crystal I found on the Olympic Peninsula, or perhaps it was stumbling upon an entire petrified forest in a remote corner of Nevada. In all of these moments, none of these discoveries were anticipated. I was moved to tears with delight each time. The Earth feels so trodden sometimes, you know? So moments like these feel like a gi .
Tell us about the changing face of rockhounding culture. There’s a growing diversity in what was once a largely old-man sport. Lots of young people from all walks of life are jumping into the rockhounding hobby, and year a er year, I see it becoming more accessible. Even more importantly, there seems to be a fresher ethos about collecting. People remove a lot less material than the old-timers did, and we’re all be er o for it, especially the landscape. I feel hopeful about the direction of the hobby, and I hope my new book really helps hit the ethos message home. You can still go out in search of rocks, and you really don’t need to take that many home.
Author Alison Jean Cole is redefining rockhounding for a new generation.
Robbie
Augspurger
Cocktail Card
recipe courtesy of Brenna O’Malley, e Pub and Humble Spirit / MCMINNVILLE
Garden Party
FOR COCKTAIL
• ½ ounce strawberry/ pink peppercorn purée (recipe below)
• ¾ ounce St-Germain Elderflower Liqueur
• 1½ ounces Aperol
• 6 dashes of rhubarb bi ers
• 4 ounces dry sparkling wine
• 2 ounces sparkling grapefruit soda water
• 2 sprigs of mint and fresh strawberries, for garnish
FOR STRAWBERRY/PINK PEPPERCORN PURÉE
• 2 pints fresh strawberries, destemmed and halved
• ¼ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon pink peppercorn
FOR STRAWBERRY/PINK PEPPERCORN PURÉE
Pour sugar over processed strawberries, and let sit for 30 minutes. In a 4-quart saucepan, add pink peppercorns over medium-high heat. Stir frequently until fragrant (about 2 minutes). Add macerated strawberries to saucepan, and reduce heat to a simmer for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool. Blend mixture in blender until smooth, and then pass through a fine mesh sieve.
FOR COCKTAIL
Add purée, elderflower liqueur and Aperol to a large wine glass. Stir with spoon to combine. Add crushed ice, followed by rhubarb bi ers. Top with sparkling wine and grapefruit soda water. Express mint by slapping between hands, and garnish on the top, along with some strawberry halves.
The Art of Drinking Well Beerlandia
written by Jeremy Storton | illustration by Katy Freeman
IF YOU LOOK at the highlight reel of your life to some of your favorite meals, I’ll bet there’s a pattern. ese experiences often have little to do with the bill and more with the environment and the company. One of my alltime favorite experiences happened ten years ago and has changed how I think about drinking ever since. In Madrid, there’s a brewpub tucked away on a side street called Naturbier. My extended family and I sat with my wife’s Spanish relatives at a long table. We were there for a lunch reunion, but food and drink were foil characters to this story. We lazily ate in small courses and slowly sipped our drinks. I had three or four beers, but at that pace never got more than a slight buzz—the kind that makes you melt into your chair and smile. e point of all this was to reconnect with family, tell stories and take all afternoon to do it. is is what the Spanish call a sobremesa.
e Hawaiians have a similar tradition called pau hana, where people gather over drinks after work to talk
story. Swedes will fika over coffee. South Africans gather around the braai while Fijians and Argentinians enjoy a kava or maté circle respectively. e closest words we have might be “happy hour,” or a “weekend BBQ.” But these don’t fully encompass the point: to put the phone down, take our time, reconnect, share ideas and tell stories in a way that nourishes our hearts as well as our bodies.
As divisive as our country and world have become, we could benefit from more of these experiences. Perhaps spending more time, eating and drinking well and talking would do us all some good. If only we knew what to call it.
Reconnect, share ideas and tell stories in a way that nourishes our hearts as well as our bodies.
HELLS CANYON SCENIC BYWAY
Gastronomy
Aji Fish Butchery
written by Kerry Newberry
WITH A SENSE of calm and artistry, Jeffrey Kim smoothly scales a piece of sea bream behind the bar at Zilla Sake—a destination sushi restaurant in Portland. “I use the sukibiki method,” he said. “It’s a traditional Japanese technique where you delicately slice instead of scrape the scales away, which prevents damage to the fish.” For the past two decades, Kim has worked in seafood with stints at Katsuya in Los Angeles and Portland’s Bamboo Sushi.
He’s currently the head chef at Zilla Sake and runs Aji Fish Butchery on the side. About five years ago, he became interested in dry-aging fish, the intricate process of removing excess moisture to concentrate flavor and enhance texture. “I love the unique textures and flavor profiles of dry-aged fish because it highlights each fish differently,” said Kim.
As the fish is stored in Kim’s glass-door refrigerator, flavors compound—a twenty-one-day dry-aged salmon takes on nutty notes, while the fourteen-day dry-aged madai (sea bream) has hints of kelp. Kim monitors the temperature and humidity multiple times a day and keeps logs for himself and the Oregon Department of Agriculture.
The natural process also slowly transforms texture—some fish firm up, and some soften. “It’s amazing to taste the difference,” said Kim. “And there’s no salt or curing involved.” One of his favorite fish to dry age is Japanese mackerel (masaba). “The flavor of the mackerel mellows, yet retains its sweetness,” he said.
It’s an art the chef loves talking about and sharing, which is why he’s launched a lunchtime pop-up and retail counter on Wednesdays through Fridays. The menu specializes in rice bowls topped with Aji’s dry-aged sashimi, but you can also order dry-aged salmon sausages and a trout mousse pâté toast.
1806 NE ALBERTA ST. PORTLAND www.ajipdx.com
CRAVINGS: BUZZ-WORTHY LOCAL HONEY
FLYING BEE RANCH
At Flying Bee Ranch in Salem, you can taste from more than a dozen single-flower varietal honeys ranging from carrot and chicory to blackberry and radish. Beekeeper Jeremy Mitchell also stocks the shop with ample beekeeping supplies and other products from the hive including bee pollen and honeycomb. Mark your calendar for July and August, when the beekeeping team leads educational experiences and tours of the hives.
5180 LARDON ROAD NE SALEM www.flyingbeeranch.net
BROADUS BEES
For the essence of Central Oregon’s wildflowers, seek honey from Broadus Bees. Other standouts from this local honey company include the high desert buckwheat, a deep molasses-flavored honey that’s perfect for baking and cooking, and a decadent bourbon barrel-aged honey that adds a sweet and subtly smoky finish to desserts and cheese boards. Check the website for seasonal offerings like whole hive setups and educational seminars.
BEND www.broadusbees.com
HONEY PORCH
Matt Getsinger and his wife, Rachel, offer full-service apiary management through Oregon Bee Keeper, a labor of love business that evolved from their gardening hobby. In addition to a robust pollinator garden packed with native flora and fauna, they tend to their own bee hives and sell self-serve raw, unfiltered honey from a charming porch in Newberg. Make this your stop after visiting nearby vineyards on the state’s bee-friendly wine route.
603 N. MERIDIAN ST. NEWBERG www.oregonbeekeeper.com
Jeffrey Kim carefully scales a fish as part of its dry-aging process at his pop-up Aji Fish Butchery on Alberta.
Photos: Aji Fish Butchery
BEST PLACES FOR VEGAN FOOD FESTIVALS
EUGENE VEGANFEST
On May 4, the nonprofit Compassionate Living will host the first large-scale vegan festival in Eugene. In addition to food vendors like Viva! Vegetarian Grill and Full Circle Farm, the event will feature fifteen speakers on a range of topics, from the benefits of plant-based living to ethical and environmental reasons to be vegan. Seth Tibbott, one of the state’s local vegan legends and the founder of the Tofurky Company, will also be speaking.
EUGENE www.eugeneveganfest.org
NORTHWEST VEG
Since 2003, the nonprofit Northwest VEG has been dedicated to raising awareness around the power of a plant-based, vegan lifestyle. Join one of the monthly potlucks in Portland or Vancouver and you can learn about vegan living with guest speakers like cookbook author Surraya Drugovic and author and dietician Jack Norris. Or check out Veg 101, an annual six-week series on vegetarianism with lectures, cooking classes and recipes.
PORTLAND/HILLSBORO www.nwveg.org
VEGANIZER
Founded by Waz Wu, Veganizer hosts collaborative pop-up events throughout the year with restaurants, chefs and makers. While the flagship festival is held annually in September, this summer you can check out the inaugural Vegan Night Market on June 1 at The Redd on Salmon Street in Portland. Inspired by the night markets Wu grew up with in Southeast Asia, the event will feature a variety of vendors.
PORTLAND www.veganizerpdx.com
Terra Mae Dining
written by Kerry Newberry
QUIET LUXURY is having a moment, and it’s on the table at Terra Mae, Portland’s stylish new hotel restaurant. Located in the Alberta Arts District on the second level of Cascada, the menu blends Portuguese and Japanese flavors in a sleek dining room with pastel accents and tropical foliage.
Read more about Portland’s Cascada on pg. 88
Chef Megan Sky turns out beautiful dishes packed with punchy layers of flavor. She adds osetra caviar and truffle slivers to tuna tartare and cara cara gel and rooftop flowers to yellowtail crudo. e umami-rich black cod spread topped with seaweed mirin comes with pillowy milk bread buns and a trio of sublime compound butters including orange honey, duck skin and an herb butter.
For vivid, veg-forward dishes, seek out the compressed heirloom carrots on sesame carrot cream with crispy coriander and joyful cucumber slinkys dressed with peri-peri chili crisp. Other shareable standouts to order: tempura-battered black cod with yuzu roe dip and a classic rendition of Portuguese duck rice.
A thoughtful wine list with a Portuguese bent is exciting to see in the city. On this recent visit, you could even try Filipa Pato’s coveted 3B Blanc de Blancs by the glass. ( e winemaker is a star producer in the Bairrada region and the daughter of one of Portugal’s most esteemed winemakers, Luis Pato.)
1150 NE ALBERTA ST. PORTLAND www.terramaepdx.com
ABOVE The Terra Mae dining room in the new Cascada hotel in Portland’s Alberta Arts District. BELOW The cuisine at Terra Mae pairs Portuguese and Japanese flavors.
Photos: Cascada
Farm to Table
In Praise of Blueberries
The Willamette Valley’s other fruit thrives in Oregon, and is a perfect summer treat
written by Julie Lee | photography by Karl Maasdam
A STAPLE ITEM in many families, nutrient-rich blueberries have a prized flavor and are packed with antioxidant value. Low in calories and fat, blueberries are an excellent source of fiber and have a variety of vitamins and minerals that support cognitive and digestive health.
One of the unique attributes of this superfood is that they are equally great in recipes whether frozen or fresh. There are also many varieties of blueberries, though highbush and lowbush are what are commonly known. A member of the heather family, blueberries are relatives to cranberries, bilberries and huckleberries.
Gunnar Avinelis is a second-generation Oregon blueberry farmer. “I have the blessing of standing on a foundation that was established through blood, sweat and tears … and now seeks to create more opportunities ahead,” he said.
With both parents coming from agricultural backgrounds and his father’s education in crop science, Avinelis was naturally led into the field of research agronomy with Actagro in the 1980s, when the company was first established. After a continued ascent in the organization, Avinelis realized his passion was rooted in farming, not necessarily selling chemicals, and he left a stable, well-paid position to start his own farm management business, AgriCare, in the early 1990s.
“Farm management can be a difficult business to break into—it’s low margin and filled with variability in permanent crops,” said Avinelis. “After some difficult years where crop disasters [caused by] severe weather nearly bankrupted the business and our family, my parents would often joke that they left a good living to be stressed out all the time and nearly starve to death. If it wasn’t for a love of farming and deep care for their employees, I think my parents would have given up the dream of building a
Second-generation Oregon blueberry farmer Gunnar Avinelis at Riverbend Organic Farms in Jefferson.
small business and returned to other options. Had they done so, our story would look much different and certainly not involve blueberries.”
With growing real estate on grocery shelves, organic blueberries are claiming their much-deserved space. Avinelis’ Homegrown Organic Farms works with the environment and natural resources to grow healthy and fruitful plants and trees. Their core practice centers on healthy, live soils and promoting beneficial biological life both above ground and below, aiding in pest control that could be detrimental to fruit.
“When you walk into one of our organic fields, you feel the life that is all around you,” said Avinelis. “You enjoy the beauty of the cover crop that could be a flowering clover or a beautiful floor of dense grass. You see the ladybugs with their vibrant red exterior. When these colors and sounds flood your senses as you pick delicious fruit from a plant, you know you are someplace special.”
Avinelis’ parents, Tom and Karen, started Homegrown Organic Farms and AgriCare in 2013 with another family, John and Cindy France. In 2021, both families made a key decision about succession for their business, establishing an employee stock ownership plan for their 200-plus employees, placing 100 percent of the ownership to employees that help drive the success and longevity of the business. This unique model in the industry includes all employees from field-level team members to executives.
When the AgriCare business was established, the desire was to farm a large enough footprint to be able to gather a team of the best farm operators and agronomists in the business. Their mission is: “Be humble, grow as a team, do the right thing, and exceed expectations.” As a result, the culture is a “team of problem solvers and high achievers who care deeply for those around them.”
The Avinelis family first began growing blueberries in Jefferson in 2009. After a prior decade of farming in California, they fell in love with the Willamette Valley.
“There is a wonderful culture around agriculture in the Willamette Valley and incredible people in the industry,” said Gunnar Avinelis. “We have been so blessed by these relationships. Because of the rich soil and amazing summer weather, blueberry plants flourish in this state, and the resulting fruit reflects that. When picked at the peak of ripeness, I would put Oregon-grown blueberries up against any in the world when it comes to delighting the consumer.”
While there are many endeavors worthy of his time, Avinelis said, producing healthy fresh blueberries is his family’s priority. “The demands of farming blueberries and the variability out of our control are not for the faint of heart,” he said. “Often, we must remove something that once was full
Spring weather brings buds to Oregon blueberry bushes.
Gunnar Avinelis walks through rows of blueberry bushes at Riverbend Organic Farms in Jefferson in spring.
“What makes Oregon blueberries stand apart is our unique terroir—cool nights, warm days, the pure Pacific Northwest rainfall and that distinctive acidic soil that blueberries crave.”
— Chef Cathy Whims
of purpose and good to make room for what is best for the days ahead.”
Chef Heidi Whitney-Schile at Ambar Estate in Newberg delights with a delicious blueberry yuzu curd recipe. “This beautiful tart is delicious any time of year, but I especially love it in early summer when fresh blueberries are finally available at the farmers markets again,” said Whitney-Schile. “The yuzu adds a beautiful pop of citrus and floral notes that complement the blueberries perfectly. This curd recipe is great for not only filling tarts but for spreading on toast, spooning over vanilla ice cream and gifting to friends.”
Chef Leif Benson, Oregon’s culinary ambassador and commissioner on the Oregon Blueberry Commission, offers a
simple-to-make and delicious recipe using blueberries and ginger, his blueberry and ginger cornbread.
Cathy Whims—six-time James Beard Award finalist for best chef of Portland’s Nostrana—offers her recipe for a blueberry tart that’s perfect for summer gatherings.
“What makes Oregon blueberries stand apart is our unique terroir—cool nights, warm days, the pure Pacific Northwest rainfall and that distinctive acidic soil that blueberries crave,” said Whims. “When customers taste these berries, whether fresh or in our desserts, they’re experiencing the best of what thoughtful, local agriculture can produce. Oregon blueberries aren’t just ingredients—they’re the reason our summer menu comes alive.”
Oregon Recipes
Fresh Oregon Blueberry Desserts
Blueberry Tart
Nostrana / PORTLAND
Chef Cathy Whims
SERVES 8-10
FOR THE TART CRUST
• 1½ sticks (¾ cup) cold, unsalted bu er cut into ½-inch pieces
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• Zest of 1 lemon
FOR THE FILLING
• 4 cups blueberries
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 8 ounces crème fraîche
• 2 eggs, beaten
FOR THE TART CRUST
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Use a food processor to combine cold bu er with flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 teaspoon fine salt and lemon zest until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal.
Press the mixture evenly into the bo om and sides of a 12-inch fluted tart pan. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Prick the bo om of the crust with a fork, and cover with aluminum foil. Fill with weights (dry beans are perfect). Bake tart pastry for 25 minutes or until golden-brown. Let cool, and remove weights and foil.
FOR THE FILLING
Mix blueberries with cinnamon, ¾ cup sugar, salt and lemon juice. Pour berry mixture into baked pastry. Bake for 15 minutes. Turn the oven down to 375 degrees.
Mix crème fraîche with the beaten eggs. A er the berry mixture has been in the oven for 15 minutes, pour the crème fraîche mixture over the berries. Bake for an additional 20-35 minutes until the custard is set.
Remove from the oven to a cooling rack. When cool, remove from the tart pan, and serve. Refrigerate le overs.
Chef Cathy Whims’ Blueberry Tart.
John Valls
Blueberry and Ginger Cornbread
Chef Leif Benson, Oregon’s Culinary Ambassador
SERVES 4-6
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup cornmeal
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted
• 1 cup milk
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, grated
• 1 tablespoon sugar, for topping batter
Blueberry Yuzu Curd
Ambar Estate / NEWBERG
Chef Heidi Whitney-Schile
MAKES 3 CUPS OF CURD
• 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 1 tablespoon chardonnay (or your preferred alcohol)
• 1/2 cup yuzu juice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 3 egg yolks
• 11/2 cups sugar
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons lime zest
• 1 stick butter
Place blueberries, chardonnay, yuzu juice and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook until the blueberries begin to burst. Remove from heat.
In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Whisk until smooth. It should be very thick and pale yellow.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients together, and then mix wet ingredients. Combine with blueberries and mix lightly, until just combined. Do not overmix.
Spray or butter a 9-inch bake pan, and dust with cornmeal. Add cornbread batter to the pan, and level. Dust batter with 1 tablespoon of sugar.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out dry when inserted into the center of the cornbread.
Cool for 20 minutes, and then invert the pan to remove cornbread. Cool again for 20 more minutes. Portion as needed, and serve with honey butter if desired.
Blueberry Gin Sorbet
Nostrana / PORTLAND
Pastry Chef Cassie Rousseau
SERVES 4
• 1 pound blueberries, fresh or frozen
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup gin of choice
Bring blueberries, sugar, salt and lemon juice to a simmer over medium heat. Simmer for about 5 minutes, and then transfer the mixture to a high-speed blender.
Blend blueberries for about a minute, and pour the liquid through a fine mesh strainer, discarding any seeds. Let the mixture cool and then add the gin. The more gin you add, the softer the texture of the final sorbet will be.
Spin the mixture according to your ice cream maker’s instructions. Transfer sorbet to a cooled container, and freeze overnight.
Place a fine metal strainer over a clean bowl. Pour the blueberry mixture into the strainer. Using the back of a spoon, press the juice out of the blueberries into the bowl. Discard the pulp.
Very slowly begin to add the hot blueberry juice to the egg mixture. Make sure you are whisking the entire time. Transfer the blueberry curd mixture back into the saucepan, and place over medium-low heat. Stir constantly until the mixture becomes thick and coats the back of a spoon. Watch the mixture closely as it can easily scorch or curdle the eggs if not stirred constantly. Once it coats the back of a spoon, remove from heat.
Add the lime zest and butter to the mixture. Whisk until butter has melted and is completely mixed in.
Move the curd mixture to a bowl, and press plastic wrap directly to the surface. This will keep it from forming skin while cooling. Place the curd in the fridge, and allow to completely cool. The blueberry yuzu curd is now ready to use to fill your favorite tart shell, to top toast or however you love to eat it!
Chef Heidi Whitney-Schile’s Blueberry Yuzu Curd.
Chef Leif Benson’s Blueberry and Ginger Cornbread.
Strawberry Fields Homegrown Chef
written by or Erickson | photography by Tambi Lane
“I HOPE you’ve got a plan for all these berries,” said Tom, the strawberry farmer helping me load six flats of strawberries into my truck.
“Tomorrow these won’t be the same,” he added as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a bandana. “Oregon strawberries are delicate little babies. You gotta use ’em or lose ’em. is May heatwave will spoil ’em.”
“Uh, yeah,” I replied, having absolutely no idea what I would do with them. “Uh, I’ll make jam,” I said as I got into the overheated cab of my truck and rolled down the window.
“ ere’s a feed store back in Dundee; you can get your canning supplies there,” Tom said with a smile as I pulled away.
Following Tom’s advice, I bought canning jars and lids at the feed store, and upon arriving home, began making jam.
e sweet perfume of the strawberries was intoxicating as I unpacked and washed them. I couldn’t help eating a few (or twenty) as I placed them in a large mixing bowl.
After tossing them with some sugar and lemon juice, I thought, “What the heck!” and added a dash of vanilla extract. It added a soft floral quality that complemented the strawberry flavor beautifully. Ever since then, I’ve always added a whole vanilla bean to the jam.
anks to Tom, I was able to harness that late-May Oregon sunshine in a jar to savor all year. is Oregon strawberry jam is perfect on toasted sourdough, or as an accompaniment to a ripe Oregon cheese.
Oregon Strawberry Jam
• 4 cups strawberries, quartered
• 3 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• 1 whole vanilla bean, split down the middle
EQUIPMENT
• 8 8-ounce canning jars with lids and sealing rings, washed and sterilized
Wash the strawberries, remove the tops and cut them into quarters.
Mix the strawberries, sugar, lemon juice and vanilla bean. Cover and store in the fridge overnight.
Put the mixture in a heavy-bo omed pot, and slowly bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently. As the jam thickens, lower the heat, and stir frequently to prevent sticking. The jam is ready when it slides o a spoon as a sheet rather than dripping o .
Turn o heat. Remove the vanilla bean, and scrape its contents into the jam mixture.
Ladle the hot jam into washed and sterilized canning jars. Leave ¼ inch of space from the top. Cover the jars with lids and rings, leaving the rings slightly loose. Immerse the jars in boiling water for 10 minutes. Take out jars carefully, and let sit for 24 hours so jam sets and lids seal. Tighten the rings.
Oregon sunshine in a jar—strawberry jam.
Home + Design
Kindred Spirits Longtime best friends—one a designer and the other a landscape architect— team up to remodel a Eugene home that blends inside and out
written by Melissa Dalton photography by Peter Dawson
AS ADULTS, Collin Kayser and Chauncey Freeman both run their own businesses in creative industries—Kayser as principal designer at Bar Kay Design Co. and Freeman as landscape designer behind Fifth Season Landscape, both in Eugene. But when they met as fifth graders in Mrs. Dunham’s class at Oaklea Middle School in Junction City, it wasn’t an interest in the arts that they shared. It was cows. “We met in class, hit it off and then we realized that we had a lot in common,” remembered Kayser. “We were in 4-H and showed cattle together, and the friendship blossomed from there.”
They stayed friends over the years, eventually joining Future Farmers of America together. Freeman pursued his love of gardening on a corner of his parents’ property, starting with a rock garden and then growing tomatoes “that were the size of my head as a child,” he said, while Kayser took AutoCAD classes in high school. In college, life continued in tandem, as both majored in business and their respective creative fields, with Freeman at University of Oregon, and Kayser at Oregon State. When Kayser went out on his own after twelve years at other design firms, Freeman was his second client.
In 2014, Freeman had purchased a 1965 ranch house in the South Hills of Eugene, drawn to its single-level layout, and how it was tucked back from the street. The interiors needed updating, but the overall shape was unique, like an H, with front and back courtyards on a sizable lot, which Freeman immediately got to work transforming. “I didn’t have enough money to do any interior projects right away, so I started on the backyard,” said Freeman.
He began with the infrastructure, eliminating the lawn, adding French drains and a meandering path that connects front to back. Various rooms along the path become moments of discovery in the landscape, including a high-up hillside spot that, when the overgrowth was cleared, revealed a view over the top of the house. Freeman then layered in an array of
AT LEFT The lush dining room brings the green of the Willamette Valley inside and under a Sputnik chandelier.
When a landscape architect buys a home, you get intriguing settings like this pathway.
evergreens, foliage and lush texture, for what he called a “Northwest-inspired eclectic” aesthetic, to achieve year-round color.
“There’s golds and yellows and things that are blooming in the dead of winter,” said Freeman, as well as sculpture, art and even a reflection pond on the grounds.
“Because the house is a onelevel house, and the landscaping is matured, it really feels like a house in a garden, instead of the house dominating the landscape,” said Freeman.
For the interior, Freeman restyled the kitchen at one point, but when Freeman’s partner, Ashley Jones, moved in, the couple started discussing how to adapt the rest of the home into a place that suited their joint lifestyle. They tapped Kayser for a targeted overhaul, including reworking the floorplan to eke out more closet space and a bigger primary bedroom and bathroom—to create a “home hotel suite,” said Freeman—as well as updating the guest bedroom
“Because the house is a one-level house, and the landscaping is matured, it really feels like a house in a garden, instead of the house dominating the landscape.”
and bath, mudroom, powder bath and dining room. “Beyond the floor plan, it was really about layering in their personality and style into the space with color, texture and unique finishes,” said Kayser, who also took inspiration for the design from Freeman’s garden.
— Chauncey Freeman, landscape designer and homeowner
To that end, rich hues bloom throughout the interior, from the deep green grass cloth with metallic accents that wraps the primary bedroom and the mustard yellow bed placed before it, to the deep pecan tones of the mudroom backsplash. The primary bathroom sports custom emerald green tile with a striking marble tile floor, while the guest suite takes on duskier tones in the brown and gold grass cloth wallpaper and Calacatta Antique porcelain slab on the vanity. Floral motifs lightly reference the landscape, from the foliage pattern on the bedroom drapes to the powder room’s lotus wallpaper.
Deep, rich hues of green and gold imbue the bedroom suite.
“That helps continue the story of a house and a garden,” said Kayser. “Working with Chauncey and Ashley was really unique because they enjoy the process and they’re not fearful about exploring options. It was really fun to have somebody who wanted to push the boundaries and look into saturated colors, because not everybody gravitates that way. As a designer, it’s like music to my ears.”
Everything comes together in the dining room, where the couple have morning coffee, play cards or host friends for “steak night.” There, Kayser installed a teal wood veneer wall covering as a backdrop to a sumptuous rust velvet couch and the Saarinen-style dining table, with a Sputnik-style chandelier overhead. The custom brass, open-backed shelves flanking the couch are filled with the couple’s collections. “We’ve got some glass pieces, some crystals, some whiskey,” said Freeman. “I cleared out some of the taxidermy for the photo shoot. It’s kind of a wild place. When it’s all out, it’s full forest.”
That’s because large picture windows at either end of the room capture Freeman’s garden at the front and back, making it a room with a natural gravitational pull, much like a good friendship. “Both of us went on this journey of design becoming a part of our life, with his focus on landscape and mine on homes and interiors,” said Kayser. “So this was really fun to see our creative endeavors come together in a project. It’s not very often that you get to do that with your best friend.”
ABOVE The guest suite continues with the earthy themes of the primary suite. AT RIGHT, CLOCKWISE Gold and green make themselves known in the master bath. An intimate and cozy sitting area in the primary bedroom. The wallpaper in the powder room ties together the color scheme in an organic vibe.
DIY illustration by Kate Wong
POUND THE STAKE
Build a Backyard Horseshoe Pit
COME SUMMER, we’re ready to play lawn games. Horseshoes are a classic, and a horseshoe pit court can be as simple, or complicated, as you like, as well as a straightforward weekend project to build. Here are our tips:
PLOT THE COURT
A regulation court requires the metal stakes to be 40 feet apart. To keep this simple, measure the distance across a relatively flat plane, and pound a metal stake in the ground at either end. However, to create a cushioned area for the horseshoes to land, prevent bounce and foster fair play, it’s best to build a pit. Build two pits across from each other, or a single one that players will take turns on. To get really fancy, add a backstop to the pit to contain the flying shoes.
PLAN THE PIT
Each pit will be 3 x 4 feet, with two long boards on the sides of the pit, a shorter 3-foot-long board at the back and the front open to receive play. Cut away the turf (about 2 inches) to the correct dimensions
to create a level base for the pit frame. (Always check for utility lines before doing any digging.)
BUILD THE FRAME
Use pressure-treated or cedar 6x6 boards cut to size, or landscaping timbers, which are designed with yard projects in mind. Attach the boards together with deck screws. Then, drill a pilot hole every 12 inches, and insert a spike or piece of rebar to secure the frame to the ground.
OPTIONAL: ADD A BACKSTOP
A backstop isn’t necessary for home pits, but can be helpful if you want more control of where the horseshoes land. At the rear of the frame, stack boards or timbers three high, and secure together to create a higher back for catching stray shoes.
Find the center of the pit and drive a 36-inch-long metal rod (1-inch diameter) into the ground. According to the National Horseshoe Pitchers Association, the stake should be 40 feet from the opposite stake, 14 inches above the ground and at a 12-degree angle to absorb the incoming shoes.
FINISHING TOUCHES
If you like, line the pits with landscaping cloth to keep the sand in place, then pour several bags of play sand into the pit until it’s about 2 inches level. Smooth with a shovel. Draw foul lines at 27 feet from the stake (for children) and 37 feet from the stake (everyone else). Grab your “shoes,” and get throwing!
A horseshoe pit court can be as simple, or complicated, as you like.
Get the Look of Chauncey Freeman’s Mudroom
If you think this faucet looks like a piece of machinery from the early 1900s, that’s on purpose. Designed by Waterworks to recall that era, in homage to a time when “pride was lavished on parts,” this Regulator Gooseneck Kitchen Faucet comes with stylish fittings, including a black wheel handle, spray nozzle and cast-brass temperature-mixing valve to adjust beyond the basic hot and cold.
www.waterworks.com/us_en
e Kennaston Drawer Pull from Rejuvenation is a little rugged, thanks to its leather wrap, and a little refined, courtesy of the solid brass construction. Perfect for bringing a little polish to such a hardworking space like a mudroom.
www.rejuvenation.com
Pratt + Larson has been pioneering against mass production since Michael Pratt and Reta Larson learned to make handcrafted tile in their Southeast Portland basement in the early ’80s. e inherent variation from their pieces is on beautiful view with the Craftsman glaze, a range inspired by the American Art Tile movement.
www.prattandlarson.com
In 1895, a young artist turned house painter from Germany, named Ernest Miller, set up his first storefront in Portland to sell his own paints, which were made to withstand the Pacific Northwest climate. Today, Miller Paint has more than fifty stores in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, and a range of brilliant hues, like the one on the cabinets in the Eugene mudroom: “Clover Patch.”
www.millerpaint.com
Peter Dawson
Compassionately Fierce
Artist Sara Siestreem confronts viewers through comforting beauty
written and photographed by Daniel O’Neil
SOMEWHERE IN PORTLAND, Sara Siestreem places culturally significant items on a Xerox machine—buttons, oyster shells from Coos Bay and baskets she has woven, often adding her own hands to the composition—and presses the copy button. More than art emerges from the black-and-white print. Siestreem has lived most of her life in Portland, but she spent her early years living in the territory of her Hanis Coos ancestors in the Umpqua River Valley. As an artist and an activist,
her multicultural background finds fruition in her multidisciplinary approach.
Siestreem’s latest public art piece, night flyers, a commission for the Vernier Science Center at Portland State University, references this interconnection. With migration as the central theme, revealed through the basket pattern for geese, Siestreem alludes to the patterns and rhythms of animals, people and life in general.
The Xeroxed oyster shells and buttons evoke histories of genocide against the Coos and other Indigenous peoples, and against Mother Nature. Siestreem found the shells at the edge of village sites in the Coos Bay estuary, where ancient oyster beds grew until colonization arrived. Working with these and other elements, and adding paint, water and pencil, Siestreem combines natural materials
Working with multiple materials allows Sara Siestreem to layer her work with deeper meaning.
with her own energy in an idiosyncratic process that pries open difficult and intertwined themes of social and ecological justice. Her work honors the fundamental interdependence and equality between people, plants, elements, animals and the cosmos.
“My process is based on observations of nature combined with a formal structure and improvisational practice,” she said. “As I create a visual noise through this improvisation, I’m looking for basic forms from nature to emerge. When something elemental shows itself to me, I refine the picture plane to support that event.”
Siestreem likens large-scale works like night flyers to a Trojan horse—monumental beauty is the vessel for messages that challenge accepted views of society and the environment. “It’s really important in my work to confront you with excruciating truth, but also give you a way out emotionally and spiritually, a positive endgame,” she said. In night flyers, the resilience of nature provides that hint of hope. Oysters, though non-native, grow again in Coos Bay today, for example, and geese continue to migrate.
space in the atrium of the Vernier building. “I like to work big because of the confrontational nature of the scale. So I want to make works that are bigger than the body of the viewer, to help them understand the enormity of the topics that I’m confronting them with.”
Portland-based artist and curator Mack McFarland has known and worked with Siestreem for more than a decade. In her work he finds a striking ability to converge abstraction, tradition (including Indigenous and DIY Portland punk) and institutional reform, using what he called a “compassionate fierceness.”
“It’s really important in my work to confront you with excruciating truth, but also give you a way out emotionally and spiritually, a positive endgame.”
— Sara Siestreem
“I think night flyers is beautiful and multilayered, which is really what you want out of a piece of public work,” McFarland said. “For people who are seeing it multiple times—hundreds of times, even—in spaces like that, there are many, many things that will be revealed to them over time, and it creates a myriad of understandings.”
Composed of eighteen panels, which Siestreem arranges as though weaving, night flyers spans 18 feet across a dedicated
Siestreem holds an MFA in painting and has studied with local Indigenous masters like carver and painter Greg Robinson (Chinook), carver Greg Archuleta (Grand Ronde) and renowned Warm Springs sculptor Lillian Pitt (Wasco/Yakama).
She also teaches art, currently as an MFA mentor at the Institute of American Indian Arts. Working on a commission for a science building made sense for an artist with such a studied yet instinctive technique.
A clam basket features in night flyers along with Siestreem’s hands. In some of the images, the two appear natural and whole, a representation of the power and beauty possible when science respects nature and cross-cultural values. In others, the hands and basket are distorted, a suggestion of the dangers science and technology possess when employed for objectification and profit.
“Those people will be doing actual work in the world that will affect the things I care most deeply about,” Siestreem said. “To create something that will speak to those people’s bodies and those people’s morality and spiritual center when they’re at science class, to me this is a really powerful opportunity.”
Siestreem has other upcoming public art projects in the Northwest, and she is busy creating art for the Elizabeth Leach Gallery in Portland and the Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York. Her works, large or small, build upon the same principles as expressed in night flyers, because, for Siestreem, art only begins with surface beauty.
“My cultural, spiritual and social belief is that this work is alive, that it’s animate and powerful,” she said. “My hope is that, in the same way we receive an energetic charge from contact with the land, other animals or a natural event, these paintings will affect the viewer.”
FROM TOP Sara Siestreem’s night flyers spans 18 feet in the Vernier Science Center at Portland State University. Siestreem peels the paper off a Xerox transfer, revealing its nature underneath.
Sanctioned jalopy trash hauling gets cool.
Alicia Mariah Elfving
PATIO SEASON HAS ARRIVED
Appliances, Sinks, Countertops and Installation do not qualify. No other discounts apply. Promotion Dates: April 14th- September 1st, 2025 20% off Naturecast Outdoor Cabinetry Now through Labor Day
Who would have thought, a er receiving a call from a distressed friend about a bird that kept banging up against a garage window, that this call for assistance would lead to a career change for a woman who was knee-deep in her work with book publishing activities? Alina Blankenship was used to getting calls for assistance from friends, mainly due to her consistently creative approach to problem solving and her self-described “common sense” approach to resolving issues. The intruder juvenile Cooper’s hawk was captured in a sweatshirt, inspected for injuries and then released back into the sky. Blankenship, curious soul that she is, promptly returned home and Googled the bird for identification and “stumbled upon the sport of modern-day falconry, not realizing it existed.”
On a Whim and a Feather
Falconer Alina Blankenship’s unexpected career takes
flight
written and photographed by Joni Kabana
Today, Blankenship works with various species of birds of prey, training them to fulfill natural instinct duties from pest control to clearing fields of other wild quarries. “It is a millennia-old pursuit o en called the sport of kings, as once favored by such nobility and notables as Charlemagne; Mary, Queen of Scots; Emperor Catherine of Russia; and Genghis Khan. There are approximately 5,000 modernday falconers preserving the tradition in America,” she said.
The sport of falconry is most e ective when cooperation and trust exists between falconer, hawk and dog in pursuit of game with singular intent. “Falconry abatement utilizes the principles of the sport of falconry to allow the falconer to provide a solution designed by mother nature,” she said. “The predator-prey relationship is hardwired in the brains of all species.” Blankenship also responds to calls from police departments, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and other agencies for assistance recovering injured raptors to transport them to wildlife rehabbers.
“It has long been said to love what you do,” Blankenship said. “As you must learn the skills of falconry to become an abatement falconer, the lengthy journey begins with becoming an apprentice. Falconry is not your typical sport that you can do on the weekends or evenings. It becomes a lifestyle and requires an enormous commitment. It takes seven years to become a Master Falconer. So, and I cannot stress this strongly enough, I would never recommend to someone to pursue the sport of falconry with the intention of working in abatement. One should love the sport first, and maybe the career will follow.”
AT FAR LEFT Alina Blankenship works in the field with Thorn, a Harris’s hawk. ABOVE, AT TOP Blankenship works with a crew on large jobs. Pictured are (le to right) Christian Narby holding Rogue, a Peruvian Harris’s hawk; master falconer Barb Roehm; Blankenship and her dog, Bramble; and Alyssa Jayne Mayor holding Sable, a hybrid falcon. ABOVE Omen, an Eurasian eagle-owl.
IN OREGON’S VAST public lands—which encompass more than half the state—you can reliably find stunning scenery and some of the best adventures that nature has to offer.
At the same time, maddeningly, you will find garbage. And plenty of it.
Household trash. Tattered furniture. Appliances. Even abandoned cars and RVs. Illegal dumping has grown with the state’s population, and it’s been supercharged with the proliferation of houseless camps on public land, especially in places like Central Oregon.
Yet while trash is increasingly abundant, government money and people to clean up backcountry messes are not, especially in light of the resources needed to combat wildfires every summer.
Over the past decade, however, the battle against Oregon’s public land dumping has found an unconventional hero. Or, more accurately, thousands of them.
And they arrive, inauspiciously enough, in beater cars and trucks.
The last weekend of June, convoys of recreationists—many in ragtag vehicles that look to be only a few miles removed from the scrapyard—rumble into forests, badlands and grasslands and return with tons of junk, from beer cans to construction materials to cars.
Known as the Gambler 500, the made-inOregon event has sparked copycats across the country, and also spawned a year-round nonprofit arm. That charity, called Sons of Smokey, fundraises for dumpster fees and makes available a free nationwide trash-geolocating smartphone app.
Over the past decade, volunteers have removed some 4 million pounds of trash from federal lands and at no cost to the public, said Tate Morgan, Gambler 500 founder and executive director of Sons of Smokey. The cleanup-and-cars mission has even attracted sponsorship deals with the Ford Bronco Wild Fund and O’Reilly Auto Parts.
“It’s about cheap cars and fun in the outdoors, but the metric is how much trash you can get and how cool you can be,” said Morgan, an Oregon native and hunter who calls public lands his second home. “We strive to be the most approachable motorsport event, and we are open to anyone and everyone.”
AT RIGHT Vehicles of all shapes, states and sizes take part in the Gambler 500, an annual gathering of like-minded recreationists for off-road adventure and to remove trash from public lands.
Hauling Out the Trash
In the Gambler 500, volunteers in junker cars unload tons of garbage from public landscapes
written by James Sinks
Alicia Mariah Elfving
FROM TOP A large trash pile is dedicated to boats, cars and other large items that don’t fit into the dumpsters. Tate Morgan, Gambler 500 founder and Sons of Smokey executive director, shows off his rings.
Alicia Mariah Elfving
Richard Darbonne
It’s like a younger, punk rock cousin to another nonprofit, SOLVE Oregon, which has been enlisting volunteers for a half century for beach cleanups and other events.
The Gambler 500 began with a goofy, high-octane idea: racing junkers through the woods.
In 2013, Morgan and a handful of friends grabbed cars for less than $500 and bounced down logging roads through the Cascades. Then, there were twenty-three people and thirteen vehicles, among them a 1993 Nissan NX that he found for $325.
By the third year, it grew to sixty racers and also attracted the attention of the U.S. Forest Service, which wanted permits and to ensure no trash or derelict vehicles were left behind. Also, that year, one of the participants filmed a video, which went viral, Morgan said.
Based on an outpouring of interest, he reserved a camp for the fourth year with the expectation of accommodating 300 people. More than a thousand showed up. In addition, worried that a crowded off-road rally would be dangerous—but also wanting to maintain a spirit of friendly competition—the goal was changed to trash extraction.
It’s now billed as an off-road navigation challenge, in older-model, impractical and unreliable vehicles. Trucks and
mechanics are welcome for the inevitable breakdowns. And those who retrieve the most junk win bragging rights and prizes.
The trash goes into Sons of Smokey-rented giant dumpsters at what’s been dubbed Gamblertown, the car show-meets-Mad Max festival home base for the annual weekend. There also are stages for music acts, tool vendors and food trucks. This year, Gamblertown will be near Madras on June 27 through 29, with an eye on cleaning the 271-square-mile Crooked River National Grasslands.
Garbage also is collected at smaller satellite gatherings elsewhere, such as in the Blue Mountains in Eastern Oregon.
Among the more-noticeable cars you might see is a pink-andblue-hued 1998 Honda CR-V with a Jet Ski built onto the top— and by the end of the weekend, it’ll be covered with trash bags. The car even has a name, Carloski, and its own Instagram page at @carloski500.
Pete Schneebeli, who lives in Northeast Portland and works for a knife-making company by day, concocted the vehicle for his first Gambler event in 2018, which he said blew his mind. “It is like Burning Man for gearheads,” he said. “There are a lot of mechanically inclined outdoorsy people in this state.”
Event founder Tate Morgan considers public lands his second home.
Richard Darbonne
FROM TOP A gold Mercedes and a litter-collecting Baja Bug at the Gambler 500’s Gamblertown home base.
Photos: Alicia Mariah Elfving
“It’s about cheap cars and fun in the outdoors, but the metric is how much trash you can get and how cool you can be. We strive to be the most approachable motorsport event, and we are open to anyone and everyone.”
— Tate Morgan, Gambler 500 founder and Sons of Smokey executive director
To Forest Service law enforcement, the idea of hordes in poorly running cars initially seemed like a nightmare-in-waiting, but it didn’t take long for local and federal officials to develop high praise for the Gambler 500 and its trash-collecting enthusiasm, said Sean Reed, a recently retired patrol officer for the Deschutes National Forest.
“We expected all hell to break loose, but they ended up being one of the best groups we ever have worked with, and we were just amazed at what was accomplished,” he said. “It also is very good for the local economy.”
Reed recalls giving a police escort in north Klamath County as a Gambler hauled an abandoned boat out of the forest on the roof of their vehicle. Yes, a boat.
Volunteers do not clean up active camps of houseless people, he said.
The Gambler brand is spreading beyond Oregon. Similar events have happened in almost every state—and folks are free to use the name as long as they don’t profit from it, Morgan said.
Dumping trash isn’t free, of course. The Sons of Smokey nonprofit raises money on its website and via shirt sales to help cover rubbish fees: about $40,000 to toss 350,000 pounds of debris in 2024, he said. Participants who stay at Gamblertown also pay entry fees, which help cover site rental, insurance and $20,000 worth of porta-potties.
Know where there’s trash? The nonprofit invites people to download a free Sons of Smokey smartphone app—developed by a programmer in La Pine—that allows you to tag dump sites on a map, if you stumble onto junk on public land.
“It works anytime of the year and anywhere in the U.S.,” he said. “If you’re a hiker in Idaho and you see a pile of tires and can’t get them out, then it’s invaluable for people doing the cleanup. There is so much trash strewn across the landscape, and it helps to know where it is.”
ABOVE, FROM TOP A Gambler 500 group makes quick work of an abandoned RV, chopping it up and hauling it away in a Ford F-100 from the ’70s. Participants chop up a fallen tree on top of a Ford Falcon that had been abandoned in the forest for more than forty years. Dedicated gambler kiddo Jack hauls trash on his Coleman quad.
Photos: Alicia Mariah Elfving
Experience Oregon by
Explore the McKenzie River with A. Helfrich Outfitter and McKenzie Rafting. (photo: Turell Group/ Eugene, Cascades & Coast)
Land, Water & Air
written by Jean Chen Smith
High desert hikes, clamming on the coast & visiting famed aircraft
Some of the best months in our state for exploring the outdoors are during spring and early summer. With the Pacific Ocean on the west and the Columbia and Snake rivers to the north and east, along with multiple mountain ranges, our state offers many adventures by land, water and air. Regardless of how you choose to explore, our roundup has something for every adventurer.
Land
The Corvallis-to-the-Sea Trail traverses 60 miles, connecting the Willamette Valley and the Oregon Coast. The peaceful trail starts in downtown Corvallis and goes all the way to Newport. Cyclists, hikers and ultra-runners can expect to traverse through diverse landscapes on rural roads and dirt paths. Be sure to pack snacks and plenty of water.
Oregon is full of epic hikes, so it’s hard to narrow it down to a select few. Smith Rock State Park, however, ranks among my absolute favorites. Open yearround and located near the high desert town of Terrebonne, it is popular among rock climbers and hikers. Explore scenic trails and spectacular views of river canyons, along with wildlife such as golden eagles, prairie falcons and mule deer. Be sure to arrive early in the summer as temperatures can quickly rise to 100 degrees by mid-afternoon. For fantastic views, the Rim Rock Trail is an easy 1 mile loop along the rim of the canyon. Hikers seeking more challenge will enjoy the popular Misery Ridge Loop Trail, which is a strenuous 3.6-mile hike with an elevation gain of 908 feet, offering expansive vistas.
For city dwellers seeking a nearby nature fix, Portland’s Forest Park is the ideal spot. At 5,200 acres, it is one of the largest urban forests in the United States. There are more than 80 miles of trails to explore, including the old ruins of the Witch’s Castle, which captivates visitors with folklore and the possibility of supernatural occurrences.
Living in the Willamette Valley, it is hard not to be taken by the beauty and ambiance of wineries. Besides enjoying a traditional tasting, many wineries offer events in the summer. Grab your significant other or a group of friends, and head to Cória Estates for wine and
One of Central Oregon’s most beautiful settings, Smith Rock State Park. (photo: Gritchelle Fallesgon/Visit Central Oregon)
music. They offer a solid selection of tasting flights, with the La Moza Oregon rosé bubbles and their newly released 2022 malbec as two standouts. While taking in its diverse selection of live music performances, guests can sit back and enjoy tasty bites from the kitchen, including charcuterie, hummus and plantain chips. Grab a seat on the outdoor patio, where you will be rewarded with sweeping views of the valley.
Nestled in the bucolic hills of Canby, St. Josef’s Winery offers music on Sundays throughout the summer. Settled across 60 acres, the family-owned winery has been producing small-batch wines since the early 1980s. The winery staff hand-harvest each batch and prioritize sustainability, which results in curated vintages and limited quantities. Afterward, take a stroll along the property and
take in the scenery. The 3-acre pond on the property is a sight to behold. Situated across an impressive 240-acre biodynamic farm on Mineral Springs Ranch, Soter Vineyards specializes in pinot noir and chardonnay, in addition to its collection of sparkling wines. The culinary offerings are off the charts. Book a Provisions Tasting, which is a guided experience where you will get to immerse yourself with an assortment of playful flavors. Relax as you enjoy expert pairings and fresh ingredients harvested straight from their farm. In late July, the winery will host its exclusive Brut Reserve Fourth Edition Release Party, where guests can be treated to an evening of delicious fried chicken, sparkling wine and live entertainment. Vegetarian and gluten-free options are also available. Tickets are available for purchase on the website.
ABOVE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Portland’s Forest Park was designed by the sons of Central Park’s designer, Frederick Law Olmsted. The Corvallis-to-the-Sea Trail is perfect for gravel bikes. Cória Estates, just south of Salem, is a beautiful winery to sip wine and enjoy the sweeping views. (photos, clockwise from top: Justin Katigbak/Travel Portland, Visit Corvallis, Cória Estates)
The town of Hood River is also known as the windsurfing capital of the world. Just an hour east of Portland, windsurfers, kiteboarders and wing foilers covet the Columbia River for the strong breeze that whips through this part of the gorge.
FROM TOP Mount Hood seemingly rises out of water-sport playground Hood River. New mirrored cabins at Two Capes Lookout on the Oregon Coast. (photos, from top: Visit Hood River, @karolina_ pora_photo/Two Capes Lookout)
Water
Our state is home to more than 100,000 miles of rivers and streams, more than 1,400 lakes and easy accessibility to the Pacific Ocean, so there are many opportunities for having fun on the water. The McKenzie River is an excellent spot for whitewater rafting. Popular for its low rapids, it is suitable for all levels, making it ideal for beginners and families. Book a reservation with A. Helfrich Outfitter and McKenzie Rafting. These outfitters offer half- and full-day rafting adventures with knowledgeable guides, in addition to scenic floats and overnight fishing trips.
The town of Hood River is also known as the windsurfing capital of the world. Just an hour east of Portland, windsurfers, kiteboarders and wing foilers covet the Columbia River for the strong breeze that whips through this part of the gorge. History buffs will appreciate the Hood River Hotel, which was built in 1911 and recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. Grab breakfast at Broder Øst, which serves authentic savory and sweet Nordic fare.
With a population of approximately 2,000 full-time residents, Gearhart offers plenty of opportunity to spend time on the water. Make The Drifthaven your basecamp, where you will be a fiveminute walk to Gearhart Beach, which stretches for 20 miles. The wide and walkable sandy beach is the ideal spot for surfing, kayaking and even clamming. All the supplies you need for razor clamming can be purchased at Bud’s Campground along Highway 101. Birding is popular here. Expect to see greater white-fronted geese, American coots and Townsend’s warblers. Pack a picnic, bring a blanket to sit on and enjoy the fantastic ocean views. Also consider heading down at night to stargaze.
Newly opened, Two Capes Lookout provides guests with an elevated experience along the coast. The property rests between Cape Kiwanda and Cape Lookout, presenting travelers with an opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors without sacrificing luxurious comforts. Book a room in one of its mirrored cabins, boasting expansive floor-to-ceiling windows so you can enjoy the wilderness just beyond. Settle into heated floors, sumptuous beds with luxe sheets and bedding and an outdoor patio where you can enjoy a morning cup of joe. For pet parents, dogs are allowed in the geodesic domes, which feature high ceilings, spacious accommodations and shared modern bathhouses. One of my favorite aspects of Two Capes is that all the lodgings are nicely spread out, offering privacy and introspection. Although you are immersed in the beauty of nature, Pacific City and dining are only a short drive away.
A river trip for everyone, A. Helfrich Outfitter and McKenzie Rafting trips on the McKenzie River. (photo: Turell Group/Eugene, Cascades & Coast)
Air
Explore the rugged beauty of the Columbia River Gorge with Envi Adventures. The popular operator offers guided flights over Multnomah Falls. Experience breathtaking views and one-on-one interaction with your guide. The Columbia River Gorge Waterfall Air Tour is approximately fifty minutes long and departs from Troutdale.
The Festival Of Balloons in Tigard will take place June 20 to 22 this year, with more than a dozen hot-air balloons set to ascend into the sky. Just minutes from Portland, this family-friendly event raises funds for nonprofit organizations in the area. In its forty-first year, participants will find a bevy of activities, including a pancake breakfast, 5K fun run and carnival with rides and games. Food vendors, along with arts and crafts booths, will be on hand for this popular event, which draws more than 15,000 people per year.
The aerial park at Salishan Coastal Lodge is impressive. Nestled in the small community of Gleneden Beach, the popular golf resort is home to the coast’s largest aerial park, featuring obstacle courses, eighteen platforms and two impressive zip lines. Across 250 acres, the resort has 205 spacious rooms, along with a luxurious spa and several dining options.
Perhaps you would rather watch from the ground than take flight yourself. If that’s the case, the Oregon International Air Show might be up your alley. It takes place in May at the Hillsboro Airport and showcases aerial performances. Some of the aircraft that will be featured include jets, aerobatic planes and warbirds. A huge selection of food booths will also be present.
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, located in McMinnville, is a
nonprofit museum sure to impress folks who are interested in all forms of flight. With more than 150 exhibits across several buildings, visitors can learn about the history of aviation. The most popular exhibit is the Spruce Goose, the world’s largest wooden flying boat, built by film producer and wealthy businessman Howard Hughes. With a wingspan of more than 300 feet, it only flew once, lasting twenty-six seconds, because of its weight. Additional exhibits include the SR-71 Blackbird and the Titan II SLV.
ABOVE, FROM TOP The aerial park at Salishan Coastal Lodge is a fun way to connect with your kids in the trees. Howard Hughes’ famed Spruce Goose at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville. (photos, from top: SCP Hotels/ Salishan Coastal Lodge, Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum)
The Tigard Festival of Balloons lights up the skies with more than a dozen hot-air balloons in June. (photo: Tigard Festival of Balloons)
The benefits, and costs, of tourism in Oregon
written by Daniel O’Neil | illustrations by Yoko Baum
nce upon a time in Oregon, not long ago, the beaches felt wonderfully lonely in summer, and Cannon Beach remained a quiet, quaint little town. Bend knew no traffic, and summer visitors to Multnomah Falls couldn’t have imagined the need for the timed-use permits of today. Campgrounds required no reservation, and so on, waxes the old-timer Oregonian.
Today, Oregon receives 30 million overnight visits each year, while countless more crisscross the state on day trips. Whether or not these tourists are welcome depends on who you ask, and when. Tourism has become a $14 billion industry here, employing some 118,500 Oregonians, not to mention the many businesses that rely on tourists. It’s easy to view tourism as a benefit to the state and to local communities, especially in economic terms.
Others see it differently. Traffic, environmental degradation, cost of living, overcrowding and a loss of that solitude in nature that once helped define the Oregon experience—these costs do not go unnoticed, especially in summer. As record-breaking visitation numbers continue to stack up, has “overtourism” come to Oregon?
etermining if Oregon is over visited by tourists depends on semantics and points of view. Nowhere in the state suffers the overtrodden woes of places like Venice, Kyoto, Barcelona or Phuket. But that doesn’t mean certain communities across the state aren’t beginning to raise their voices.
In Oregon, the definition of “tourist” remains a gray area. e travel industry here considers anyone who journeyed more than 50 miles to their destination, or who stayed overnight, a tourist. e latter can be counted, and taxed through lodging. e former cannot. Defining “overtourism” is even trickier.
“What is ‘over’?” said Todd Davidson, CEO of Travel Oregon. “Residents, businesses and tourists could all have very different views on what level of tourism would be acceptable. To me, the word overtourism is problematic because it implies that tourism itself is inherently excessive or negative. It doesn’t recognize that the issue could really be that there’s just inadequate management, or a lack of infrastructure, or some unsustainable practices that are leaving the impression that there are too many visitors.”
For Todd Montgomery, the Robin and Curt Baney endowed professor at Oregon State University’s College of Business, who founded and now directs the Sustainable Tourism Lab at OSU-Cascades, the answer lies in community sentiment. In place of the label “overtourism,” Montgomery prefers to consider community carrying capacity: the maximum number of tourists a destination can hold without detrimental impacts. “At what point does the community say, ‘ at’s too much,’ or, ‘We need to rebalance the amount of people that visit our community’?” he said.
Towns like Bend and regions like the north Oregon Coast or the Columbia River Gorge have begun to
express frustration with the number of tourists they receive each year. On peak visitation days, Bend can count one tourist for every eighteen residents, while on the coast tourists can outnumber residents by at least three to one. But these places have been popular for generations, and only in this century have the costs begun to outweigh the benefits.
As the weight of tourism accumulates, community sentiment toward tourism erodes. In the life cycle of a tourist destination, a point of inflection eventually arrives, and the destination will grow, stagnate or fade away. Oregon’s most visited areas are already here. is is why destination management has become crucial for balancing the costs and benefits of tourism, for preserving the values and lifestyle of those who live there, and for protecting the natural features that attracted tourists to that gem of Oregon in the first place.
As Oregon communities respond to ever-increasing numbers of visitors, the way they handle tourism is evolving. “Everybody is looking at different examples to see where that right fit is,” Montgomery said. “It’s like this big lab experiment, and some are working, and some are not.”
Montgomery likes to frame the issue as one of global problems—all tourist destinations struggle with crowding, traffic, housing shortages, et cetera—and of local solutions for finding the balance between costs and benefits. To fill this balance-seeking role, many destination marketing organizations, or DMOs, have changed the “m” to management, or even to stewardship. roughout the state, DMOs have modified their marketing to embrace sustainable tourism rather than continuing to beat the year-round tourist-summoning drum.
n 2014, Travel Oregon, the DMO that markets the entire state of Oregon, launched a campaign called “Oregon’s Seven Wonders.” Ads ran on TV in Portland but also in San Francisco; Seattle; Vancouver, B.C.; and beyond, including the United Kingdom. In some movie theaters, the ads preceded screenings of Wild, which featured the Pacific Crest Trail and was filmed in Oregon.
e Seven Wonders campaign proved a wonder of its own. One year after its debut, visits to each “wonder” jumped, sometimes catching parks unprepared. Estimated day visits to Oswald West State Park, on the north coast, surged from 617,000 in 2014 to 950,000 in 2015, and by 2016 they reached 1.35 million, the new normal.
In parts of Central Oregon, the same story unfolded. When Smith Rock State Park manager Matt Davey started working at the park in 2012, annual visits hovered around 450,000. By 2014, they surpassed 600,000, and by 2021 they peaked at more than 1 million.
“Overcrowding and over visitation, it’s a bit subjective at times, and it’s hard to say exactly when you cross that line,” Davey said. “We did a visitor survey back in 20162017, and we saw that the majority of people visiting the park at that time did feel that it was overcrowded. But I do think that we are starting to get a handle on it. We’re getting a lot more resources coming toward the park that we didn’t have in the past.”
The park’s latest master plan addresses traffic and visitor flow. It also provides for a new $6.5 million visitor center, which will serve as a key component for maintaining the Smith Rock State Park that tourists imagine and locals expect. “At this point, we’re trying to educate and connect with our visitors so that when they do visit the park, it’s in a responsible way, a sustainable way, and it’s not creating more damage, yet they’re still able to have a great experience when they come here,” Davey said. “We need people to really feel the connection to this park, to want to give back to it, and make sure that it stays relevant and loved well into the future.”
As scenic destinations around Oregon began carrying the burden of increased tourism, as well as the pressures from rapidly expanding cities like Bend and Portland, many DMOs began to embrace sustainable tourism. Rather than simply motivating people to visit a place, sustainable tourism encourages visitors to respect the environment and residents while there, and to leave the place better than they found it.
“We can’t just stop tourism or stop people from moving here,” said Nate Wyeth, senior vice president of strategy for Visit Bend, a DMO. “So how can we show up in a right way to ensure that every action that we make is a positive one that contributes to our way of life moving forward? I believe that tourism has a vital role to play, not only now, but far into the future as part of that conversation.”
Tourism in Oregon, and across the globe, is a doubleedged axe. It increases strain on infrastructure, nature, housing, water supply, residents’ nerves and more. Yet
tourism also contributes to a destination’s economy, providing customers for local businesses, especially in the off-season, and transient lodging tax revenue for local governments. Balancing the costs and benefits has become the task of many towns and cities around Oregon, and DMOs like Visit Bend often play a key role in finding common ground between those who view tourism as a positive and those who consider it a negative.
Resident sentiment surveys conducted by the OSU Sustainable Tourism Lab suggest Bend is evenly split between the two outlooks on tourism, with many people actually somewhere in the middle. Factors such as age, income, years spent living there and whether or not a respondent works in the tourism industry all help determine people’s views on tourism. Polling has also found that in Bend, when more than 75 percent of transient lodging is occupied—meaning one tourist for every eighteen residents—a tipping point is reached and sentiment turns negative.
Visit Bend is aware of this phenomenon, hence their marketing campaigns that now focus on practices like Leave No Trace and encouraging tourists to walk and bike instead of drive around town. DMOs in Oregon’s busiest destinations, like Bend, have shifted their messaging to promote visitation in the off-season and to highlight lesser-known parks and attractions. Since 2018, Visit Bend has not marketed Bend as a summer destination.
To benefit the Bend area and its residents, Visit Bend manages the Bend Sustainability Fund and the Bend Cultural Tourism Fund, both fed by transient lodging tax revenue. These programs give Bend-based social, cultural and environmental initiatives access to $5 million annually.
“We understand that if we can help foster a Bend where quality of life is enhanced, it’s also going to, by its very nature, attract visitors,” Wyeth said. “But it’s really important that locals who live here understand that when visitors come to our community, they’re not just straining our resources. They’re actually leaving behind
“We can’t just stop tourism or stop people from moving here. So how can we show up in a right way to ensure that every action that we make is a positive one that contributes to our way of life moving forward? I believe that tourism has a vital role to play, not only now, but far into the future as part of that conversation.”
— Nate Wyeth, Visit Bend senior vice president of
strategy
“We like to take what we call a ‘community-first’ approach. Anecdotally, we hear a mix of perspectives from locals. Some are enthusiastic about the economic benefits tourism brings, while others express concern about growth and change. Our goal is to strike a healthy balance and to ensure tourism continues to enhance, rather than detract from, the sense of place that makes Wallowa County so special.”
— Jennifer Piper, Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce executive director
a significant chunk of economic impact that’s reinvested into our community. And that’s making all of the very reasons that people like to visit here, but also those of us who choose to live here, better.”
ot all of Oregon feels overwhelmed by tourism. On the Warm Springs Reservation, tribal initiatives are eager to welcome more visitors. Along with the reopening of Kah-Nee-Ta Hot Springs Resort in 2024, the upcoming Commissary Project—a food cart pod, café, Native art gallery and pop-up shop for entrepreneurs alongside Highway 26—will soon be a platform for the economic and cross-cultural benefits that tourism can provide.
For the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, attracting more tourists is a win-win. Tribal members gain employment, opportunity and connection, while visitors benefit from the chance to experience the art, food and traditions of the Warm Springs people. Recognizing the mutual rewards, Visit Bend provided a $250,000 grant to build a pavilion to house the Commissary food carts.
“If you’re coming from Portland and, instead of a straight shot into Bend, if instead you get to see other things—the Commissary, a food cart pod on the reservation, maybe you stop at the Museum at Warm Springs along the way to learn about tribal art and history—then that makes your trip to Bend better,” said Chris Watson, executive director of the Warm Springs Community Action Team.
Warm Springs and other up-and-coming or fartherflung tourist destinations in Oregon have the benefit of learning from other communities’ mistakes. Once a place becomes popular with tourists, it’s hard to send them packing. In Wallowa County, tourism remains important to the economy, but it’s not the priority.
“We like to take what we call a ‘community-first’ approach,” said Jennifer Piper, executive director of the Wallowa County Chamber of Commerce. “Anecdotally, we hear a mix of perspectives from locals. Some are enthusiastic about the economic benefits tourism brings, while others express concern about growth and change. Our goal is to strike a healthy balance and to ensure tourism continues to enhance, rather than detract from, the sense of place that makes Wallowa County so special.”
Other destinations have less say in the management of tourists. The Mount Hood National Forest, for example, is mandated to welcome visitors. “These are public lands owned by all Americans, and we don’t want to keep people from feeling like they can’t visit their public lands,” said Heather Ibsen, public affairs officer for the MHNF. “We’re interested in protecting our natural resources from damage or from the consequences of visitor use and public use, and at the same time trying to extend
opportunities for people to connect with the national forest. at’s not always easy, but that’s always the goal.” e situation is quite different in the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, where, due to overuse and the ensuing degradation, the Forest Service recently instituted a limitedentry permit process for hikers, be they tourists or not. While the Forest Service must keep the national forests open to all, it must also manage wilderness areas for distinct values, one of which is solitude.
n 2024, an estimated 53.85 million people, more than ever before, visited Oregon’s state parks. e coastal parks alone received 32 million day visits last year. Numbers increased especially on the south coast, such as at Harris Beach State Recreational Area where annual visits since 2020 have nearly doubled to 2 million. DMO efforts to spread out the tourist crowds appear to be working.
With Oregon’s beaches and coastal towns more popular than ever, burdens and stressors on infrastructure, residents and natural spaces are compounding. For the coastal state parks this means keeping parks staffed for longer, because the tourist season has expanded to cover nine months of the year, and weekends now seem to stretch from ursday to Monday. More maintenance, more trash collection and more rescues required of the Coast Guard and other agencies have followed the crowds.
“ e trend is we’re busy,” said Justin Parker, North Coast district manager for Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. Parker, however, does not believe the system is overwhelmed. “I feel like we’ve been able to weather the storm, and we’re making improvements in the parks to handle the increased visitation. But the speed at which we can adapt to the increasing tourism and increasing wear and tear on the parks is really tied to our funding.”
Oregon State Parks receives funding from state lottery dollars and from the parking and camping fees it collects, fees that increased again in 2025. rough campsite and cabin reservations, the state parks also collect transient lodging tax, which goes to local communities. How those communities spend that money is not entirely up to them, though, and towns and cities across the state support changes to the distribution of transient lodging tax funds.
As it stands, the state-mandated distribution lets communities keep 30 percent of the tax in their general fund. e remainder supports local tourism infrastructure, such as visitor centers, and tourism marketing. House Bill 3556 seeks to reserve more funding to local communities so that they can keep up with the consequences of growth that stem from tourists who pay no other local taxes. Opponents argue that a decline in marketing will bring fewer tourists and thus harm those very communities.
e Oregon Coast Visitors Association, a DMO, is critical of any changes to the transient lodging tax, but recognizes the need to adjust tourism along the coast. Resident sentiment surveys conducted by Travel Oregon suggest that north coast residents are concerned about the number of tourists that arrive, especially in summer. DMO solutions include marketing to disperse visitors across the seasons and to less-visited stretches of the coast, with the risk of spoiling the off-season and off-thebeaten-path calm that locals need and deserve.
“I think it’s always going to be a delicate balance between community livability and visitation,” said Karen Olson, communications director for OCVA. “But, for better or worse, our communities are just really intertwined with visitation because people want to come to this beautiful place and experience it. For us, it’s about helping use the resources that tourism generates, and to invest those back into the community and improve livability for locals.”
Consider it a form of flattery—tourism in Oregon is here to stay. Fortunately, local governments and DMOs are finding ways to make it more sustainable and beneficial for everyone, including the communities that play host. ose who profit from tourism will accept the associated costs, even if it means more traffic, fewer rentals and littered trails. ose who don’t benefit directly from tourism in their area, and those who miss the halcyon days of a less-busy Oregon, will have a bumpy road ahead.
“But here’s where the irony comes into this,” Montgomery said. “If you then ask residents who have a more negative view of tourism if they travel, and how often they travel, you’ll find that they travel extensively. So the same people who are complaining about tourism are often tourists themselves in other communities.”
RECLAIMING THE OCEAN THROUGH ITS CAST-OFFS
written by Kerry Newberry
RAISED ON Kauai and based in Portland since 2014, Emily Jung Miller creates artwork that celebrates the sea in ethereal and unexpected ways. For more than two decades, she’s centered her optimistic art on environmental stewardship and community engagement, o en incorporating natural and reclaimed materials into interactive installations and mixed-media sculpture.
Standout pieces include her warp-and-we weavings made with fishing rope and dri wood and colorful baskets stitched from flotsam salvaged from local coastlines. She also cra s evocative wall sculptures inspired by ocean gyres—bright blue rope rippling and swirling in wabi-sabi circles. In 2019, she launched Ghost Net Landscape, a series of collaborative community installations focused on transforming reclaimed fishing gear into purposeful art.
The exhibits raise ocean awareness in a profound and powerful way. “Ghost nets” refer to fishing nets and rope lost at sea that continue to catch and harm marine life. It’s one of the most abundant and dangerous sources of plastic marine debris in our oceans. For her Ghost Net installations, Miller partners with beach cleanups and commercial fisheries for materials and then turns 1,000-plus pounds of reclaimed fishing gear into revelatory art.
She sees these art installations as an act of radical hope and an agent for change. You can join Miller for public workshops during her artist-in-residence week on the Oregon Coast from May 19 to 23. And catch her artist talk on May 16 for Passage, her solo exhibit on display through July 25 in the Gladys Valley Marine Studies Building at Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. For more information, visit www.ejmillerfineart.com.
Emily Jung Miller gathers materials on Kauai. Surfrider Kauai collected 2 tons of ghost net in two months, washed up from around the Pacific Ocean.
(photo: Peggy Kemp)
AT FAR LEFT Portal I, 2023, reclaimed fishing rope (photo: courtesy of Emily Jung Miller)
AT FAR LEFT, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT
Reliquaries For Your Journey, 2021, reclaimed fishing rope, stones and shells. This piece, photographed here in the Salmon River at Cascade Head, was created during an artist residency at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. (photo: courtesy of Emily
Sea Stories Weaving, 2020, reclaimed fishing rope, driftwood and beach stones. This sculpture was created in public during a Ghost Net Landscape community-interactive installation and used as a backdrop for community puppet stories filmed during the exhibit. (photo: courtesy of
and
Cascade Head from Treasure Cave, 2024, watercolor (photo: courtesy of Emily Jung Miller)
Jung Miller)
Emily Jung Miller)
Ebb Gyre, 2020, reclaimed fishing rope
glow-in-the-dark squid lure (photo: courtesy of Emily Jung Miller)
Moon Gate, 2024, reclaimed fishing rope and spinnaker sail bag steel hoop (photo: courtesy of Emily Jung Miller)
CLOCKWISE FROM FAR LEFT
Emily Jung Miller with her sculpture Portal I on display in the Ghost Net Landscape installation at Cal Poly Humboldt in Arcata, California. Each installation is exhibited as an ongoing work in progress while community collaborators create artwork during the show. (photo: Cal Poly Humboldt)
Eight Neck Colony, 2020, reclaimed fishing rope and steel wire. The sculpture was inspired by coral reefs and deep ocean forms. (photo: Bingyi Spurlock)
TRAVEL SPOTLIGHT 80
ADVENTURE 84
LODGING 88
TRIP PLANNER 90
NORTHWEST DESTINATION 98
Escape to Camp Sherman and the gorgeous Metolius River.
Arian Stevens
Get Crackin’!
A cool alternative to the temperate coast, Crack-in-the-Ground is a shaded hike in a striking gorge written by Joni Kabana photography by Cody Rheault
SUMMER IS COMING, and so is the hot weather. When looking to cool off, we often head to the coast, where temperatures hover around 60 to 70 degrees in the summer, but there is another option that many people don’t know about. Grab your family, friends or pup, and head to Crack-in-the-Ground.
Just the name alone should be enough of a draw. How fun would it be to say, “Hey, I can’t come to your BBQ this weekend—I’m going to Crack-in-the-Ground!”
A volcanic “crack” more than 2 miles long and up to 70 feet deep, Crack-in-the-Ground was formed thousands of years ago. Because it is located in an arid region, it never filled up via erosion activity, as happens with most other volcanic fissures. As a result, Crack-in-the-Ground looks similarly today as it did after its formation.
ABOVE Follow the signs to Crack-in-the-Ground. AT LEFT The volcanic fissure near Christmas Valley formed thousands of years ago.
There is a nice, 2-mile trail hike along the crack’s bottom where temperatures are usually around 20 degrees cooler than at the surface. The trail is open to hikers only—no bikes, motorized vehicles, skateboards or pogo sticks are allowed. Access can be daunting, so it is best to bring your Subaru instead of your late uncle’s Audi. The nearest services are in Christmas Valley, so be sure to gas up when you can, bring plenty of water and pack extra snacks.
So get crackin’, and head to Crack-in-the-Ground. From Christmas Valley, head east on the Christmas Valley Highway for approximately 1 mile. Turn north (left) onto Crack-in-the-Ground Road, and continue for about 7 miles. Turn left onto Lava Crater Road, following signs to Crack-in-the-Ground.
ABOVE A 2-mile trail runs along the bottom of Crack-in-the-Ground. BELOW Temperatures can be around 20 degrees cooler inside the fissure than at the ground’s surface.
Adventure
Women Gone Rogue
Four days of ra ing and glamping on a legendary Oregon wild river
written by Cathy Carroll
THE WIDE RIBBON of clear, teal water is picking up speed, and the four women in the ra glance back at guide Katie Duffie as she tells just how they’re going to ride Horseshoe Bend rapids. Duffie, wielding two oars—each twice the length of the paddlers’ single, lightweight models—scans the white peaks boiling over a jumble of boulders ahead.
“OK, ladies, give me two strokes forward!” she commands. The women lean, digging into the gurgling Rogue River, swirling eddies giving way to a turbulent roar and thwap! It raises its great, icecold liquid hand, slapping the front two squarely in the face, an age-old prank of this ancient river of snowmelt. Momentarily stunned, their eyes squeeze tightly shut before opening simultaneously with a giant belly laugh that’s joined in by the river and fellow paddlers.
It’s day two of a four-day Momentum River Expeditions journey of more than 34 miles through a stretch of wilderness so remarkable in its beauty that it’s one of the original eight rivers Congress protected by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968.
BELOW Ra ers paddle by Stair Creek Falls during a Momentum River Expeditions trip on the Rogue River.
1 to 2 days
Mild to High Adventure
Award Winning Luxury Camp
Witness a River Healing after 100 Years
It’s why the river’s remained undammed, unspoiled and unbelievably fun. Considered not only one of the best destinations in America for rafting as well as salmon and steelhead fishing, it’s been a central character in everything from Zane Grey novels of the 1920s (you’ll stop at his cabin of peeled logs and hand-split shingles) to the 1994 adventure-thriller The River Wild (Meryl Streep’s a rafting expert who takes on a pair of armed killers and the rapids, too).
Today, however, the ensemble cast is composed of nine women breaking away from the demands of modern life to discover how much moxie they’ve got when faced with class 3 and 4 rapids and wilderness camping. With the guides’ beguiling blend of outdoors chops and glamping sensibilities, however, it’s all thrills, nary a bitter pill.
During breaks from the action, they watch salmon leaping over Rainie Falls and climb a bluff to dip into the glassy pool above, nestled in the rocks. Some leap 15 feet into the river, emboldened by chants of “Do it! Do it!” from the others, sprawled on the rocks like sunbathing lizards.
In the late afternoon, pulling up onto a dry, dark sand beach, the tents have all been set up. Guide Mark Crawford confidently wears a floral-print apron over a burly wool camp shirt, pouring
Rogue Valley sauvignon blanc and pinot gris and serving appetizers: salmon and avocado toast with lime pickled onions and local salsa and chips.
“I’ve just been the happy homemaker,” he says.
After a dinner of miso soup and sesame-tofu-hoisin curry with bok choy and cauliflower, the group gathers in a circle of camp chairs beneath the stars. Storytelling gives way to karaoke, thanks to the pink bedazzled microphone a rafter stashed in her pack. In sleeping bags atop thick pads, they drift to sleep to the sound of lapping water and the occasional fish jumping as a full moon rises over the ridge.
In the morning, fortified with brie-stuffed French toast, local breakfast sausage, berries and coffee topped with the extra whipped cream kept chilled from last night’s berry shortbread dessert, they head to the rafts. Long-legged great blue herons perch along shore, their necks sinuous and translucent in the soft morning light. A family of black bears meanders along the bank and stops to gawk back at the humans. Western pond turtles sun themselves on logs and couldn’t care less as the rafters drift by.
Around a bend, the monolithic walls of Mule Creek Canyon come into view. For about a half mile, the river that cut this path
Rafters (including one trip member who opted for an inflatable kayak) celebrate the end of a four-day journey on the Rogue River.
Katie Duffie
millions of years ago narrows between walls as high as five-story buildings. Within these confines the rafters percolate through the class 4 Coffee Pot, with Duffie expertly aiming the raft’s strategic bounce off the wall to put them exactly where they need to be. e big test, though, was next—Blossom Bar, the class 4 pinball machine of boulders infamous for flipping rafts. Duffie’s long brown hair ripples in the breeze on the approach as she briefs the crew on how to navigate the complex of obstacles.
e water shifts into fifth gear as they funnel toward van-sized Volkswagen Rock. Duffie times their strokes perfectly, turning them into the eddy, avoiding the next intimidating set of outcroppings known as the Picket Fence. As they careen through, a collective “Wooo hooo!” echoes against the canyon walls.
e final night in camp, after cocktails, grilled steak and flambéed bananas Foster, the nine women agree that a nighttime dip is the only way to end this escapade. Shedding their clothes on the beach, they wade into the moonlit river—reborn as nymphs, ready to return to civilization, renewed.
For more on Momentum River Expeditions’ Rogue River trips, head to www.momentumriverexpeditions.com/trip/rogue-river-ra ing
Around a bend, the monolithic walls of Mule Creek Canyon come into view. For about a half mile, the river that cut this path millions of years ago narrows between walls as high as five-story buildings.
ABOVE Guide Katie Duffie leaps into the Rogue River. AT RIGHT, FROM TOP A black bear watches ra ers on the Rogue River. An appetizer of salmon, avocado and lime pickled onions on toasted artisan bread awaits hungry ra ers.
Janet Harrington
Emilie
Cortes
Janet Harrington
Lodging
Cascada
written by Kerry Newberry
AT CASCADA , Portland’s newest luxury hotel and spa, every design detail is rooted in sustainability and serenity. Located in the heart of the Alberta Arts District, the 100-room property is a LEED Platinum-certified building, only the second one on the West Coast. The highest level of certification, Platinum is granted to projects that adhere to exceptional energy efficiency, minimal water usage and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
You’ll see all that on display here and more—from the avant-garde thermal springs and spa to the stately rooms. In the lobby lounge, stylish furniture is covered with Portuguese cork and filled with natural latex. (There’s no petroleum foams or animal skins on the property.) Natural materials and wood anchor all the spaces.
But the most memorable details are rooted in biophilic design from lush and leafy plant walls to the soft glimmers of circadian lighting (you can feel the color temperature and intensity of the lighting change throughout the day to mimic natural daylight patterns). Whether you book a few nights or just a spa day, the holistic wellness here will leave you recharged and refreshed.
1150 NE ALBERTA ST. PORTLAND www.cascada.me
ROOMS
Expect natural and minimalist design details in the hotel’s 100 rooms from floor-to-ceiling windows and tile bathrooms to contemporary accents. Easily set for digital nomads and extended stays, you’ll find in-room kitchenettes, a dedicated workspace and a washer and dryer. Upgrade to the Sky Loft and enjoy a soaring space with 16-foot ceilings and an upstairs bedroom. Or opt for the two-bedroom suites featuring gourmet kitchens and local art.
THERMAL SPRINGS
A true oasis, the thermal springs and spa span two floors and include a collection of water-inspired wellness. Start in the bright and airy conservatory that’s set to a sultry 82 degrees and brimming with tropical plants, from monsteras to bromeliads. Then wrap up in the silent subterranean sanctuary with mineral pools, a sauna, a steam room and a cold plunge.
MORE WELLNESS
In addition to booking a massage, facial or scrub at the full-service spa, take advantage of the state-of-theart fitness facility with equipment from Technogym. Weekly group wellness classes range from heated vinyasa and mat Pilates to total body HIIT and barre. For balance and mindfulness, check out the breathwork and meditation options.
DINING
Start your morning at Alberta Street Coffee in the hotel’s serene living room lobby where you’ll find baked goods and healthy bowls like house-made horchata oats and chia pudding. Lunch options range from duck soba salad to a mushroom sub with pumpkin seed pesto. For dinner, Terra Mae restaurant serves up dishes that blend Portuguese and Japanese flavors like black cod rillettes with airy milk bread buns and caldo verde with buckwheat soba. Read more on page 25.
CLOCKWISE FROM TOP Cascada’s silent sanctuary with mineral pools, a sauna, a steam room and a cold plunge. The conservatory brims with water-inspired wellness. Cascada is just the second LEED Platinum-certified building on the West Coast.
Photos: Cascada
Camp Sherman and Sisters
Adventures beckon in Black Butte country
written by James Sinks
The Wild and Scenic Metolius River is one of the area’s top attractions, especially for those who fly-fish. (photo: Arian Stevens)
IT IS A TRANSCENDENT place, where Central Oregon’s Metolius River materializes out of nowhere.
So it was no surprise to Sam Johnson on a day in the 1960s that a woman had set up an easel near the riverbank on his family’s property, and was brushing an oil painting. The Johnsons allowed free access to share the wonder where the water, crystalline and always 48 degrees, gushes from basalt springs.
Johnson, like he often did, was gathering trash, his daughter Betsy Johnson recalled. One of her childhood chores was picking up tourists’ cigarette butts.
Then, a bus arrived and lurched to a stop, and the artist—and her painting—were engulfed in a cloud of dust.
“He said, ‘We need to do something about this, it’s getting loved to death,’ and that was when he first started talking about giving it away,” said Betsy, a pilot and no-nonsense businesswoman who would go on to become a state legislator like her father, and in 2022 fell short in an independent bid for governor.
Among her many accomplishments at the Capitol was protecting the Metolius basin from the irreversible damage of development. Her advocacy echoed her mother, who once battled to keep an undeveloped riverfront campground from becoming the equivalent of an RV park.
Today, on land donated by the Johnson family to the Forest Service, the springs at the Head of the Metolius beckon everyone down a paved, accessible walkway between split rail fences.
Designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1988, the Metolius flows northward 29 miles to Lake Billy Chinook, on the edge of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation. The river name comes from an Indigenous word for salmon.
Along the way, it slides past old-growth ponderosa pine, campsites and the town of Camp Sherman and its century-old general store, where Johnson stocked shelves as a teenager.
A fly-fishing-only river, the Metolius attracts anglers from around the world. Wildflowers color the stream banks. And above the trees, Mount Jefferson stands watch, feeding tributaries with snowmelt.
When visitors come to marvel and play, Johnson urges them to do it lightly.
“It’s a fragile place,” she said. “It deserves to be protected in perpetuity. It was—and still is—magical.”
With so many outdoorsy options, come prepared. Bikes. Boots. Boards. Bait. And, perhaps, some Bufferin.
Day
In the shadow of the Three Sisters, the highlands where Central Oregon and the Cascades meet are synonymous with both recreation and late-season wildfires. Timing-wise, spring and early summer are a wise window to go.
With so many outdoorsy options, come prepared. Bikes. Boots. Boards. Bait. And, perhaps, some Bufferin.
Dominating the skyline in these parts is Black Butte, a millionyear-old stratovolcano that rises to 6,436 feet over Camp Sherman, Black Butte Ranch, Suttle Lake and Sisters, all of which can ably serve as home base for a dusty adventure getaway.
Start with a view from the top. Follow bumpy gravel to the Upper Black Butte Trailhead, where parking can be tight and costs $5. From here, the path winds 2 miles to the summit, where Cascade views as far north as Mount St. Helens will take your breath away, hopefully without smoke.
Downhill at the Johnson-donated viewpoint, it’s a flatter and quicker walk to see where the Metolius—buried when Black Butte erupted—resurfaces at more than 50,000 gallons a minute. While you’re there, give a leery side eye to the hefty ground squirrels, who beg despite signs urging you to ignore their guiles.
In 1911, following a hot harvest, farmers came west from Sherman County to the Metolius to cool down and celebrate.
To help friends find the revelry, organizers tacked “Camp Sherman” directional arrows on trees.
The name stuck, and today unincorporated Camp Sherman is home to 300 residents, clusters of vacation cabins and mouthwatering margaritas and tacos. The Latin fare comes courtesy of Hola!, an outpost of a popular Central Oregon chain. Try the Coca Cola-braised pork in sofrito sauce.
The Camp Sherman Store & Fly Shop has been around since 1918 and feels a bit like a time machine, with antique gas pumps out front and everything from clothes to camping gear to a deli inside. It’s also an outfitter for folks who want to try their fishing luck and—if you don’t know how to cast flies—they can hook you up with lessons on the lawn.
The river may be easy to find, but don’t expect the fish, wily and evasive, to play easy-to-get, said longtime local angler Adam Bronstein, who’s been fishing the Metolius for two decades.
Stunning views from a hike up Black Butte.
The beautiful small town of Sisters sits at the base of three mountains in the Cascade Range—North, Middle and South Sister.
Bigstock
Cody Roux Media/Visit Central Oregon
Rather admire fish instead? It’s free to wander the park-like Wizard Falls Hatchery, run by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Feed quarters into converted gumball machines, and you can feed some pretty impressive swimmers in the show pond.
The hatchery also offers easy access to the Metolius River Trail, which invites you to meander for miles.
The historic Lake Creek Lodge resort touts luxury cabins, a practice fishing pond and even pickleball. By evening, you’ll likely be quite enamored by the HØST Supper Club restaurant and Larch bar, where the easygoing rustic vibe of Camp Sherman will be even mellower with icy drinks, local-sourced “Cascadian” entrees like Columbia River salmon, and good company. The name means harvest in Norweigan.
For dessert, there’s always an option with dark chocolate and coffee, laughed chef and co-HØST owner Sean Hulecki. “We both can’t resist.”
DayBIKING • SHOPPING • STARGAZING
With an impressive mountain trio out back, city founders thought “Three Sisters” would be a great town name. The Post Office liked “Sisters” better, however, and that was that.
An early logging town and incorporated in 1947, Sisters took a turn toward tourism after nearby Black Butte Ranch resort opened in 1970. That’s when zoning rules were rewritten to make the place look like an 1880s Western.
Today, the self-anointed Gateway to the Cascades is home to about 3,000 and invites buckaroos and cowgirls to get lost among rustic-styled storefronts on Main Street. Don’t miss the gluten bonanza at Sisters Bakery.
Then, it’s a quick mosey to an assortment of nearby biking and hiking options. Come spring, one of the
state’s iconic rides is the Old McKenzie Highway, which opens to cars in mid-to-late June but is passable sooner to bikers, who pedal between roadside snowdrifts, said Chuck Humphreys, a retired economist and a board member of the nonprofit Sisters Trails Alliance.
When the road isn’t formally open, riders—increasingly on electric bikes—do it at their own risk, he said. The 30-mile roundtrip from Sisters with a 2,000-foot climb to the rocky Dee Wright Observatory is positively epic, he said.
For the fat tire set, a favorite takes you from town on a threehour trek to Peterson Ridge.
Hikers, meanwhile, can trek up a river canyon with spring wildflowers via the 6.4-mile roundtrip Whychus Creek Trail. A mile-long, wheelchair-accessible loop at the top takes you to the same viewpoint.
“You could spend a week in Sisters and do a different trail every day,” Humphreys said.
Clean up, wave to the local deer herd and grab lunch at The Barn, a food cart pod where you’ll find Boone Dog Wood Fired Pizza. Big appetites can also rustle sandwiches at Sisters Meat and Smokehouse.
Already a sunny weather destination, Sisters attracts larger crowds in June for the annual rodeo—including one escaped bull named Party Bus in 2024—and in July for the Outdoor Quilt Show, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year.
Downtown, you’ll find stores with new stuff, stores with old stuff and museums with old and weird stuff. The Sisters Museum is open Fridays and Saturdays. Meanwhile, wander a smorgasbord of the offbeat at the current home of the Fantastic Museum, which is now in its twelfth city. Among the collectables: a 9-foot-tall Viking mummy named Olaf.
Saunter to happy hour at Sisters Saloon & Ranch Grill, and then to sublime dinner at The Open Door, which is like an art gallery and a wine bar that fell in love. Reservations are highly recommended.
After nightfall, the curtain rises for films at the Sisters Movie House & Cafe. Or simply look upward. For good reason, the city was named this year to Oregon’s growing list of International Dark Sky Places.
Clean up, wave to the local deer herd and grab lunch at The Barn, a food cart pod where you’ll find Boone Dog Wood Fired Pizza. Big appetites can also rustle sandwiches at Sisters Meat and Smokehouse.
FROM TOP The Dee Wright Observatory puts people closer to constellations in the surrounding dark skies. Food from The Barn food carts in Sisters. The Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show is one of the most prolific of its kind and now enters its fiftieth year.
Wizard Falls Fish Hatchery www.myodfw.com/wizard-fallshatchery-visitors-guide
RELAXING • PADDLING • GOLFING Day
After miles of hiking and biking, your muscles might crave a little R&R. You’ll find massages and serenity at Japanese-styled Shibui Spa, at FivePine Lodge & Cabins in Sisters. You might also find a pillow, but be careful. There’s scant time for naps.
Fuel up with biscuits and gravy and big Benedicts at local favorite Cottonwood Cafe. If you just need liquid energy, caffeine heaven waits at Sisters Coffee Company.
Northwest of town, a short but photogenic hike takes you underground to Skylight Cave, a lava tube where cave-ins have opened holes to the sky. It’s always cold, dark and rocky, so bundle up and take flashlights. Phones won’t cut it.
Glacier-formed 25,000 years ago, sandybottomed Suttle Lake is only 1.5 miles long and a half-mile wide, but it’s plenty big for a paddle in the sun before afternoon winds pick up. If you don’t have a boat or board, rent at The Suttle Lodge.
The lake was named for a settler named John Settle, but it was misspelled on early maps and never changed.
If you don’t want to get wet, trace the 3.5mile hiking trail around the perimeter. Feel like a snack? Settle on a Suttle dock at the Boathouse cafe.
Black Butte Ranch was Oregon’s second destination resort, after Sunriver. Previously limited to stuff to do with sheep, today it’s a Choose Your Own Adventure novella with no bad options.
Climb onto saddles at Black Butte Stables.
Cruise bike paths. Swim. Book a tee time at one of the two championship golf courses, or on the twelve-hole Little Meadow Putting Course. Even kick a ball around at the park.
Afterward, unwind at glass-walled restaurant The Lodge, opened in 2023 and recently named the state’s most beautiful establishment by People magazine. From the deck, looking over the lake or toward Black Butte, it’s a feast for your taste buds and your eyes. Yes, Central Oregon is an adventure magnet. It’s also spellbinding. Like a painting, perhaps, with a little dust on it.
Only, in a good way.
Get an early start to paddle Suttle Lake before the day’s wind kicks in.
Gritchelle Fallesgon/Visit Central Oregon
y e s hi b i ht
o city lights, where r the sta t rs r shine bright.
In Walla Walla, Welcome Back the Warmth (with Wine)
Old favorites and new vintages share the spotlight for season-opening Spring Release Weekend
written by James Sinks
IN BETWEEN discovering things, Galileo mused once that “wine is sunlight, held together by water.” That centuries-ago wisdom still holds true today—particularly for the constellation of bold vintages bo led each year in the sun-splashed Walla Walla Valley, the vineyard mecca along the southern border of Eastern Washington.
To welcome back those trellis-warming rays and an annual pilgrimage of thirsty vinophiles, Walla Walla unfurls an early-season welcome mat. The first Friday through Sunday each May, Spring Release Weekend is the premier celebration of Washington State’s top-flight wine-making valley, now home to 125 wineries and named the nation’s top wine region in 2022 by USA Today
Walla Walla is one of the world’s most up-and-coming viticultural areas with a talented group of winemakers leading the way.
Brady Lawrence/Visit Walla Walla
Expect ritzy winemaker dinners, art shows, exclusive tastings, tours including treks through the basalt-bored barrel cave at Figgins Winery and—at several places—limited-volume vintages that sell out within weeks.
“There isn’t a nicer of time of year to experience the Walla Walla Valley, with the wheat fields bright green and everything blooming, and, of course, the real stars are the wines,” said Ryan Rogel, assistant tasting room manager at L’Ecole No. 41, in a vintage schoolhouse where you can still ride the teeter-totter out back.
L’Ecole—renowned for its merlots—plans to release both a small-batch malbec and a cabernet, Rogel said.
Long an Indigenous tribal gathering place, Walla Walla is named after the people who called the valley home. Four hours by car from Portland, en route you’ll squeeze through the Wallula Gap, a pinch point on the Columbia River that’s largely responsible for the region’s agricultural abundance, because massive ice age Missoula Floods backed up at those narrows and flooded the valley with tons of rich silt.
Spring Release Weekend began as a collaboration in the 1980s among early wineries in the valley, which first earned recognition as an American Viticulture Area in 1984.
One of those founding operations, Leonetti Cellar, would open only for a few days so members could pick up their allocations, said Jordan Small, whose family’s Woodward Canyon Winery also is among the local pioneers. “Because so many of these good winebuying customers were in town for the weekend, many other wineries started also offering special tasting experiences, food pairings and other fun activities,” she said.
It started as a small success, and matured into a big success, said Small, Woodward Canyon’s co-owner and general manager. This year, Woodward is debuting its 2022 Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon.
In the city of Walla Walla, you’ll find roughly 33,300 people, three colleges, the recently renovated Marcus Whitman Hotel and a bustling stretch surrounding Main Street where tasting rooms bump elbows with restaurants and entertainment venues.
If you stay at The FINCH, a hip motel rehab, borrow cruisers to corkscrew around town. Exit your bikes at Pursued By Bear, in a 1920s-era mercantile on Palouse Street. A
Walla Walla offers varied wine-tasting experiences, from Foundry Vineyards (at top) to L’Ecole No. 41 (below) in a historic schoolhouse.
Visit Walla Walla
Ilana
Freddye/Visit Walla Walla
play on a line from Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, the winery was launched by actor and Yakima native Kyle MacLachlan, whose career includes a stint at Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival before numerous feature films and a starring role in the cult Twin Peaks television series.
Also downtown you’ll find football star Drew Bledsoe’s Family Winery (which also has a tasting room in Bend), and campy life advice on labels at Browne Family Vineyards. Do Epic Shit? You know it.
In the nearby airport district, several wineries got off the ground in old airplane hangars—and several smaller incubator spots opened in 2020 for students from the community college’s winemaking program. Your taste buds will relish a layover at renowned red-maker Dunham Cellars, which opened in 1995 and will unveil a 2024 sauvignon blanc and a 2024 chardonnay.
When you find a designated driver (hopefully it’s not you), it’s mere minutes to impressive tasting rooms every direction, and extending south across the state line to Milton-Freewater in Oregon. West of Walla Walla waits Woodward Canyon, plus mainstays L’Ecole and Waterbrook. To the east is the farmstead tasting room at Abeja, where visitors can also stay the night in a former chicken coop.
It’s a second-generation family affair at Foundry Vineyards and Pét Project, where bubbly wines are made in the classic pétillant style, in which they are bottled while fermenting. General manager Lisa Anderson, whose brother Jay is now the winemaker and chef, remembers planting grapes on the family plot
in middle school. They’ll be debuting several 2022 reds at their tasting room and contemporary art gallery, which also includes a sculpture garden.
Also on their list: a fizzy bright blend of chenin and chardonnay, called Sunlight Cuvée. Galileo would approve.
At Long Shadows Winery, the planned release list includes the 2022 vintage of Feather, a silky oak-aged cabernet, and the 2022 Pirouette, a Bordeaux-style blend. While you’re there, ask for an introduction to Saggi, a big, dark Italian (blend).
Of course, there’s more to Walla Walla than the wine, although nobody would blame you if that’s all you came for. At Pioneer Park, say hello to crooning birds at the free civic aviary, and maybe twirl your partner in the circa-1909 bandstand. Most days, it’s bring your own music. Also, it’s just an hour drive to picturesque Palouse Falls.
Can’t make the signature spring soirée? Like wines, you’ve got an array of options, said Guy Glaeser, a Portland transplant and the executive director of Visit Walla Walla. Tantalizing alternatives include a hot air balloon rodeo, a chamber music festival and the season-ending Fall Release Weekend in November.
And whenever you’re in town, if it’s paella night, book ahead and step upstairs to the idyllic fountain-decorated patio at Valdemar Estates, the Washington location of a longtime family operation with roots in Spain.
Gazing over the valley to the east, raise a glass to Galileo and sun-infused liquid magic, as the final rays paint the distant Blue Mountains.
EAT
Bacon & Eggs www.baconandeggswallawalla.com
Brasserie Four www.brasseriefour.com
Colville Street Patisserie www.colvillestreetpatisserie.com
The Marc Restaurant www.marcuswhitmanhotel.com/ dining
Palouse Falls State Park Heritage Site www.parks.wa.gov
Pioneer Park Aviary www.wallawallawa.gov
Pursued By Bear www.pursuedbybearwine.com
Valdemar Estates www.valdemarestates.com
Waterbrook Winery www.waterbrook.com
Woodward Canyon Winery www.woodwardcanyon.com
Just an hour from Walla Walla, the natural wonder of Palouse Falls drops 200 feet in splendor.
Jason
Hummel
Photography/State of Washington Tourism
1859 MAPPED
The points of interest below are culled from stories and events in this edition of 1859
Klamath Falls
Think Live Explore
Camp
Sunriver Sisters
Until Next Time
There is often something good waiting just around the bend, if we keep the wheels rolling forward. Cyclists exploring the Crooked River Canyon in Central Oregon can vouch for that.
photo by Katie Sox
BY THE TIME I could walk, I had visited Canada dozens of times, crossing the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit and Kingsville, Ontario, in the back of my parents’ station wagon, weighed down with duty-free alcohol under blankets.
My grandparents’ home was little more than an hour, but it seemed a world away. My house was a small box, production-line replica for auto workers and shared among six of us. My grandparents’ home, the cottage, seemed endless with ceilings I couldn’t touch, even if my dad held me up, and because it sat on a beautiful blu over an endless Lake Erie. The air was di erent at the cottage. There was a breeze from the moody lake below, and there were willow trees to give voice to the breeze.
My dad was one of six siblings, and back then, they all came together on weekends at the cottage. We listened to the Red Wings on the radio. “Marcel to Dionne. Dionne back to Marcel. Marcel shoots … Score!” Years later, I found out that Marcel Dionne was actually one person, but one who must have seemed omnipresent to other teams.
To me, Canada remains a place of family, friends, mystery, beauty and French-Canadian names that I still have to sort in my mind. Politics of the moment are a thin veneer and, possibly, a fleeting distraction from our own vision of British Columbia to the north. Still, no thief can steal our memories, nor our intentions, as we consider our summer travel plans to Canada and some of the most compelling land formations and urban settings on earth. Here are some of the places that we have on travel agendas and invite you to explore, too.
Kevin Max Editor, Statehood Media
Cover: Overlooking the Rocky Mountains near Golden.
(photo: Kootenay Rockies Tourism/Mitch Winton)
Add hiking on top of Whistler Mountain to your summer to-do list. (photo: Destination BC/Blake Jorgenson)
ONE OF THE most awesome treats you can give yourself is to contrive some way to put yourself in the Fitzsimmons Range of the Coastal Mountains that surround Whistler Blackcomb. In summer, pine, spruce and other evergreen trees emerge from melted snowpack. Hiking and biking trails stretch for miles from Whistler Village. Chairlifts and gondolas transport you to more than 50 kilometers of world-class alpine hiking. At the top of Peak Express Chairlift, hike to Black
Tusk and Cheakamus lakes with a lunch in your pack. If you want more of a challenge, take the Ascent Trails that meander up through the old-growth coastal rainforest to gorgeous summit vistas.
Bring bikes and hit the Whistler Valley Trail. It has five alpine lakes and 40 kilometers of paved trails for you to enjoy. If you have a gravel bike and an itch, try the Lost Lake trail network or the Sea to Sky Trail.
When your legs tire and your water bottle is empty, return
to your retreat at the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, a dreamy destination for luxury surrounded by lush green forests. This property is the crown of the Whistler Village and where the timeless splendor of Canada’s Grand Railway Hotels meets elegance and sustainability. Its restaurants— Portobello, The Chalet and others—offer fresh local cuisine in a stunning setting. Vida Spa is a place where you can recharge for tomorrow’s agenda of riding the 4.4-kilometer Peak 2 Peak Gondola to new adventures.
CLOCKWISE
LEFT The Peak 2 Peak Gondola covers more than 4 kilometers of aerial distance and leads to scenic hikes. An exploration on the Cheakamus Lake Trail. Due to its outstanding skiing and resources, Whistler Village was host of the 2010 Winter Olympics. (photos, clockwise from left: Destination
Sunshine Coast
BUCKET LIST RECREATION
TO THE EAST of Tofino, across Vancouver Island and the Strait of Georgia, is Canada’s Sunshine Coast. Known for its small coastal towns and harbors, Sunshine Coast is a bounty of trails, pristine fjords and provincial parks, as well as its First Nations arts and culture. Seclusion is one of the most compelling attributes of the Sunshine Coast, as it is accessible only by BC Ferries and short flights from Vancouver or Vancouver Island.
The two main regions are North and South Sunshine Coast, with North Sunshine Coast being more remote and South Sunshine Coast more popular. Book a tour boat to experience the Norway of Canada. One of the most compelling and beautiful fjords in the region is the Princess Louisa Inlet, surrounded by steep granite walls and dropping 1,000 feet below sea level. As the winter’s snow melts, waterfalls cascade along the perimeter of Princess Louisa. The deepest fjord on the Sunshine Coast is Jervis Inlet, measuring 2,200 feet deep and the picturesque home to many bald eagles.
Bikes are a common and fun form of transportation throughout the region. Cycling trips along the rugged and beautiful coastline on the two-lane Highway 101 are one rite of passage. Likewise, the 180-kilometer Coastal Circle Route is a bucket list item with miles after miles of gorgeous views of the Salish Sea, four ferries and the coastlines of the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island.
A Thunderbird totem carved by Tla’amin Nation artist Craig Galligos. (photo: Sunshine Coast Tourism/ Shayd Johnson)
A ferry travels between Langdale and Horseshoe Bay on the Sunshine Coast. (photo: Destination BC/@dolfvermeulen)
Ainswo h Hot Sp ngs
A REJUVENATING WELLNESS RETREAT
IN EASTERN British Columbia and a little more than 90 miles north of the Washington border is Ainsworth Hot Springs. Owned by the Ktunaxa First Nations, Ainsworth was recently ranked as one of Condé Nast Traveler’s best wellness retreats in the world.
It’s no surprise to anyone who has visited the hot springs adjacent to Kokanee Glacier Provincial Park and along the banks of Kootenay Lake. e air is clean and the spring water rejuvenating. Open Wednesday through Monday, the natural spring pools come up from deep in the earth
and surface to cooled temperatures of 108 degrees into the 150-foot-long, horseshoe-shaped natural limestone cave and to 96 degrees for the main pool.
e year-round hot springs at Ainsworth also have a nice stream-fed cool-water plunge pool as well as a lounging pool. e resort’s lodgings are cozy and with stunning views. e Ktunaxa Grill, open Wednesday through Monday, features a refreshingly creative menu. ink Salt Spring Island mussels, wild game bolognese, arugula beet salads, burgers, sandwiches, beer and wine.
Su ey
CITY VIBES MEET GREEN SPACES
JUST NORTH of the United States border and south of Vancouver is the bustling city of Surrey. Surrey is a place for outdoor adventure followed by nights of culture and comfort. It also has many charming venues for planning a perfect date night.
Start your day in one of Surrey’s green spaces, parks or beaches along the shores of Boundary Bay. Head to South Surrey to hike along the rugged shoreline or to Blackie Spit on the northern tip of Crescent Beach to discover hundreds of species of birds as part of the Pacific Flyway.
Next up is a little shopping for the soul. e Shops at Morgan Crossing have everything you would expect from an upscale outdoor shopping center, from Levi’s to Lululemon. Or go local at Semiahmoo Potters on the edge of Crescent Park, Mainland Whisky on 189th Street or the Belgian waffles inside of the hidden gem Leon’s Cafe on 152 Street.
Art and culture should never be overlooked on a date night. Take in regional Indigenous art through a city walking tour, with creations of the Coast Salish peoples. Go to the City of Surrey’s website to find art walking tour maps.
As your day winds down, book a relaxing massage or pedicure from Casbah Spa on King George Boulevard. Other day spas in Surrey include Salt Wellness Centre, Sueño Spa and Aru Spa and Salon, to name a few.
For a romantic dinner, get reservations at Old Surrey Restaurant, a force in the Surrey culinary scene for fifty years. In a setting with white tablecloths, flowers and candles, Old Surrey’s menu is a mix of local seafood and classic French fine dining—chateaubriand, breast of chicken forestière and Vancouver Island Qualicum Bay scallops.
Surrey is not short on lovely lodging options either. Retire for the night at the Civic Hotel where you will be treated to a luxurious stay in the heart of downtown. Ask for a high floor to overlook the city from your suite. If you want to stay close to water, book Ocean Promenade Hotel near Crescent Beach and enjoy views of the bay from elegant modern rooms.
Ainsworth Hot Springs overlooks Kootenay Lake. (photo: Destination BC/Kari Medig)
South Surrey’s Crescent Beach is a placid place for paddlers and still near downtown Surrey. (photo: Ian Harland/Discover Surrey)
IT’S TIME TO SHINE on bc’s sunshine coast
Just a short trip from Seattle, the Sunshine Coast feels like stepping into another world… one with fewer crowds, more trees, and the deep breath you didn’t know you needed. Tucked just northwest of Vancouver, our stretch of coastal British Columbia is easy to reach but wonderfully hard to leave. And thanks to the exchange rate, your dollar goes much further here.
It’s the kind of place where forest trails lead to sweeping ocean views, where art crawls take over entire communities, and music festivals fill the summer air. You’ll paddle quiet coves where seals nap on rocks, hike through cedar forests, and explore towns filled with studios and cafes.
Whether you’re here for a weekend or a week, you’ll feel like you belong.
Accommodations range from rustic cabins hiding in the trees to boutique inns perched on rocky bluffs. Many are just steps from the beach. All are designed for slowing down. It’s casual, coastal, and very Canadian.
We’d love to see you.
YOUR GATEWAY TO NATIONAL PARKS
THE FIRST thing you must know is that you will be taken … by the beauty of Golden in the Valley of a ousand Peaks. Surrounded by six national parks—Yoho, Banff, Glacier, Jasper, Kootenay and Mount Revelstoke—Golden is a place where your outdoor adventure fantasies all come true.
Find more than 185 kilometers of cross-country mountain biking, including the smooth and flowy trails of the Moonraker network. For bigger thrills and more challenge, head to Mount 7 where you may not even notice the spectacular views along this descent. Either drive to the top of the trail network on a forest service road or make the reward-
ing climb on your bike. Downhill rides continue at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort for 4,314 feet of vertical and more than thirty trails across 50 kilometers.
e Kicking Horse River is also renowned for its whitewater as it runs wild and free through Kicking Horse Canyon. Canoe, kayak or SUP in the Columbia River and Wetlands. In nearby lakes and in tributaries of the Columbia, fish for rainbow trout, cutthroat trout and char. Guided wildlife-watching trips bring you closer to elk, deer, moose, bighorn sheep and even grizzly bears.
In Golden, try Eleven22 for a wonderfully eclectic dinner
that spans Asian, European and American cuisines, with such dishes as pork and kimchi potstickers, duck spiedini and blackened mahi mahi. e wine list is exclusively composed of wines from British Columbia.
Wind down back at a mountain lodge of your choice—from Basecamp Lodge Golden to the beautiful Winston Lodge at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort. You’ll marvel at how quickly you were taken.
FROM TOP Downtown Golden with the Kicking Horse River running through it is an outdoor playground. With miles and miles of mountain biking trails, Golden is a summer destination for mountain bike aficionados. (photos, from top: BC Bird Trail/The Number Creative, Kootenay Rockies Tourism/Mitch Winton)
LIVE THINK EXPLORE
Tofino on coastal British Columbia is a northern surfers’ paradise. (photo: Destination BC/Jordan Dyck)
BEACHES & BEAUTY
PROVINCES in eastern Canada are known for maple syrup. In Tofino and western BC, surfing is becoming the maple syrup, though still relatively untapped. With 35 kilometers of sandy beaches, consistent waves, surf shops and lessons, Tofino is no longer a counterintuitive playground for beach culture.
The best months for waves are in the fall, but summer makes for a more fami-
ly-friendly experience. Find yourself at Long Beach Lodge Resort, where you can take part in on-site surf lessons, rentals and an oceanfront retreat with beach yoga.
You have options when it comes to dining—from casual sandwiches and beer at the Surf Club to lemongrass noodle salad and Cox Bay chowder at the Great Room, sitting in front of a stone fireplace and over-
looking the Pacific Ocean. Add to that an outdoor hot pool and cedar sauna, and you’ll have an extraordinary experience.
If surfing sounds too wet for your sense of being, head to the nearby Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, where you’ll find many trails and stunning beauty. Head to the Tofino Market (Saturdays, May through October) to explore local artists and the wares of local craftspeople.
ICONIC STAY
Just a short journey away, your neighbors to the north warmly welcome you to experience the captivating beauty of Whistler this summer.
Indulge in the exceptional luxury offerings of our iconic two-MICHELIN Key hotel and golf resort, located in the heart of the mountains and mere steps from your favorite outdoor pursuits. Immerse yourself in breathtaking scenery, transformative wellness experiences, and unparalleled hotel amenities. Whether you’re seeking relaxation, adventure, or quality time with loved ones, we invite you to embrace all that Whistler has to offer this summer.
