Oregon

 

Oregon‘s nickname is the beaver state – unfortunately we didn’t see any, just the Cascade Mountains and trees mainly Douglas fir trees. Our home for the week was Armitage Park in Eugene, a truly amazing public park, lots of grass and trails and the McKenzie River running alongside.

Oregon has the largest collection of covered bridges in the West and one of the largest in the USA. The settlers used the most abundant materials available, Douglas fir, to construct these river crossings – with ‘houses’ over them to protect the bridge from the damp Oregon climate. By 1925 there were nearly 600 of these bridges; this number fell to just 56 in the mid-1970s.

We toured one area and found 4 bridges all fairly close to each other, crossing the Row River, some of them can still be crossed in a vehicle.

We decided that we needed to go explore the Pacific coast so set off along 126 which runs by the Siuslaw River from Eugene to Florence, a really twisty and beautifully scenic trip, even having to return on the same route was enjoyable. We arrived at the Harbor Vista Park and walked along the Siuslaw North Jetty to the beach, Connie wanted to feel the water with her fingers, the Pacific had other ideas as the surf came in and left her in about 5 inches of water, wet but totally happy. As usual little Rusty just went crazy running around the beach, unfortunately he jerked on his leash and the camera hit the sand, still works but the lens cover doesn’t close fully, maybe its time for a new one.

On the way back to Eugene we stopped to take a picture of a crazy house built on the very top of an iron bridge over the river, anyone wanting to live in this place would need to be slightly insane and have a good head for heights climbing the ladder.

A second day of touring for covered bridges and finding a craft brewery brought our stay to and end and we headed for our next stop in Washington State for a 2 week stay in Preston just 20 miles east of Seattle.

 

One Comment on “Oregon

  1. Whilst visiting America a lot of years ago now I bought a cross stitch picture of a covered bridge because we had seen some on our travels around eastern America. It was one of those self drive tours starting in Boston during the fall.
    I enjoyed stitching the picture and I am looking at it now on the wall in our dining room. Very happy memories.
    Love to you both Audrey and Douglas

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