Exploring the Pacific Northwest: Our 11-Day Adventure

This year we have decided to stay a bit closer to home due to a very busy summer and a pending kitchen remodel. We are going to head to the Pacific Northwest through northern California, Oregon and Washington.

We’ll take our usual route north, but when we get to Valley Falls, CA, we will venture a new path on Highway 31 and end the first day in Summer Lake, Oregon.

We’ve charted two options for day two. One being a little shorter than the other depending upon our fatigue, wildfire smoke or weather. Day two will bring us northwest of Mount Hood in Carson, WA, along the Columbia River.

On the third day we will go along the east side of Mount St. Helens Volcano after we visit the Windy Ridge Viewpoint overlooking Spirit Lake. Then we head up to Leavenworth, Washington which is a Bavarian-style village in the Cascade mountains.

On day four, we will head northwest to Whidbey Island, WA, crossing over Deception Pass. Along the way we’re hoping to visit some dear friends on the way and meet their new baby girl! We haven’t seen them since before COVID and are really hoping our schedules align to make the visit possible.

Once on Whidbey Island, we will spend two nights and take time to relax and explore the island.

We take a ferry from Whidbey Island to the Olympic Peninsula on day six. We will explore the Olympic National Park and the coastline. We will take in the Hurricane Ridge Visitor Center and possibly take a gravel road to Obstruction Point trailhead (depending upon conditions) and may make it up to Neah Bay, the northwesternmost point of the US.

We will end up in Forks, WA that night. This town was made famous with the filming of the Twilight movie but is also known as the rainiest town in the contiguous United States. Maybe we will see some soggy vampires.

On day seven, we leave the coastline to head inland to the town of McMinnville, OR. McMinnville is in the heart of the Oregon wine country, has a historic downtown and is home to the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum which is home to the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes’s flying boat.

We then make our way back to the coast on day nine. We have two possible routes, one more inland and one that works its way down the Oregon coast from Lincoln City to Florence. We’ve done the coast road before and it was really slow. Beautiful, but slow because of all the small towns teaming with tourists. We’ll see how we feel and make the decision based upon our stamina. We don’t want a repeat of the last time we rode this road when Tom was so frustrated with traffic that he passed a line of cars going a bit too fast. Our day was hindered with a traffic ticket.

On day nine, we will begin to head inland again after Coos Bay, OR, and end the day in one of our favorite spots, Ashland, OR. This tiny town is filled with shops, art galleries, Southern Oregon University, Lithia Park, and of course, a lively art and theater scene. We’re going to spend two nights in Ashland and see “As You Like It” at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. We’ll let you know if we like it.

We will head home on day eleven, going east through the Cascade Siskiyou National Monument toward Klamath Falls and then south, passing through the Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Much of this ride will be familiar but it is scenery that we love and the roads are fun.

Here’s a look at day one’s route…

We leave next week and are looking forward to spending time on the bike touring the Pacific Northwest and spending time with each other. We hope you enjoy traveling along with us!