Fall Oregon Road Trip

Oh, Oregon. Almost a week has gone by since returning home and I'm still not sure what to say about you. Every time I visit, I fall in love a little bit more with your diversity, the volcanic wonder that is the Cascade Range, and your vast open lands just begging to be explored. While I drive between highlights, Matt and I are already planning future trips to visit you and face constant indecision when it comes to whether or not you may become our forever home.

Columbia River Gorge, Washington side.

Ever since moving back to the Lower 48, Matt and I have taken a trip somewhere pretty at the end of September. It coincidentally happens to fall around my birthday, but that has more to do with the fact that we seem to find ourselves near a larger airport that time of year and it's always cheaper to fly.

I sort of rock at making rest stop quesadillas.

In the past, we've made it to the Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce National Parks and to Santa Fe. Since we're not much for traipsing around in the wilderness during the heat of the summer, September is the perfect time for us to explore. Couple that with fewer travelers and the trip can become less expensive and more impulsive since we don't have to book much in advance. Our original plan was to visit the Grand Tetons, but airfare prices got away from us so we decided to explore what was in our (relative) backyard.

Here's a map of our route. In general, we worked in a clockwise loop.

Over the next few days, I hope to sift through the nearly 1,000 photos I took and write a few posts about the highlights. I'm still not sure what to say about it all, but I had a fantastic time and look forward to sharing our adventures. :)