Entering the Pacific Northwest: From Lakeview to Tacoma

Crossing over from northwest Nevada into southeast Oregon doesn't mean one leaves behind the scrubby sageland and enters primeval forests and foggy hills. Rather, an enormous expanse of eastern Oregon is a continuation of Nevada's dry countryside - what some have dubbed the "Oregon Outback". This is a massive and lonely part of the country, with few towns, high elevations and extreme weather. I spent my first night in Oregon at the town of Lakeview, just north of the Modoc, California county line. Poking around the town the next morning, I discovered a sign listing the number of churches in the area. With a population of 2,474 and 18 churches listed, that works out to approximately 1 church per 137 people.


I discovered this battered yet proud beauty of an old movie house along the main drag. Not many of these around anymore. And still being used!

So many of these interior west towns feature small, privately-run museums with artifacts and documents of earlier times, often from eras of gold and silver rushes or exploration. Lakeview was no exception,.

Back on the road, this time north on Highway 31. More lonely scrubby country, sometimes winding between marshy areas and enormous lakes (like Summer Lake ).

Just outside the remote town of Paisley, I pulled over to examine their airport, just off the main highway.

Up past Bend, the countryside began to change a bit as the highway moved closer to the looming Cascade Range to the west. Soon, the hulking presence of massive mountains, heavy with snow, became visible in the distance.

I took Highway 26 as it wound to the southern base of Mount Hood, the 11,240 foot giant that dominates the Portland area.

And on my way west to Portland, I of course passed every Portlandian's (?) favorite and most accurate highway exit sign.

A few days later, I made my way up the monotony of the I-5 to the Seattle / Tacoma region, and met up with Jane and her family for a brisk hike around Point Defiance Park. The summer has slowly settled in to this gorgeous, green, moist area, and the trails were shadowed in appropriate layers of gloom.

Yet other views looked onto more barren areas, such as the Tacoma-Narrows Bridge towards Gig Harbor.

The park is massive, and yields numerous hidden areas, such as this sad park bench slowly being devoured by the forest.

Then it was down to Portland once again, and a winding route towards the Cascades and the beauty of snow-packed Crater Lake. Next time.