🌊 Oregon

About Oregon

🏛 Crater Lake National Park

Oregon is the Pacific Northwest's most varied and in some ways most compelling state — a place of dramatic coastlines, volcanic mountains, high desert plateaus, and dense temperate rainforest, anchored by one of America's most distinctive and creative cities. It is a state that rewards road trips of every length, with national park and forest landscapes of extraordinary quality and an outdoor recreation culture that has shaped everything from the state's diet (farm-to-table as a way of life, not a trend) to its urban design.

Crater Lake National Park, in south-central Oregon, protects the deepest lake in the United States and one of the world's most visually spectacular bodies of water. Crater Lake was formed approximately 7,700 years ago when the eruption and collapse of Mount Mazama (estimated at 12,000 feet before eruption) created a caldera 6 miles across that filled with rain and snowmelt over centuries to a depth of 1,943 feet. With no inflow or outflow rivers, and replenished only by precipitation, the water achieves a purity and clarity that produces an extraordinary deep blue color — the most saturated blue in nature, darker and more intense than any ocean. The 33-mile Rim Drive offers 26 viewpoints above the lake; Wizard Island, a small cinder cone rising from the lake's surface, is accessible by boat tour.

The Columbia River Gorge, shared with Washington State on Oregon's northern border, is a National Scenic Area of 292,500 acres — the gorge where the Columbia River cuts through the Cascade Range creates a landscape of extraordinary dramatic power, with over 90 waterfalls visible from the Historic Columbia River Highway (America's first scenic highway, built 1913–1922). Multnomah Falls, at 620 feet the second-tallest year-round waterfall in the US, is Oregon's most visited natural site. Rowena Crest, Crown Point, and the Vista House perched above the gorge offer panoramic views of the river, cliffs, and Washington's Mount Adams.

Portland is one of America's most consistently individual cities — a place with a distinct urban character defined by its food culture (James Beard nominees in numbers disproportionate to its size, the original Voodoo Doughnut, Powell's Books covering an entire city block), its outdoor ethos (Forest Park, the largest urban forest in the country, has 80+ miles of trails within the city limits), and its commitment to public transit and cycling infrastructure. The Portland Japanese Garden, redesigned by Kengo Kuma, is widely considered the finest Japanese garden outside Japan. The Saturday Portland Farmers Market at Portland State University is one of the country's finest.

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