Oregon Coast

We hit the south Oregon coast at Florence a 166 mile drive up highway 101 to Seaside near the Washington State border. The drive is quite remarkable littered with deserted wide windswept beaches. A brief stop in yachats at a typically inclusive coffee shop serving a variety of vegan friendly ‘milks and pastries’ where we walked away with two free (and ridiculously huge) pastries after a 40 minute wait for the kale and berry smoothie that never came.

Reading in that coffee shop about the glass angels who deposit individually design glass blown marbles on the beaches surrounding Lincoln city. There’s a community here that wants to keep things fun, slightly mystical and wholesome.

The drive itself is somewhere you can lose yourself, as the beaches sprawl and the road winds. Its real a place you feel wild and free, the pace is gentle the scenery awe inspiring and somewhere to breathe deep and just take in the sheer size and force of Mother Nature.

The Oregon coast feels like a place time forgot but its super friendly, even an encounter with the local traffic poh-lice for driving 17 miles over the speed limit – we were left with one punishment – to wear junior police badges for the rest of the day. Which we did diligently.

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Crater Lake

7,800 years ago a massive volcanic eruption at Mount Mazama in Southern Oregon set the scene for what is now the stunningly beautiful Crater Lake National Park. 750 years after the eruption and the collapse of Mount Mazamas peak, rainfall filled the lake leaving its characteristic bright blue hue. Reportedly the seventh deepest lake in the world, with depths of up to 1,943 feet less than five percent of its floor has been explored.

A reminder of the volcanic eruption is the curious cinder cone, named Wizard Island in the centre of the lake. You can explore it on a boat tour but instead we opted for a hike to get our blood pumping.

Surrounded by mountains and amazing vistas the highest point in the park is Mount Scott, with an elevation of 8,938 feet. A gentle, yet strenuous climb to the top which offers the most amazing views of the lake and surrounding areas. It’s hard not to feel top of the world when you can see for miles without a sign of human development, bar the odd road.

A lesser known National Park, Crater Lake offers remote stunning natural beauty and a curious reminder of the volcanic activity in the area less than 10,000 years ago.