Pacific Northwest vacation - Portland, OR (part 1 of 3)

[Chewy734]

I would like to share with you some photos during my recent vacation to the Pacific Northwest. Although visiting Portland was the last of three legs of my trip, it was easiest to go through my photos in reverse chronology since I took the most photos at the beginning in Vancouver.

Mt. Hood

The first excursion I went on was a drive to Mt. Hood. It's the tallest mountain in Oregon, but unfortunately it was impossible to see the peak due to the dense fog that rolled in that day.

The drive to the mountain had a lot of stops along the way. I took these shots while on the drive up Mt. Washington.







There was no one up there when I arrived. As you can see, the parking lot was empty thanks to the off-season.



The path up to the top was beautiful during Fall.



At the top, it was way too foggy to really view any of the other five mountain ranges from there. However, I was lucky enough to capture a rainbow within the mist that was nearly a full-circle!









On the way to some waterfalls, I stopped by a rest area that had picturesque views.









There were many waterfalls that I visited on the way to Mt. Hood.













There were a ton of tunnels near the mountain, including this small one.



There was a lava bed nearby from this dormant volcano.





Driving onwards to the top of Mt. Hood was just as beautiful as the rest of the roadways.







At the top we can get a beautiful view of Trillium Lake through the dense fog.



Also, this lodge was the location for some filming of The Shining movie.



Finally, on the drive down I stopped by Trillium Lake to capture this beautiful view of Mt. Hood.



International Rose Test Garden

Who would've thought that a test garden with free admission would be so large? There were literally thousands of rose bushes all around the garden. Fortunately, this wasn't an off-season for the roses since many were knock-outs and were blooming all year round.

























Pittock Mansion

Since it was raining the last day I was there, I decided to check out Powell's Books, the largest new/used bookstore in the world. Based on the great reviews on TripAdvisor, I also visited the Pittcock Mansion and took the tour there. It was phenomenal! That 20-something room mansion was restored to how it originally was. Mr. Pittock was definitely at the right place at the right time, as he was one of the owners of the Oregonian. Who would've thought that owning a state-wide newspaper paid so well?











Even the interior of the mansion was as majestic as the exterior.













A small cameo from yours truly...



They had a small museum in the basement area of the mansion.









Even the groundskeeper had a mini-mansion.



Overall, I really enjoyed the sights and sounds of Portland, and I can't wait to visit there again. The restaurants were awesome, especially the pizza at Dove Vivi and pasta at Pastini Pastaria. Of course, Voodoo Doughnuts was unique and tasty as well!

I'll work on editing my photos from Seattle over the next couple days, so look out for part 2 of 3 of my trip. Thanks for looking!

[bosstones]

Very nice, chewy. Thanks for sharing!

[BMW2006]

Wow, color me jealous. I've never been further west than the Mississippi and am trying to plan a trip out there. Great pictures!


-BMW2006