Oregon Beauty and Places

[TerryMiller]

Like I did with the "Colorado Beauty and Places" thread, I'm now starting one for Oregon. Since I don't want this to be about me, like in the Colorado thread, I invite anyone with knowledge or pictures of Oregon to post here.

We (the wife and I) have an opportunity to take a volunteer position in the Grants Pass, Oregon area at a Christian retreat. We will be moving our RV to the Cascade Mountain Ranch Retreat to park on the 50 acre ranch and serve as hosts. The Ranch is a former facility used as something similar to a Boy's Ranch, but after people there got to going after them, most of the churches gave up on trying to keep up with the legalities of a facility for boys or girls. It is now being used as a Christian retreat for family reunions, large church gatherings, weddings and receptions and such.

So, since we won't be arriving up there until about mid-April, I don't have any photos to post yet. I used to have relatives in Grants Pass, and the last time we were up there was way back in 1969. Thus, I don't have any pictures yet. We are looking forward to seeing Crater Lake again, as well as the Oregon coastline. I also ran across a place called the Painted Hills that is in northern-central Oregon, so we're hoping to get the time to travel around Northern California, Oregon, and maybe even Southern Washington. Fortunately, our work as hosts will be part time, so we should be able to get around quite a bit.

So, please take the time, if you will, to post pictures of interesting places in that area or tell me of interesting places or things to see.

 

[RidgeHunter]

I've only seen a little of Oregon. I drove into Portland on I-5, took 16 southwest to 101, and took 101 north back into Washington.

Insanely beautiful place. Aside from the natural beauty, the Astoria bridge is a pretty spectacular piece of man-made beauty.

Here's the first piece of the Oregon coast I saw, somewhere along 101.

I've explored Washington a bit more than Oregon. Here's the view from a campsite on the Cle Ellum river.

Ike Kinswa State Park. Good place to camp if you're on your way to Seattle from Oregon.

I'm jealous. I love that part of the country. It and Northern New Mexico are my favorite places.

 

[nofearfactor]

I've only been to Portland when playing music but Oregon seems like a nice place to live.

(Tapatalk)- on the road.

 

[dennishoddy]

Nice pics, that coastline from San Francisco to Seattle is beautiful. I've only seen the pics of Northern California and Oregon. Been in Washington state several times. It would be a nice drive.

 

[TerryMiller]

Dang! It has been over a year since I started this thread, and we have been in Oregon since mid-April of last year. We have been pretty busy being Ranch Hosts at the Cascade Mountain Ranch Retreat near Grants Pass, Oregon. Since we are in SW Oregon, we've been to see some of the Redwoods, a wee bit of California near Crescent City, CA, Crater Lake, and up and down the Oregon coastline along Highway 101.

I'll start out with some pictures of Cascade Mountain Ranch Retreat and an explanation. The facility is 50 acres and has two lodges, each of which are capable of sleeping 30 people and are equipped with full kitchens with all the cooking and eating utensils needed. There is also an event deck, upon which a number of weddings have been performed, a game room, a chapel, a sand volleyball court, full court basketball and tennis courts, two ponds, and 6 Llamas. We get to be caretakers of the facilities and grounds and also do the best we can to provide guests with any needs or information. Fortunately, as caretaker of the grounds, there isn't that much that needs to be mowed or trimmed. The owners prefer to keep the property in a somewhat pristine mountain condition.

First off, this is the main entrance to the Ranch, which is right at the chapel. Driving along the county road, one finds the chapel about 35 yards off the road, and unless one knows what is here, one has no clue as to what the Ranch offers. Only at night can a person on the county road tell that there is something here. During the day, one cannot see any of the buildings that comprise the Ranch.



This is the main entrance road with the Llama pasture off to the left.



Llamas and pasture.



One more picture of the pasture, but this one taken from further on the Ranch and looking towards the chapel on the left and the county road. By the way, the county road is Jumpoff Joe Creek Road.

 

[dennishoddy]

Beautiful country up that way. I've been on your website, but mainly read to learn. We did buy an RV since we talked on the phone. Anxious to to take it out on the road. Aging parent issue is keeping us grounded right now. Quite the life you guys are living.

 

[TerryMiller]

From further onto the Ranch and looking back to the county road and the chapel.



One of the two ponds, this one called Goose Lake with Goose Island (yep, really small) that is located within the Llama pasture.



This is the pond located at the event deck, where many of the weddings are held. The event deck has two pavilions on it, giving shade to the guests and also has a fully equipped kitchen. While this deck used to have a diving board, it has since been removed. This pond is filled each year with runoff water from the mountains to the north and east of us, but sadly, it goes dry in the summer, usually before mid-July.



These are the two pavilions.

 

[TerryMiller]

This is the most popular of our two lodges. It is called the Cascade Lodge and is more rustic than the other one. I should mention that when the current owners bought this property, it was to create a boy's ranch type facility, and they ran it that was for about 12 years.



This is the other lodge, known as the Kelly Lodge. Instead of a rustic look, it appears to be more modern inside. I'll show some pictures of the interiors later.



This picture shows our RV sites and behind them is the full court basketball and tennis courts. The arrangement of RV's has changed since this photo was taken. Ours is the one closest to the camera, but one of the other two has been moved off and sold and the third has been moved into the place of the second one, and our RV is now in the site where the furthest one from the camera is located. That lets us keep an eye on what is going on at the event deck.



This is another picture of the RV sites, but it shows our RV in its current location. Since this photo was taken, another volunteer couple has moved onto the property, and their RV is to the right of these two and located in our old location.

 

[tRidiot]

Man, that's awesome stuff. Thanks for checking in, Terry, I'm glad to see things are going well for you!

I'm surprised you're hanging around one place so long... I kinda figured a few weeks here, a few weeks there. Pretty nice to settle in and get to know some folks, I imagine. Do lots of other campers you meet stay in one place such a long time?

Really good to hear from you and nice to see the pics!

 

[TerryMiller]

When the wife and I decided to do this after retirement, it was with the intent to stay in one place for an extended time so that we could see more of the natural and man made attractions of an area before moving on. We retired at the end of June in 2014 and moved to the Colorado Springs area, and we lived at an RV park there for 20 months before moving on to Oregon. In our case here, our RV site and utilities are paid as we are volunteer Ranch Hosts, so the savings from those normal expenses are being applied to a few lingering debts.

We look to be here for perhaps another year to a year and a half. That will let us do more with debts and to get some things done here at the Ranch that we see need to be addressed. For instance, when we arrived, there was some junk alongside the main entrance road because that road used to not be the main entrance. However, when they changed entrances, they failed to move the junk.

When we leave here, we hope to find another opportunity to volunteer somewhere for an extended time in a new area. For instance, I would love to go to southern Utah so that we would have the opportunity to see and photograph all of the national parks in that state and northern Arizona, as well as many other national and state parts and monuments.

As for other RV'ers, I would have to say that unless they choose to do what is called "workkamping," most will move on a lot more frequently. Some will spend the winter in the south somewhere and then move north when it warms up. Many move every few weeks when they are traveling.