10 year old has decided her birthday trip will be Oregon. She's read a few books and decided it has beach, mountain, and waterfalls and she'd like to see those things.

Any must see things within 2 hours of Portland?

I went summer of 23 with a 10 and 12 year old. We focused on 2 areas…Depoe bay to get some beach, tide pools, rain forest, and whale watching. And hood river to get Colombia River gorge, berry picking, mt hood national park, fishing, and white water rafting. We were very happy with our choices.

At Depoe bay, we enjoyed playing along the edge of the crashing waves, sun sets, hiking in forests, a giant sand dune, and a whale watching tour. There were lots of little beaches to explore…some we had to our selves. It is cold on the beach!!!! Not so bad once you get a little further away. My wife took most of the pictures but here are a couple.

We then drove back to Portland and headed down the Columbia River gorge. You have to check it out, but parking is challenged aome locations. Just do some research about what waterfalls to see and you'll be fine. We did a short hike to several of the waterfalls closer to hood river and got away from crowds.

In the town of hood river, you see mt hood and another similar mountain in Washington. There are numerous farms to pick many types of berries and flowers. You are about a 30 min drive to mt hood if I remember correctly. We did a couple of trails we really enjoyed and then I went back to run another trail early one morning.

We also did white water rafting on the salmon river…or a branch of it. It was super intense with my daughter crying in terror when we got on the river. But, by the end she said it was her favorite thing she did. Would highly recommend hood river for a chill town to explore the region.

Awesome. Thank you!!

You may look into flying into Eugene instead of Portland, American still will get you to EUG on a direct flight and you won't need to deal with all of the mess in Portland (traffic/crime/drugs/etc.)

Eugene is an hour from the Mountains and an hour to the coast. Salt Creek falls is in the Mountains and while not quite as tall as Multnomah Falls it is still cool to see. There is an overlook near the parking lot so you can see it from the top, or you can hike down to the bottom and see it from there as well.

As far as the coast, drive west to Florence and then head north. Florence as a town isn't bad, the harbor area is cool, but if you drive north you will see the dunes, Sea Lion Caves, Thor's Well, Devil's Churn, some great beaches and lighthouses, and I recommend stopping (or staying in) Yachats. Try Luna Sea Fish House, the best Prawns and Chips I have ever had. Further north is Newport with a nice little tourist/harbor area and a dock where the sea lions hangout as well as an aquarium.

I lived in Eugene from 2020-2025 so I go to explore the area quite a bit, just never was a fan of Portland in general though.

I will second the area of the coast around Yachats and Newport. We were just there in September and it was really nice. We stayed at the Oregon House property south of Yachats (https://theoregonhouse.com) and it was a perfect setup. It has a private beach access that was deserted when we were there and there were plenty of Agates to be found. We also ate at Luna Sea Fish House, and the Halibut and chips was terrific. The tiger prawns were very good as well. We tried to do a whale watching trip out of Depoe Bay, but got cancelled due to fog. We did see a few from one of the ocean overlooks south of town though. The Aquarium in Newport was smaller than some, but a good stop. The Hilltop Cafe in Waldport was the best meal of the trip. I had the teriyaki burger with pineapple on top and it was a top 3 burger for me. My wife had the crab mac and cheese and it was delicious as well.

The area southeast of Eugene along the North Umpqua river was really beautiful as well and way less crowded than the Columbia Gorge and Portland Area. There are a number of waterfall hikes you can do that are fairly easy short hikes and very scenic. We stayed at a glamping resort called Umpqua's Last Resort that was very affordable and very well setup. Queen sized heated bed, heaters and electricity in the tent, good showers setup right near the tent and a firepit with chairs.

The Bend area is also really nice and you can fly into Redmond instead of Portland to get there. We did a cool hike down inside a lava tube out at Newberry National Volcanic Monument, we did a night canoe/starwatching trip out at Elk Lake west of Mt Bachelor with Wanderlust Tours that was fun too. Lots of cool outdoors stuff to do around Bend.

Sunset through the fog from Oregon House


Stairs up from the beach at Oregon House


Umpqua's Last Resort Glamping Tent



Waterfalls along the North Umpqua

No Crater Lake? Ever since I saw it in an old Natl Geo, it's been on my bucket list. Does it not live up to the hype?

We went there in September and took a boat ride out to Wizard Island the day before they shut down for the next 2-3 seasons. You can still go there and do various hikes up around the rim, but you can't go down to the lake itself for the next two seasons. It is certainly gorgeous to see, but it is kind of a long way from anywhere else interesting unless you want to fish the Umpqua or Rogue Rivers.

I drove the Oregon coast on US 101 as part of a driving trip down the entire west coast from Seattle to San Diego. I think the Oregon Coast was even better than Big Sur. We didn't get inland to Crater Lake or the Willamette Valley, but there is plenty to see.

Create Lake is a bit far from the beach for a short vacation with a focus on the ocean.

What time of year?

And even in June the trails are closed at Crater lake because they still have about 5 feet of snow

Silver Falls State Park is a must if you are chasing waterfalls.

txags92 said:

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We went there in September and took a boat ride out to Wizard Island the day before they shut down for the next 2-3 seasons. You can still go there and do various hikes up around the rim, but you can't go down to the lake itself for the next two seasons. It is certainly gorgeous to see, but it is kind of a long way from anywhere else interesting unless you want to fish the Umpqua or Rogue Rivers.

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Why is it shut down? Give it some time to recover from tourists?

TXAG 05 said:

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txags92 said:

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We went there in September and took a boat ride out to Wizard Island the day before they shut down for the next 2-3 seasons. You can still go there and do various hikes up around the rim, but you can't go down to the lake itself for the next two seasons. It is certainly gorgeous to see, but it is kind of a long way from anywhere else interesting unless you want to fish the Umpqua or Rogue Rivers.

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Why is it shut down? Give it some time to recover from tourists?

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The boat dock is about 700 feet in elevation below the parking area down a 1.1 mile switch back trail built onto a pretty steep slope. They are completely rebuilding the trail down to the boat dock at the cove and overhauling the boat docks to make the whole setup more accessible. Prior to this it was a fairly strenuous hike back up for flat landers. The season there is only from about mid-June to late October, so there is not a lot of time to work in a given year. Right now they are saying the trail/boat tours will be shut down for the 2026, 2027, and 2028 seasons, reopening in 2029.

https://www.nps.gov/crla/planyourvisit/cleetwood-cove.htm