For us the highlight of our trip to Oregon was Crater Lake, followed by our coastal trip up the coast of Oregon on Highway 1 (101) from Coos Bay to Astoria. We entered Oregon after a very scenic drive from Crescent City, CA. through a redwood forest and miles of dense green forest. After stopping at Grants Pass and Medford we made our way to the Mazama Village camp near Crater Lake - we were warned this was bear country.

Crater Lake is quite awesome, much bigger than we imagined and the water is absolutely crystal clear and the most fabulous blue / turquoise that one can imagine. There was quite a lot of snow around on the rim of the old volcano - so I had to touch it, the first time I have touched “American” snow.

At the visitors centre we were given a detailed history of how the crater was formed, when the volcano essentially collapsed. We were told there were even fish in it, yet no one knew how they got there. Only a handful of electric powered boats are allowed on the lake, in order to keep the water clean. TIP - Crater Lake is a must visit.

Another nice point about Oregon is the number of small camps situated in forests, they are mostly 'primitive' but are really great. We found one in the Umpqua Forest at Clearwater Falls - it was very pretty. There were hundreds of Chipmunks around. Another camp, this time free, was at Bear Creek. Situated on the banks of a river it was very scenic and clean.

Just outside Coos Bay, we stayed in Charlestown at the Coos Harbour Marina & RV park, situated near the beach and the little fishing harbour. The camp was full of crazy fishermen, who fished mainly for crabs, we watched them cook the large crabs they caught every afternoon.

The drive up the coast of Oregon is really very scenic and interesting, there is so much to see. We went through many small holiday towns each with its own unique character.

Umqua Lighthouse lookout, with its view over the harbour entrance is worth visiting. Nearby there is a small town called Winchester Bay, where there is a lifeboat that was used in a famous rescue once. Just past Florence, the views from Seal Point are stunning.

Cape Perpetua is well worth a visit. The beaches are interesting with hundreds of rocks and we saw literally thousands of Starfish of all colours and sizes. In this area, because of the rough sea and strong tides at times, there are a number of unique rocks on the beach. Spouting Horn - where water and spray shoots skywards through a hole in the rocks - it's impressive and quite noisy. Then there is also Devils Churn again, where it really does “churn” at high tide into a small alcove.

Depoe Bay advertises itself as the smallest harbour in the world, it is small, but I know of 2 harbours I have visited in south Africa that are smaller - but we had become accustomed to seeing signs proclaiming, the best, the biggest, the widest, the cheapest and no the smallest, so we didn't really take it seriously. At least it gets the tourists to visit. The clam chowder available there is really good. Devil’s Punchbowl is close by and it is very interesting. This is also a whale watching site, we were lucky and saw quite a few of them, but not too close to shore.

At Cape Kiwanda there is a fairly impressive haystack rock, but not the Haystack rock. Cannon Beach is where the real Haystack Rock is situated. This village itself is quite quaint and looked like an up market resort, as opposed to some we had seen.

We stopped at Tillamook cheese factory which was not particularly interesting or spectacular, we sampled quite a few cheeses, but were not impressed. The only cheese I liked was little lumps of strangely shaped cheese that squeaked when bitten.

Fort Stevens State Park, this historic Fort has a good museum ( donation entrance ) and interesting grounds around it, with all the fortifications, barracks and numerous buildings. One is allowed to ride around the grounds on a bicycle, which is exactly what we did. Fort Stevens was the only place on continental America to be bombed during the 2nd World War. The bomb was fired by the Japanese submarine number I25, in September 1942.

On the beach, a short walk from the camp, on the beach is the wreck of the “Peter Iridale”, an English ship wrecked in 1906, during a storm. Astoria was our last town in Oregon, we then headed for Washington State.

Oregon is different, we enjoyed it tremendously in late summer, many people go there in winter to experience the winter storms, which we believe are quite spectacular.