Pacific Northwest Portland and Mt. Hood

Each year we try to take a two week vacation and for 2023 we chose The Pacific Northwest. Before COVID-19 we spent two weeks bombing around Utah, California and Arizona. The previous year to took an Alaska cruise and extended stay in Vancouver, BC.

Our JetBlue flight from Boston was scheduled to leave Monday morning at 6AM. We were not looking forward to getting up at crack-o-crazy in the morning and hoping that Uber would show up.

We were mostly packed and my wife was poking around on-line. She found the Hilton Garden Inn Boston Logan Airport with rooms available for $199 that night. I wasn’t quite packed and it seemed odd to stay at a hotel less than 10 miles from our house.

But we could take the hotel shuttle to the airport. Also the Sumner Tunnel is closed for a massive referb project and we were worried how that would effect our morning Uber ride to the airport.

So she made the reservation, I grabbed a few more things to stuff into my suitcase and we called Uber. By 8:35PM we were checking into the Hilton Garden Inn Boston Logan Airport in Revere. For some reason I thought this hotel was closer to the airport.

I wasn’t expecting much since it was an airport hotel. Those tend to be for business travelers and don’t always have the amenities you would expect to see at location or resort type hotels.

But The Hilton Garden had a dining/bar area that looked quite nice. They also had a pool, that was being used, and a business area and four conference rooms. The restaurant was closed and I think the bar was still open, but with only a handful of people hanging out.

I didn’t take any photos of the room but it was similar to most other Hilton or Marriott rooms you’ve been in. I also didn’t take any photos in the lobby or while walking around. I had to clip these photos from the hotel web page.

But the room was quiet and I got a pretty good night’s sleep. What more can you ask for?

Airport Adventures

We got up at 4AM, had quick coffees and showers and headed for the lobby. At that time of the morning we were pretty much on auto pilot. Fortunately they had more coffee in the lobby which AnnMarie found undrinkable.

The driver was finishing his smoke and we appeared to be his first group. I think we just about filled the shuttle bus. Mostly tourists, a musician and part of an air crew.

In no time we were getting dropped off near JetBlue and the airport adventure began.

No matter how well prepared you are or how often you travel, the airport is always an anxiety producing adventure. You never know what might happen.

Maybe you forgot something as essential as your ID. Or maybe everyone decided 5AM was a great time to travel or TSA only has one or two people. Our only issue was that JetBlue had everyone in one line to get to the check in kiosks. I’ve never seen them do it that way and it sucked.

We got through check in and TSA without too much bother. JetBlue may have been backed up but TSA was on their game. Only a few people appeared to be virgin travelers. You know, laptop is still in their bag, lace up shoes are still laced, and “Oh, I can’t bring this bottle of water and a cup of coffee through security?” I just want to strangle these people, but my belt is in one of my bags. Oh well.

I don’t remember what we ate at the airport, but it definitely involved coffee. We purchased had some snacks for the flight since JetBlue usually has few choices.

We were group B, so we had room for our carry-ons and settled in for a six hour flight!

We landed in Portland around 10:30, grabbed our checked bags and headed to pick up our car at Enterprise.

Getting the car and Heading Out

When we took our trip to the Southwest we had a little Ford street car. Not a 4-wheel drive or even an SUV. And we took that car to Death Valley and down a few roads that The Park Service or anyone else maintains.

So this time we went with a Jeep Wrangle Sahara. It cost a little more, but we were pretty sure we wouldn’t get hung up someplace. We were also headed for the mountains, so we wanted something that could climb and that we probably couldn’t break.

Enterprise was a piece of cake. Driver’s license and credit card was all they needed. It took longer to check out at their gate.

Here I was driving a Jeep about twice the size of my BMW. I was worried about bumping into things or running them over. The vehicle will go anywhere you want to go. Just turn the wheel and go!

With AnnMarie navigating we got out of the airport and onto the highway headed towards Mt. Hood.

After a few miles I was pretty comfortable driving the Jeep. I’m used to being in a low car and knowing exactly where my bumper is.

The Jeep sits much higher and I had no doubt it could run over half the other cars on the road. But after a few miles I was pretty sure where the bumper was and how the vehicle handled.

Mount Hood Day One

We were surprised that Mt. Hood was less than two hours from Portland. We really expected to drive all afternoon.

This trip was planned in much greater detail than our romp through the Southwest. But I estimated the time to travel distances and tried to take into account city traffic and time of day.

But, Monday mid-day was a piece of cake to get out of Portland. As such we arrived at our first hotel way before check-in time. I went in and asked about check-in and lunch.

No to early check in and they directed us to their golf clubhouse for lunch.

The Mt. Hood Oregon Resort is quite nice actually but their dining options are limited. The clubhouse basically had bar food and drinks. We needed a real meal. So we headed the Jeep back down the road to the highway and started looking for a real restaurant.

We passed a few places and then saw The Zig Zag Mountain Café. I was driving to fast to stop by the time we decided to check it out, so I had to find a road to turn around.

When we pulled in the small parking area was full, so we had to park around back. It was almost like four-wheeling to park, but we had the right vehicle for that!

The Zig Zag doesn’t seem to have their own web site but this TripAdvisor link will give you the essential details.

The place was built in 1916 and changed hands over the years. In 2008 it was renovated but retains much of the rustic deep woods camp feel with exposed beams and natural wood everywhere.

The menu was pretty good and the beer selection looked pretty good also. But since I just started driving a large rental vehicle, I decided to stick with iced tea!

We were so tired and hungry that I forgot to take any pictures of my meat loaf plate. The food was good, but I could have used another slice of meat loaf.

Like so many places, they were short-handed. Our waiter ran the dining room, a waitress ran the outside dining area and two people ran the kitchen and handled check out. Everyone seemed to be busing tables and getting drinks.

After we ate, it was time to explore. Our first stop was the Zig Zag Ranger Station. I didn’t realize this was run by the US Forest Service and not the US Park Service. There is a difference.

The US Forest Service doesn’t sell US Park Service America The Beautiful Annual Passes. They did sell daily and weekly parking passes.

The guys at the desk were not very good at selling passes. They didn’t tell us that a weekly pass was good in Oregon and Washington and was good for state parks, National Forests and Monuments. They also didn’t tell us that for $30 we could buy the weekly pass. They only told us that the daily pass was $5.

We would have been happy to pay $30 even if we only used it for two days. Almost everywhere we stopped needed some sort of a pass to park. And we saw people at Crater Lake with tickets on their cars.

I felt like calling the US Forest Service and offering to give their people a Sales 101 course. That could be fun!

With pass in hand, we headed for Mt. Hood!

Mt. Hood and Timberline Lodge

The Hood was only about 30 minutes from the ranger station. At a town called Government Camp we took a left and headed up the road.

This was the first time we put the Jeep to any sort of test. The road was fairly steep in places and had lots of turns. I thought it was great!

I didn’t track it but it must have been 15 miles of twisty, turning fun!

We parked in a huge parking lot and started to walk. We saw what looked like a hiking trail and headed out.

The Timberline Lodge is at about 6,000 feet and we were absolutely not ready for hiking at this altitude. Garmin shows that we started at 5,892 feet and got to 6,077 feet and that was over 0.3 miles. The rest was mostly downhill as we knew we were no match for this mountain!

Here is some history of The Timberline Lodge. If I had planned better and they had space, we would have stayed here. It’s just that cool!

Looking up the mountain we could see a few hikers and skiers. Then I noticed that there was a half-pipe probably around 7,000 feet! I could just see people up there popping above the sides and going back down.

As we walked around The Lodge and parking lot it was apparent that we were in the middle of snow-board culture. Everywhere we looked were young people in snowboard gear using language we didn’t always understand. It reminded me of a bunch of runners and I appreciated being the outsider.

There were some narly vehicles in the parking lot also. Some were beefed up SUVs but one looked like something out of Star Wars or Mad Max. It was huge and looked like it could take a beating and keep on ticking! I swear it had an Australian license plate.

Here are some photos. I could post so many more!

White River Drainage

We drove back down the access road to Rt 26 the “Mt. Hood Highway” and found the White River Drainage. While it sounds like an odd place to go, it was pretty cool.

Apparently this is a drainage off of the mountain. In the winter people go snowmobiling in this area. In the spring millions of gallons of snow melt come down this gorge. I think it’s the white river because it’s all rock and looks white from above.

We walked around a bit and took a few (too many) photos of the landscape and river. This time of year it’s not very impressive, but in the spring you probably don’t want to be there!

This was our last stop of the day and we headed west towards our hotel.

Mt. Hood Resort – Best Western

On our last trip out west, we noticed that Best Western had hotels much closer to the parks than the other major chains. When looking for places to stay The Mt. Hood Resort looked to be right in the area we wanted to be. And it was.

It was about an hour from Portland and less than an hour to Mt. Hood.

While we weren’t impressed with the dining options, we did like the resort.

It was well done with plenty of parking and a nice pool area. Inside the front door was a large area where I assume people would stow their ski gear.

There was the standard dorm room sized fridge and two caffeinated coffees. There was also a sliding door and a place to sit outside, which I loved.

They were not fully booked and it was later in the day. So the pool and the entire property seemed very quiet. The resort is a half mile off of the highway and in the woods, so it was very quiet.

Due to the lack of dining options at the resort I searched the area for something that looked good. Even with Google, it can be difficult to tell if a place is any good. I settled on “Wraptitude Gourmet Wraps, Burgers and Beers”.

It turned out to be a great choice! It was a small, locally owned place that seemed to be full of locals. Our waitress was great and made us feel right at home.

It reminded us of some of the small family-owned restaurants that used to be on Rt. 1 in Saugus. Most of them are gone now, so we really appreciated this restaurant.

We ate inside, but they had a guy on guitar singing outside. There were about 20 people out there listening to him.

I was so tired and hungry that I forgot to take a picture of my food, but the southwestern wrap with ground beef was pretty good. I also had two tasty local IPAs.

We headed back to the hotel where I enjoyed some more beer on our little patio and got some sleep to prepare for another full day!

Travel well my Friends! Andy