Ashland and the Shakespeare Festival
The progressive hamlet of ASHLAND, 180 miles south of Eugene, is the unlikely home of one of the world’s best tributes to Shakespeare, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, actually a repertory theatre company, founded in 1935. Its season runs from February to early November, offering eleven different plays; four by Shakespeare and seven by other classic, modern and contemporary writers. Performances take place in the half-timbered Elizabethan Theatre (early June to mid-Oct) and adjacent to it, the Angus Bowmer Theatre, which stages both classical and more recent works, and the austere Thomas Theatre, which has a mostly modern repertoire. The three theatres share the same box office, 15 S Pioneer St (osfashland.org).
If you come in the summer, head twenty miles northwest to the preserved Old West hamlet of Jacksonville for the annual Britt Festival (June–Aug; brittfest.org), to hear the top names in jazz, pop, rock and country music.
The Columbia River Gorge and Mount Hood
East of Portland the Columbia River Gorge cuts through the snowy peaks of the Cascades for 75 miles, an important corridor between east and west for thousands of years. Scoured into a wide U-shape by huge Ice Age-era floods, the gorge is a nationally protected scenic area (fs.usda.gov/crgnsa), where waterfalls tumble down sheer cliffs, and fir and maple trees turn fabulous shades of gold and red in the autumn.
Dominating the horizon south of the Columbia River and the town of Hood River, Mount Hood (11,240ft) is a mesmerizing dormant volcano and the tallest peak in Oregon, sprinkled with eleven active glaciers. The Mount Hood Scenic Loop – a combination of highways 35 and 26 – links the mountain and the Columbia Gorge while passing numerous orchards along the way, which in the spring and summer offer great opportunities to sample fresh fruit, juice and desserts (see hoodriverfruitloop.com). One of the other joys of the area is to explore the mountain via trails radiating out from its slopes, most of them protected within the Mount Hood National Forest; ranger centres can supply more information. Note that there are no trails to the summit of Mount Hood; only experienced mountaineers should tackle the technical climb to the top (free permits required).
Near the intersection of highways 35 and 26, a turnoff leads to the grand, New Deal-era Timberline Lodge, which Stephen King fans might recognize as the exterior set for the hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Crater Lake National Park
Just over a hundred miles south of Bend, the blown-out shell of Mount Mazama holds the hypnotically beautiful CRATER LAKE, formed after an explosion 42 times greater than that of Mount St Helens. You won’t forget the first time you peer over the volcano rim: the biggest island on the lake, Wizard Island, is actually the tip of a still-rising cinder cone, and the so-called Phantom Ship is a jagged volcanic dyke that, in dim light or fog, resembles a mysterious clipper on the water. In its snowy isolation, the lake, at a depth of nearly 2000ft, is awe-inspiring; in summer, wild flowers bloom along its high rim.
Regular boats cruise the lake, reached via the sheer, mile-long Cleetwood Cove trail (June–Oct) which provides the only access to the lake surface (700ft down). The trail is on the north edge, but visitor facilities are clustered on the south edge at tiny Rim Village. Other activities include scuba diving (June–Sept; free permits) into the depths of the deep, blue lake.
The Oregon Country Fair
Ten miles west of Eugene on US-126, little Veneta hosts the Oregon Country Fair (oregoncountryfair.org) in July, a long-standing hippie festival of music, art, food and dancing. Traffic can be heavy, and even if you have a car it’s easier to go by bus – the LTD has special services.