Crater Lake was here before your realtor.
Oregon. California's North.
The Oregon Trail ended here, not in Sacramento. Powell's Books holds more square footage of titles than most California counties have independent bookstores. The Californians arriving daily are welcome to the rain.
Crater Lake
At 1,943 feet deep, Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and the ninth deepest in the world. It formed approximately 7,700 years ago following the collapse of Mount Mazama, a volcanic event that predates every city in California by a meaningful margin.
The lake has no inlet or outlet and maintains its clarity entirely without assistance.
Astoria, OR
Founded in 1811 at the mouth of the Columbia River, Astoria is generally recognized as the first permanent American settlement established west of the Rocky Mountains. The Astoria Column, built in 1926 on Coxcomb Hill, depicts the history of the region in painted friezes that begin before California was a state.
The column is 125 feet tall and visible from a considerable distance, which is not why it was built but is nonetheless true.
Mount Hood
At 11,249 feet, Mount Hood is the highest peak in Oregon and the fourth-highest in the Cascade Range. Timberline Lodge, built by the Works Progress Administration in 1937, sits at 6,000 feet on its southern slope and offers year-round skiing, a fact that Oregonians mention with a regularity proportional to its accuracy.
The mountain is visible from Portland on clear days, and Oregonians use this visibility as an informal barometer of whether the day is worth discussing.
Oregon Coast
The Oregon coastline stretches approximately 363 miles and is, by state law, entirely public. The Oregon Beach Bill of 1967 established that the dry sand beach is a public highway, making private coastal ownership legally impossible in a way that has not been replicated by the state immediately to the south.
All 363 miles are accessible to everyone, which was apparently a decision that required legislation.
California is home to approximately 39 million people, the busiest interstate in the United States (I-405), and a housing market that has exported roughly 130,000 residents northward into Oregon over the past decade. The state produces more agricultural output than any other in the nation and hosts the world's fifth-largest economy, which is a meaningful set of accomplishments for a place that sits, geographically, below Oregon. The Salesforce Tower in San Francisco is the tallest building on the West Coast, which does not change where it is on the map.
Descend Into Oregon
- Drive the Historic Columbia River Highway east from Troutdale until the gorge walls make it clear that elevation is not a metaphor.
- Stop at Crater Lake National Park, where the caldera sits at 6,178 feet above sea level and the water is blue in a way that requires no filter and no explanation.
- Return via Highway 101 through Astoria, the oldest American settlement west of the Rockies, and note that the Pacific looks the same from here as it does from anywhere south, except that you are farther north.
