Smith Rock State Park. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Smith Rock State Park. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Kicking off a US road trip with Intrepid Travel south to San Francisco, my first-night dinner with nine new travelling buddies at a hip Northern Thai restaurant has suddenly been ambushed by a twilight ride-by cavalcade of nude cyclists. As both a welcome and a farewell to one of America's most idiosyncratic cities, it's hard to beat.
Welcome to Portland, Oregon – unofficial motto, "Keep Portland Weird" - and welcome to a spectacular Pacific Northwest road trip adventure soundtracked by great music and fuelled by great food and beer.
Kayaking on Deschutes-River. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Day 1: Portland to Bend - 235km
Energised and nourished by Portland's finest morning combination, Stumptown Coffee and Voodoo Doughnuts, we cross the Willamette River and depart the city en route to Mt Hood. Negotiating snow-framed twists and turns southeast on Route 26, Oregon's highest peak remains resolutely shrouded in cloud, but there's the promise of unimpeded views of the Cascade Mountains later in the day.
Misty subalpine forests and valleys segue surprisingly quickly to the cobalt skies and arid terracotta landscape of the Warm Springs Indian Reservation where Brigette McConville, aka @salmon_queen on Instagram, greets us and explains how her tribal confederation is maintaining their sustainable salmon fisheries on the Columbia River. As part of Intrepid's commitment to engaging with indigenous communities around the world, it's an interesting insight into how traditional practices are blending with 21st-century commerce for Oregon's First Nations tribes.
Driving on to an altitude above 1100m, the big sky country of Oregon's High Plains Desert features the snow-capped peaks of the Three Sisters, while Mt Bachelor sits to the south as their potential suitor. Views from the Crooked River High Bridge extend to a horizon framed by all three alpine siblings. Just before the city of Bend, we detour to Smith Rock State Park, a spectacular river canyon that's a highlight of the region's active focus on climbing, hiking and outdoor adventure.
Firepit at Campfire Hotel. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Day 2: Exploring Bend
Craft beers at Deschutes Brewery's downtown taproom and grilled s'mores around the fire pit at Bend's wonderfully retro Campfire Hotel top off a first day on the road, but a morning-after combo of US-style filter coffee and breakfast burritos from the Burrito Sunrise food truck soon rallies our road-tripping crew for another outdoor adventure. Kayaking on the Deschutes River is enlivened by paddling up narrow channels framed by pine trees, and inspiration and information from Wanderlust Tours' local guide Katie Hubbard comes amid a stunning blue-sky morning.
In a city with the United States' highest per capita number of craft breweries – more than 20 for a population of just 100,000 – Bend inevitably offers the opportunity for a couple more hop-fuelled stops. A Cuban pulled pork sandwich from the Nosh food truck teams well with a farmhouse IPA in Bevel Brewing's sunny beer garden, while a giant fire pit – very popular with drinkers' laid-back dogs – and sunset views of the Three Sisters brighten an evening at Crux Fermentation Project. There's even Kia Kaha on tap, a hazy pale ale with Tasman's citrusy Motueka hops to make a Kiwi beer fan feel right at home on a cool Oregon night.
Smith Rock State Park. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Day 3: Bend to Ashland - 320km
Continuing south, we head to Crater Lake National Park, a massive mountaintop caldera formed when 3700m-high Mount Mazama collapsed in on itself around 8000 years ago. Contemporary volcanologists and the oral histories of First Nations tribes both record it as a cataclysmic eruption – reckoned to be 42 times bigger than nearby Mount St Helens in 1980 – but today's gods of weather and travel have conspired to make the view from the summit a total whiteout. Based on an earlier visit a few years ago, I'm able to give our group a description of a spectacular scene fringed with forests, but today - even in mid-May during an Oregon spring – mist has created a stubborn all-enveloping shroud, and metres-high snowbanks line the switchbacks leading to the summit.
Crooked River High Bridge, Three-Sisters. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Descending from the mountain, the mist quickly clears though, and any disappointment is eclipsed with an unscheduled stop at the Rogue River Gorge lookout. As a consolation prize, it's hard to beat, with the river forced into narrow cataracts flowing fast enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool every minute. Further downstream, the Rogue River widens considerably, quiet side roads lead to good salmon fishing spots, and gentler waters provide irrigation for Southern Oregon's winemaking scene around Medford and Ashland.
Sonoma Coast State Park. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Day 4: Ashland to Santa Rosa - 599km
In contrast to the strip malls and grid layout of nearby Medford, Ashland makes for an agreeable and leafy overnight stop, and following dinner in the town's bijou creekside historic district, it's an early start for the longest drive of the trip. Ashland's known for its annual Shakespeare festival, but today it's more contemporary culture soundtracking our journey south across the state border. Led Zeppelin's Going to California and the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Dani California both feature on the day's in-van playlist, and when California Dreamin' by the Mamas and the Papas fires up as we near Mt Shasta at the southern end of the Cascade Mountains, it's the perfect West Coast road trip moment. After a lunch stop near the town of Weed – population 2700, official motto "Weed Like to Welcome You" – we're on a singular journey through Sonoma County to the Pacific Ocean.
Around 100km north of San Francisco, Sonoma Coast State Park marks a wild and exuberant return to the planet's biggest ocean. Strong onshore winds buffet us during clifftop photos, and a foamy maelstrom of waves crashes on to the beaches framing Goat Rock at the western end of Russian River's meandering route. Equally impressive later in the evening is a pint of Pliny the Elder IPA at Santa Rosa's Russian River Brewing, ticking off a bucket list brew for this travelling beer fan. Pro tip? When you order a tasting flight at Russian River, maybe share the selection of 18 different beers with a friend.
MuirWoods National Monument. Photo / Intrepid Travel, Supplied
Day 5: Santa Rosa to San Francisco - 100km
With California's City by the Bay our ultimate destination, the road trip's final day is focused on Marin County north of San Francisco. Freshly-shucked bivalves go down a treat at Hog Island Oyster Co's harbourside restaurant at Larkspur, before we head to the giant redwoods of Muir Woods National Monument. There are no signs requesting visitors to whisper around the centuries-old trees reaching heights of almost 80m, but for most people, it seems an instinctive and respectful response to nature's coastal giants.
When shadows lengthen and it's difficult for late afternoon sun to filter through Muir Woods' towering tangle, it's time to complete the trip's final act across the famed Golden Gate. Soundtracked by a 1960s hit I've probably heard a thousand times before, it's a surprisingly poignant moment as we cross America's most famous bridge to the shimmering and gleaming energy of San Francisco.
CHECKLIST: WEST COAST USA
GETTING THERE Air New Zealand flies direct to San Francisco, with connecting flights to Portland available with United. Hawaiin Airlines flies to Portland via Honolulu. DETAILS Departures are from mid-June to mid-September for Intrepid Travel's new six-day/five-night Portland to San Francisco Discovery itinerary. Twin-share costs are from $3330pp. intrepidtravel.com
