Ashland’s Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Crater Lake, Gold History, and Rogue River Rafting in Southwest Oregon

Southwest Oregon presents itself as a friendly, unpretentious travel destination with three main pleasures: one of the two best-preserved Gold Rush towns in the west, Jacksonville, rivaled only by California’s Columbia as a restoration; the most accessible of the eight designated wild and scenic rivers in the west, the Rogue, which you can see via jet boat or raft; and a nationally noted annual drama cycle, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. Nearby Crater Lake is also a compelling one-act volcanic play, well worth a visit.

Oregon’s Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake might be called the tour de force national park. It is like a great one-act play, a volcanic crater left over from a major eruption.

Oregon’s Spectacular Coast

The 363-mile Oregon coast is one of the world’s spectacular parks because it is all public land, owned by the people of Oregon.

Portland Is Oregon’s Metropolis on the Columbia

The small-town but cosmopolitan aura, the friendliness of the citizenry, the lovely hillside parks, and the sweeping sense of history are dominant impressions of Portland and its people.

Art of the Family Reunion

For eighteen years my four sisters and I, accompanied by our parents, spouses, significant others, and children, gathered for an annual summer family reunion.

Guest Ranches Offer an Authentic Western Vacation

The “dude” or guest ranch vacation continues to flourish in several western states despite the visible threat of urbanization and the invisible threat of skyrocketing liability insurance costs.