My wife and I have scheduled a flying vacation September 17-27. From Jerome, Idaho, we plan on spending the first day or two at my brother's condo in Sun River, Oregon. After that, I want to camp at Nehalem Bay, land on the beach at Copalis, spend a couple of days in the San Juan's, head east back toward northern Idaho, camp at Cavanaugh Bay, and then back south to Elk River for breakfast, maybe Moose Creek to camp, MacKay Bar for breakfast or lunch, Johnson Creek to camp, then home. So, it's a big clockwise loop, and I'm looking for ideas/recommendations of stops along the way. Thanks.

Good place to start:

GrassStripPilot's Northwest Gems

sounds perfect just as is.

Lands Inn near John Day Oregon is a great spot as well as Minam Lodge/Reds in the Wallowa mountains of Oregon.

Very close to a trip I took at end of July with my wife. Cavanaugh, Manzanita at Nehalem, then the San Juans. The link that Zane provided will give you most of info you need. Bring your swim suits for Preist lake. Water was great when we were there. Manzanita has State Park camp sites reserved for fly-in campers. Kinda a long walk into town, about 2 miles? Good chance there may be a marine layer over the coast. Astoria 25 miles north has a ILS app. if your IFR. Best place to set a tent in San Juans is Orcas. Read all the info on the provided link for all the details. Have a great trip.

A stop to Independence 7S5 for lunch. Or Lakeside 9S3 and walk down to the 8th Street grill. Pacific city KPFC has many options including The Grateful Bread for breakfast or lunch, the Sportsman Tavern for lunch or dinner, or bring your bikes and ride to the Pelican Pub & Brewery for lunch or dinner(about a mile walk). You can stop in Albany S12 and taxi to Lum Yen for a Chinese dinner. If you stop in Eugene I can loan you an old beat up car for a few days, and your options are too many to list. A stop at McMinnville KMMV and a shuttle bus will take you to Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum, or Tilamook KTMK and Tilamook Air Museum if your wife can stand more airplanes at that point.

Dokmow wrote: Tilamook KTMK and Tilamook Air Museum if your wife can stand more airplanes at that point.

I just visited the Air Museum at Tilamook. It was great to see the warbirds and an F-14, but I thought the blimp hangar was as interesting as the aircraft. It is about 1100' long, nearly 300' wide, and nearly 200' high wood structure build during WWII. I could fly into and turn around with my little plane. Well, maybe someone could, probably not me. Anyhow, the building is fantastic.

tom

Zane,

Thanks for posting the link.

Fritz,

You are doing almost the exact trip I did in late June. Lake View had a good price and gas and was a very nice stop. The best price on fuel that I found was in Lebanon, OR. It was a great FBO ran by a great couple. The type of place you hope to come across when stopping into a GA place. Nehalem Bay was great. We walked into town and it wasn't bad, even with the wind blowing and it being cold. We got a ride back to the strip by a nice local we met at the grocery store. I don't know if he took pitty on our little boy in the cold wind or me packing him on my back. Either way, very nice locals. The camp grounds are protected from the wind and were great. You can have a bit of a rough ride coming in if the wind is really blowing on short final. We had a herd of elk with 3-4 bulls (one was going to be really nice) come across the runway before sunset.

The next morning we went to Copalis under a 1,000 ft. scattered layer. Beautiful flight. The sand at Copalis was the smoothest surface I've ever landed on. It was great. Wx was moving in from the northwest that prevented us from continuing to Orcas Island. It started to rain on us at Copalis so we had to beat feet for Stampede Pass and northern Idaho. We planned to camp at Cavanaugh Bay, but it was one week before reopening. So Magee was a great alternate. Anyway, checkout my trip report and if you have any other questions, feel free to IM me or just post here.

It was a great trip. We want to do it again and make it to Orcas. Oh, if you have the time, McKenzie Bridge was a great place to spend the night. Elk River had great huckleberry icecream, pie and lemonade. Land south, takeoff north making a right turn and climb in the bowl to get out. Elk City has great huckleberry pancakes.

Savannah-Tom wrote: but I thought the blimp hangar was as interesting as the aircraft. It is about 1100' long, nearly 300' wide, and nearly 200' high wood structure build during WWII.

I totally agree, those hangars are amazing. There's a neat old operational Stinson Reliant on the field too that gives rides.

On the front end of the trip, we can stop by either Owyhee Reservoir or Alvord Hot Springs. Owyhee Reservoir is really the direct route, so the question is whether it's worth the additional time to bypass Owyhee Reservoir and go to the Alvord Hot Springs. Thanks again for the ideas.