Oregon Top 50 Photos: Exploring America's Hippest City + 1 Of Its Greatest Ski Resorts

Skiing at Timberline, Mt Hood, Oregon.

Driving in falling snow, dog-sled riding, skiing the mountain with longest season in all of North America, staying in the hotel made famous by the film The Shining and hiking a valley almost as breathtaking as the Grand Canyon, last month’s Oregon road trip for Let’s Travel magazine was incredible. In an upcoming series of Let’s Travel articles I’ll do my best to bring to life my adventures in this very, very beautiful place.

In the meantime, enjoy my top 50 photos from Portland and the nearby Mt Hood. Portland is Oregon’s largest city (2 million and reportedly the fastest growing metropolitan area in the States) and Mt Hood is North America’s mountain with the longest season. That season is so long that if you are a fan of the snow then this mountain offers year-round activities. It’s also home of one of America’s most notable historic hotels, the Timberline Lodge. Timberline doubles as a ski area with the 1937-built hotel a striking piece of Depression-era Cascadian architecture. And yes, it was Timberline that Stanley Kubrick used for exterior shots for the fictitious Overlook Hotel in the 1980 movie The Shining.

The following photos include another historic hotel, the charming Hotel Monaco in downtown Portland, built in the early 1900s. Also look out for Portland’s Japanese garden, said to be the finest Japanese Garden outside of Japan, not to mention Powell’s Books which has been recognised as the world’s largest new and used bookstore (6300 square metres, more than two-million books). There are photos of the Chevy car I was given for the week – my first time driving an American car and I loved it. Can’t believe how cheap gas is in the States either! Plus Oregon is notable for requiring by law that service station staff fill your car and not you.

You’ll see photos from the Timberline Lodge ski fields as well as Mt Hood Meadows, another internationally acclaimed ski area on the slopes of Mt Hood. There are waterfalls, alpine forests and even photos from my trip to Portland’s zoo.

In a soon-to-be-published second photo essay on The Roxborogh Report I’ll show you photos from Central Oregon where I saw the awe-inspiring Smith Rock, went dog-sled riding on Mt Bachelor and did a pub crawl in a city sometimes referred to as “beer Disneyland”, Bend. Enjoy the photos! And do subscribe to Let’s Travel magazine for the full articles.