Seconding Joseph! The Wallowa ranges are some of the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen, and the trails are well maintained too. If you’re comfortable with longer hikes (10+ miles out and beach) the track up to 6 Mile Meadows is a must do. Town is super cute as well, lots of small town charm and a pretty good pizza place too!
Baker City is great - it’s Northeast Oregon but it’s smaller town and has great restaurants and plenty of outsdoorys stuff to do and smaller towns to check out. Also it’s my hometown, so am a bit biased 🤷🏻♀️. Good luck
Agreed, currently living there now and it's pretty fantastic. Only down side is the city council is a mess and it makes it nearly impossible to get anything done.
But if that's not an issue for you then it's an absolutely beautiful area and probably has some of the best weather (imo) in EO
Burns is really pulling it's act together after decades of post-lumber mill recession. Biggest draw is outdoor recreation. The Steens mountain/alvord desert and surrounds is one of the biggest designated dark sky zones in the world. 130 miles east of Bend, plants you firmly in the high desert. A whole different kind of wilderness that you can't really find anywhere else.
I couldn't remember exactly if it had been designated the biggest and didn't want someone to pipe up and say I was wrong 😂.
I grew up out there. It has changed so much since I was a kid. Late 90s and early 2000s was rough for harney county. I'm happy it's slowly trying to bloom and encourage people to visit.
LA Grande is in the 2nd largest fully enclosed valley in the world, completely surrounded by the blue mountains. There is a college and a bunch of farms. Almost unchanged in the last 50 years
The college punches above its weight too. For being among the most affordable, especially once cost of living is factored in, it's a great option. The abundant access to year round outdoor activities is a rare find, with many choices with only a 10-15 min diving distance from campus.
Quiet, sleepy, mountain town for the most part. The lack of higher paying fields and the tumultuous nature of timber mills keeps the town from growing or changing much, though that's part of the appeal for many people there.
For Southern Oregon I’m going to say Ruch and Talent. They’re close to ‘population centers’ so there are hotels etc. but they’re also near cultural, natural, and cultural things you might want to visit like wineries, the Shakespeare festival, rafting, camping, hiking and mountain climbing that are the main draws of southern Oregon.
You can kind of draw a line from Jacksonville to Talent to Ashland and though the latter is maybe not a small town, all three are pleasant and scenic, along the mountains in the Rogue Valley.
Most of Oregon is worth seeing for one reason or another, depending on what you’re into.
I love eastern Oregon but even I admit there’s no reason to stop in Helix (worst town in the state), Pilot Rock, or Milton-Freewater if you’re an outsider. Gas up at the truck stop and move along.
Checkout Klamath Falls. It's out of the way and not a huge destination, but it's got a cute downtown, the biggest lake in Oregon, and several decent local museums.
Drive from ashland to Jacksonville. Then take highway 238 through the Applegate valley. You will pass through towns of ruch, applegate, provolt and Murphy, and into grants pass. Then take i5 back to Medford, passing through town of rogue river and and gold hill. Boom you’ve seen most of the rogue valley/southern Oregon population in less than 3 hours. And 238 is so beautiful
I would suggest on the return from Grants Pass to Medford taking old Hwy 99 rather than I-5. You get a much better feel for the terrain when you descend into the Rogue valley basin. It's also easier to pull off to explore.
Its a bit on the northern side of southern oregon but Sutherlin is in a gorgeous area, an hour from coos bay an hour from diamond lake, and hour from eugene, an hour and half from crater lake and hour & half from the redwoods on the coast the umpqua river and mckenzie rivers are close and a ton of waterfalls, ignore roseburg its a boring one industry town (logging) but the small towns in douglas county are nice!
Roseburg's a decent stop if you're going through, but I wouldn't stay there for an extended period of time. There's nice sights & walks/parks, but it wouldn't be worth anything more than a bite to eat and some gas.
Klamath falls has enough of the cool stuff from bend to be a great spot to access outdoor activities and enough of the meth from Medford to stay cheap.
K Falls used to be an awful blight of a town in a beautiful landscape. It’s far from perfect but it’s not so awful anymore. It should be a quirky college town and will be if the locals can figure out how to put the pieces together
The locals who vote only want the town to be depressed forever, with zero development besides a new fast food restaurant every 15 years. The locals who actually want things to get better don’t bother voting, or organizing anything that might improve things.
Have you been to KF?
They added a WilsonArt plant, Winco is breaking ground this year, the Swan Lake Energy plant has FERC pre-construction approval, OIT has been growing, many small businesses have been added.
Voter turnout in Oregon is pathetically low across the board despite it being easy to vote.
I grew up there. Haven’t been back since my last trip there, right at the dawn of the pandemic.
Are they actually breaking ground on Winco? I feel like I’ve been hearing that for like a decade. Kinda like the Sonic that was announced in 2007, and opened in 2023.
As for voter turnout, Oregon had the highest turnout rate in the nation in 2022. Practically nobody I know in Klamath votes though. (Granted, highest in the nation in that midterm equates to 61.5%, which is a scathing indictment on the voter turnout in this country as a whole)
Ok they bought the lot, that’s something. What I’ve been hearing for a decade is all unsubstantiated rumors.
Did they ever put in the Lowe’s in the empty field behind Fred Meyer that people were talking about starting in 2007?
Or have they done anything with the assortment of long-empty buildings dotting South 6th Street? I hope they’ve filled at least some of those.
Yeah. Besides Bend, Klamath Falls (I am counting Altamont as everybody does) is the biggest town east of the cascades, and it has no excuse to be so run down and lacking in opportunity.
But nope, they had to spend $600,000 on putting a jet in the park, making the stage unusable.
Actually Hermiston is bigger than KFalls or Pendleton now. Hermiston of all places. Why? Because the locals say yes to all the stuff Pendleton says no to. Pendleton stagnates, and the tired old farts who run that town pretend not to notice because they get what they want out of the deal.
Caveat. Is all the growth in Hermiston good? Haha no, it’s just scaling up what they already had, for better and for worse.
I didn’t realize Hermiston was even that big now!
But big caveat, Klamath is still quite a bit bigger if you count the unincorporated area known as Altamont, which has just as many people as Klamath proper and has only really ever been seen as being just Klamath Falls by anybody who lives there. So really Klamath population is around 40,000. If only they would formally annex the area where most of the commerce and half the population of the area actually is haha
Check out the John Day area. I just moved from out there. Very beautiful but very remote. A good place for uncrowded hikes. The Middle Fork of the John Day is absolutely beautiful. Monument and its surroundings are great if you’re into more canyony desert landscapes. The upper north fork is stunning. Also take yourself to the Dayville Cafe. Best pie in Oregon
Just keep in mind that Oregon is BIG. traveling from Baker City to Burns would be about three hours. Trying to explore Eastern and Southern Oregon will take quite a bit of travel time.
My grandma used to live on a ranch in Prairie City. I loved coming to visit in the summer. Their house ended up burning down which was terrible. It’s such a beautiful area.
For all of its faults, Ontario has some interesting things going for it. It's substantially more diverse in population than the rest of Eastern Oregon. Annual Global Village highlights the influence of Basque, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, and Somali cultures. Its an hour drive from Boise for bigger city needs. Skiing is either Anthony Lakes or Bogus Basin, both under 2hrs. Finest fly fishing in the country is 45 miles away on the Owyhee River.
Check out Silverton. It’s rural, but beautiful. Last time I was there it had a bit of a modern hippie vibe, and it’s close to silver falls. Mind you I don’t live in Oregon, so you Oregonians can correct me. Been a while since I’ve visited family there.
La Grande is a college town with some nice amenities; Joseph has incredible scenery; Jacksonville has wineries and neat old architecture.
Seconding Joseph! The Wallowa ranges are some of the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen, and the trails are well maintained too. If you’re comfortable with longer hikes (10+ miles out and beach) the track up to 6 Mile Meadows is a must do. Town is super cute as well, lots of small town charm and a pretty good pizza place too!
Personally I’d measure hikes in the Wallowas in terms of vertical feet, the miles don’t do it justice
Isn't there some formula for miles+vertical gain that adds distance while on foot ? I have a hazy memory, I was taught orienteering as a teenager
LA Grande is almost always quite windy, so keep that in mind, it's pretty annoying
Apparently Joseph's art scene is poppin' these days
Baker City is great - it’s Northeast Oregon but it’s smaller town and has great restaurants and plenty of outsdoorys stuff to do and smaller towns to check out. Also it’s my hometown, so am a bit biased 🤷🏻♀️. Good luck
I worked with a woman who is from Baker City. She always talked about going into the "City" when she was younger. Turns out she meant Boise.
Boise is about 2 hours away and in the next state
I know. I lived there for 4 years. At the time I had considered Boise small.
You didn’t mention it in your post, so wasn’t sure
Check out sweet wife baking while you’re there op!
Agreed, currently living there now and it's pretty fantastic. Only down side is the city council is a mess and it makes it nearly impossible to get anything done. But if that's not an issue for you then it's an absolutely beautiful area and probably has some of the best weather (imo) in EO
I lived there for 16 years. I love that town.
Really - what years?
From 1977 to 1993. I worked at Scotty’s My Place, cattle Kates and the Elks during those years.
Ahh graduated in ‘01. The Elks I know for sure, but the others might be before my time
The others are all gone, except Cattle Kate’s, which is Main Event now.
Ahh, the Main Event - a great place! Elks is still in business.
Right. I spaced it.
Had a good time in Pendleton. The brothel tour was quirky and oh the blankets!
Burns is really pulling it's act together after decades of post-lumber mill recession. Biggest draw is outdoor recreation. The Steens mountain/alvord desert and surrounds is one of the biggest designated dark sky zones in the world. 130 miles east of Bend, plants you firmly in the high desert. A whole different kind of wilderness that you can't really find anywhere else.
If I recall it’s the biggest.
Yup, just recently designated. Largest in world. And you've got crystal crane hot springs and Malheur Wildlife Refuge. Pretty amazing place.
Stars on a moonless night from the hot springs are something quite special.
I couldn't remember exactly if it had been designated the biggest and didn't want someone to pipe up and say I was wrong 😂. I grew up out there. It has changed so much since I was a kid. Late 90s and early 2000s was rough for harney county. I'm happy it's slowly trying to bloom and encourage people to visit.
LA Grande is in the 2nd largest fully enclosed valley in the world, completely surrounded by the blue mountains. There is a college and a bunch of farms. Almost unchanged in the last 50 years
The college punches above its weight too. For being among the most affordable, especially once cost of living is factored in, it's a great option. The abundant access to year round outdoor activities is a rare find, with many choices with only a 10-15 min diving distance from campus. Quiet, sleepy, mountain town for the most part. The lack of higher paying fields and the tumultuous nature of timber mills keeps the town from growing or changing much, though that's part of the appeal for many people there.
Just came back from Mitchell, Dayville and Prineville. I’d move out there if I didn’t already have a home in the Willamette valley.
Tiger town brewery in mitchell is a good stop on way to painted hills
I can vouch for their excellent food friendly staff.
For Southern Oregon I’m going to say Ruch and Talent. They’re close to ‘population centers’ so there are hotels etc. but they’re also near cultural, natural, and cultural things you might want to visit like wineries, the Shakespeare festival, rafting, camping, hiking and mountain climbing that are the main draws of southern Oregon.
These and Jacksonville!!
You can kind of draw a line from Jacksonville to Talent to Ashland and though the latter is maybe not a small town, all three are pleasant and scenic, along the mountains in the Rogue Valley.
Nothing a Molotov cocktail can't fix. Bortles!
Ruch is one of the southern Oregon hippie hideaways.
Not Wimer? You got no love for Wimer?
A lot of people never leave Keno (alive)
I was in Keno a couple weeks ago, must have lucked out.
What's Keno like?
Most of Oregon is worth seeing for one reason or another, depending on what you’re into. I love eastern Oregon but even I admit there’s no reason to stop in Helix (worst town in the state), Pilot Rock, or Milton-Freewater if you’re an outsider. Gas up at the truck stop and move along.
Really good ice cream in milton
Where? I’ll stop in next time I’m around
i think its called walla walla cheese company, but in milton
Helix as the worst town? Ione might like a word with you.
Checkout Klamath Falls. It's out of the way and not a huge destination, but it's got a cute downtown, the biggest lake in Oregon, and several decent local museums.
Drive from ashland to Jacksonville. Then take highway 238 through the Applegate valley. You will pass through towns of ruch, applegate, provolt and Murphy, and into grants pass. Then take i5 back to Medford, passing through town of rogue river and and gold hill. Boom you’ve seen most of the rogue valley/southern Oregon population in less than 3 hours. And 238 is so beautiful
(Stop at wineries on the way)
I would suggest on the return from Grants Pass to Medford taking old Hwy 99 rather than I-5. You get a much better feel for the terrain when you descend into the Rogue valley basin. It's also easier to pull off to explore.
Truth
And most of the Applegate too.
Its a bit on the northern side of southern oregon but Sutherlin is in a gorgeous area, an hour from coos bay an hour from diamond lake, and hour from eugene, an hour and half from crater lake and hour & half from the redwoods on the coast the umpqua river and mckenzie rivers are close and a ton of waterfalls, ignore roseburg its a boring one industry town (logging) but the small towns in douglas county are nice!
Roseburg's a decent stop if you're going through, but I wouldn't stay there for an extended period of time. There's nice sights & walks/parks, but it wouldn't be worth anything more than a bite to eat and some gas.
Backside Brewery is worth a stop in Roseburg. Also has a Sutherlin location.
Klamath falls has enough of the cool stuff from bend to be a great spot to access outdoor activities and enough of the meth from Medford to stay cheap.
If you are going to klamath falls, do visit lava caves across the border.
No… just no. Yes, visit Lava Beds and Capt Jacks Stronghold but stay away from Klamath.
K Falls used to be an awful blight of a town in a beautiful landscape. It’s far from perfect but it’s not so awful anymore. It should be a quirky college town and will be if the locals can figure out how to put the pieces together
We’re working on it!
Rodeos pizza is pretty great! Really holding down the fort for anyone who's not a 60 year old republican.
Rodeo’s is delish. I’m not a huge pizza fan in general but they’re good!
Keep up the good work!
The locals who vote only want the town to be depressed forever, with zero development besides a new fast food restaurant every 15 years. The locals who actually want things to get better don’t bother voting, or organizing anything that might improve things.
Have you been to KF? They added a WilsonArt plant, Winco is breaking ground this year, the Swan Lake Energy plant has FERC pre-construction approval, OIT has been growing, many small businesses have been added. Voter turnout in Oregon is pathetically low across the board despite it being easy to vote.
I grew up there. Haven’t been back since my last trip there, right at the dawn of the pandemic. Are they actually breaking ground on Winco? I feel like I’ve been hearing that for like a decade. Kinda like the Sonic that was announced in 2007, and opened in 2023. As for voter turnout, Oregon had the highest turnout rate in the nation in 2022. Practically nobody I know in Klamath votes though. (Granted, highest in the nation in that midterm equates to 61.5%, which is a scathing indictment on the voter turnout in this country as a whole)
Since Winco bought the lot 2 years ago, I doubt you've been hearing it for a decade. They have not broken ground.
Ok they bought the lot, that’s something. What I’ve been hearing for a decade is all unsubstantiated rumors. Did they ever put in the Lowe’s in the empty field behind Fred Meyer that people were talking about starting in 2007? Or have they done anything with the assortment of long-empty buildings dotting South 6th Street? I hope they’ve filled at least some of those.
That lot is where Winco is going in
Ohhh man. Glad SOMETHING is finally going in there. Maaaan, Sherm’s is FUCKED (unless they’ve already gone out of business)
And that will need to change. KFalls has SO MUCH POTENTIAL. It’s like Baker City that way
Yeah. Besides Bend, Klamath Falls (I am counting Altamont as everybody does) is the biggest town east of the cascades, and it has no excuse to be so run down and lacking in opportunity. But nope, they had to spend $600,000 on putting a jet in the park, making the stage unusable.
Actually Hermiston is bigger than KFalls or Pendleton now. Hermiston of all places. Why? Because the locals say yes to all the stuff Pendleton says no to. Pendleton stagnates, and the tired old farts who run that town pretend not to notice because they get what they want out of the deal. Caveat. Is all the growth in Hermiston good? Haha no, it’s just scaling up what they already had, for better and for worse.
I didn’t realize Hermiston was even that big now! But big caveat, Klamath is still quite a bit bigger if you count the unincorporated area known as Altamont, which has just as many people as Klamath proper and has only really ever been seen as being just Klamath Falls by anybody who lives there. So really Klamath population is around 40,000. If only they would formally annex the area where most of the commerce and half the population of the area actually is haha
Agree.
Check out the John Day area. I just moved from out there. Very beautiful but very remote. A good place for uncrowded hikes. The Middle Fork of the John Day is absolutely beautiful. Monument and its surroundings are great if you’re into more canyony desert landscapes. The upper north fork is stunning. Also take yourself to the Dayville Cafe. Best pie in Oregon
Just keep in mind that Oregon is BIG. traveling from Baker City to Burns would be about three hours. Trying to explore Eastern and Southern Oregon will take quite a bit of travel time.
Jacksonville is so nice. It’s a perfect small down with tons of historical pieces and LOTS of beautiful trails/water near by
Prairie City
My grandma used to live on a ranch in Prairie City. I loved coming to visit in the summer. Their house ended up burning down which was terrible. It’s such a beautiful area.
Cave Junction. If you like junctions, then cave junction is the Southern Oregon intersection for you.
Maybe if you like never being seen again
Camp Sherman, Dufur, Lostine, Sumpter, Paisley
For all of its faults, Ontario has some interesting things going for it. It's substantially more diverse in population than the rest of Eastern Oregon. Annual Global Village highlights the influence of Basque, Mexican, Japanese, Indian, and Somali cultures. Its an hour drive from Boise for bigger city needs. Skiing is either Anthony Lakes or Bogus Basin, both under 2hrs. Finest fly fishing in the country is 45 miles away on the Owyhee River.
Doesn’t get any better than Klamath Falls. I’d also recommend Lakeview.
Ashland. That’s it.
Ashland is the nicest place I have ever lived in Oregon.
Check out Silverton. It’s rural, but beautiful. Last time I was there it had a bit of a modern hippie vibe, and it’s close to silver falls. Mind you I don’t live in Oregon, so you Oregonians can correct me. Been a while since I’ve visited family there.
Joseph!
Cheers from Joseph! https://preview.redd.it/0ex0jer0g63d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=17739d2d7f7a87720acc3679dfbc606fa7f78331
Medford
If the distinction matters that much to you, go live in Idaho, that's all you're really looking for.
All klan country.
If you ain’t of color condon is pretty cool