These Most Unusual Experiences in Oregon
There are breathtaking natural wonders and peculiar attractions that some locals don’t even know about, and there are even more interesting gems that have become a source of pride for the Beaver State, including the country’s deepest lake and largest independent book store, and the world’s smallest park. Let find out These Most Unusual Experiences in Oregon below.
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These Most Unusual Experiences in Oregon
Hang out with some dinosaurs
Nestled off highway sits Oregon’s very own Jurassic Park. Prehistoric Gardens was established in 1955 and offers weary road trippers a reprieve and excuse to gawk at size accurate dinosaur sculptures.
The attraction’s late creator, Ernest Nelson, constructed 23 concrete reptiles in a 30 years span, with his most impressive being a Brachiosaurus, which measures 86 feet long and 46 feet tall. The dinos are scattered along a foliage lined coastal trail that truly makes visitors feel like they’ve just stepped through a time machine.
Spend the night in a treehouse
The Out & About Treehouse Treesort in Cave Junction is your inner kid’s dream: it’s literally a resort of treehouses. Located near the redwood forests of Oregon, this hidden gem offers over a dozen different options of accommodation suspended in the trees that will make you squeal in delight. And if that’s not exciting enough, Out & About also offers classes on how to construct your own arboreal abode. Its website boasts that it’s the only place in the world that offers avocational instruction in basic engineering, design, and construction methods for building treehouses. That is once of These Most Unusual Experiences in Oregon.
Enchanted Forest Theme Park
The Enchanted Forest is a special place to those who grew up in the Portland and Salem areas. The theme park, which began as creator Roger Tofte’s passion project, took seven years of arduous work and spending literally every last penny to build before opening in 1971.
Since then, it’s become a wooded place of whimsy that features original, hand crafted attractions like Storybook Lane and Tofteville Western Town, rides like the ice mountain bobsled roller coaster and big timber log ride, and plenty of adventure for kiddos. Oh yeah, and you can climb inside a witch’s mouth and slide down her hair.
Powell’s City of Books
Powell’s City of Books is the largest independent bookstore in the. Powell’s is an iconic Portland landmark, with rows of new, used, eclectic, rare, and out of print books spanning a multi-level building that occupies an entire city block. And despite the downturn of brick and mortar bookstores, Powell’s has maintained its stature among Portlanders, thanks to the city’s burgeoning love for books.
Visit a lake that disappears in the summer
Near Sisters in the heart of the Cascade Mountains is a mysterious lake that seems to disappear every summer. If you visit in the winter, you’ll see the Lost Lake in its 79 acre watery splendor, however, by spring, when the streams and creeks slow to a trickle, the mountain basin’s contents begin to drain into a hole.
By summer, what was once a bountiful lake mere months ago transforms into a grassy meadow. Geologists believe this phenomenon is caused by a collapsed lava tube created during a period of intense volcanic activity over 12,000 years ago. That is once of These Most Unusual Experiences in Oregon.
Check out some truly bizarre art
The Freakybuttrue Peculiarium is the epitome of Keep Portland Weird. The shop and art space was established in 1967 by local explorer Conrad Talmadge Elwood, and his love for all things bizarre has become one of the city’s strangest hidden gems. The Peculiarium offers exhibits like a nightmare dollhouse, alien autopsy, and a trip inside a zombie’s brain. In the gift shop, visitors are greeted by a Bigfoot statue and can sift through pop artifacts, gag toys, and freaky specimens. Photography is encouraged, so make sure to bring your camera or, more realistically, phone to document your surely one of a kind experience.
Crater Lake, Oregon
Crater Lake National Park is a must see destination in the Pacific Northwest and for good reason. The color of the water is jaw dropping, and the views can’t be beaten. The lake sits in the caldera of Mount Mazama a volcano that exploded with a force 42 times greater than Mount St. Helens almost 8,000 years ago.
The heat’s intensity completely sealed the bottom of the caldera, creating a basin that turned into a pristine lake over thousands of years. The water in Crater Lake is some of the clearest in the world, and it’s the deepest lake in the whole country. That is once of These Most Unusual Experiences in Oregon.
