Newcomer's Handbook for Moving to and Living in Portland: Including Vancouver, Gresham, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Tigard, and Wilsonville

by Geon, Bryan

  Extended-Stay Options

  It could take you a few weeks or months to find a perfect (or at any rate a permanent) home. If you anticipate spending more than a week or two on your home search, one of the most convenient arrangements is an extended-stay hotel. These facilities, sometimes called corporate apartments, offer furnished suites with kitchens by the day, week, or month. Some extended-stay options in Portland include:

  BridgeStreet Worldwide, 800-278-7338, www.bridgestreet.com, operates three locations in the Pearl District, one location downtown, two locations in Gresham, and two locations in Washington County.

  Extended Stay Hotels, 800-804-3724, www.extendedstayamerica.com, has six locations in the metro area.

  Larkspur Landing Hillsboro, 3133 NE Shute Rd, Hillsboro, 503-681-2121, www.larkspurlanding.com/hotels/hillsboro/

  Oakwood Worldwide, 877-902-0832, www.oakwood.com, has nearly some three dozen furnished apartments lin and around Portland.

  Park Lane Suites, 809 SW King Ave, 503-226-6288, 800-532-9543, www.parklanesuites.com, offers an extended-stay discount.

  Residence Inn by Marriott, 888-236-2427, www.residenceinn.com, has eight locations in the greater Portland area.

  Suite America, 503-443-2033, 800-917-1092, www. suiteamerica.com, has furnished apartments in nearly 30 locations in and around Portland.

  A potentially less expensive option is a sublet or short-term lease. In this type of arrangement, you rent or sublease all or part of a house, condo, or apartment for several weeks to several months while the owner or renter is away. Sublets aren’t always furnished, and you would be very lucky to find one where the sublease term perfectly matches the dates for which you need lodgings, but when they work out subleases can be a great choice. To find sublets, look on Craigslist (portland.craigslist.org/sub/) or check out the classifieds in Willamette Week. Some rental property management companies and apartment complexes may offer short-term rentals, although such rentals are typically unfurnished. In 2014, the city of Portland legalized short-term and vacation rentals through Airbnb (www.airbnb.com), through which hundreds of Portland residents had already been offering rooms or houses on an unofficial (read: technically illegal) basis.

  Quick Getaways

  Once you’ve settled in to Portland, you’ll inevitably want to explore your surroundings. After all, you didn’t move to one of the most beautiful regions in the world just so you could spend all your time in the city, did you? Within a few hours’ drive (or in some cases, a bus, train, and/or ferry ride) you’ll find volcanic peaks, raging rivers, dense forests, high desert plateaus, an atmospheric coastline, cosmopolitan cities, and some of the richest farmland in America. It really doesn’t matter which direction you go; anywhere in the region, you’re bound to encounter interesting destinations and some beautiful scenery.

  For general Oregon travel information, suggested destinations, an accommodation guide, and much, much more, call Travel Oregon at 800-547-7842 or visit their comprehensive website at www.traveloregon.com. The Washington State Tourism Office (800-544-1800, www.experiencewa.com) is equally helpful; thankfully, it shelved its terrifying “Say WA” tourism campaign in 2006 in favor of “Experience Washington.” The current slogan, evidently designed to minimize ambiguity, is “Washington. The State.” For information on some of Oregon’s natural areas, scan the Greenspace chapter of this book.

  Mount Hood and the Northern Oregon Cascades

  Mount Hood, Portland’s iconic backdrop (at least on a clear day), is the city’s favorite year-round destination for outdoor recreation. While thousands of people summit the 11,240-foot glaciated peak every year—a feat that requires technical mountaineering skills and a fair amount of fortitude—the vast majority of visitors come to ski or snowboard, to hike, to mountain bike, or just to sightsee and enjoy the mountain air. The mountain’s southwest slopes are only an hour from Portland.

  The most direct route to the mountain is US Highway 26 from Gresham. (Unless you’re coming from the southeast part of the metro area, it’s usually fastest to take Interstate 84 east to Exit 16, then head south on NE 238th/242nd to Burnside, and take Burnside southeast to US 26.) Highway 26 climbs gently past ornamental plant nurseries, Christmas tree farms, and stands of dense forest, and through the towns of Sandy, Brightwood, Welches, Zigzag, and Rhododendron, until it reaches the outpost of Government Camp at 3500 feet. The main commercial center on the mountain, Government Camp offers ski rentals, grocery stores, a gas station, restaurants, a brewpub, and various overnight accommodation options. Government Camp is a good base for hiking and skiing—Mount Hood Skibowl is directly across the highway—but it’s more of a convenient way station than a destination in itself, a recent condo boom notwithstanding.

  From Government Camp, a six-mile road winds tortuously uphill to Timberline Lodge (800-547-1406, www.timberlinelodge.com) and its ski area (which is open almost all year). If the 1930s-vintage lodge looks familiar, you may have already seen it in the 1980 horror film The Shining. (Sweet dreams, kids.) The lodge’s name is derived from its location at timberline on Mount Hood, at 6,600 feet above sea level; the slopes above are virtually devoid of trees, except for a few gnarled old specimens. On a clear day, it feels as if you could reach out and touch the summit of the mountain, although it’s actually nearly a mile higher.

  Back at Government Camp, US 26 continues east and south over two 4,000-foot passes toward dry Central Oregon (see below). A few miles east of Government Camp, State Highway 35 branches off and loops around the east side of Mount Hood and down the Hood River Valley (see below). A network of forest roads (many of them unpaved) lead to other destinations around Mount Hood, including picture-postcard-pretty Lost Lake (541-386-6366, www.lostlakeresort.org) on the mountain’s north side; Cooper Spur on the east side, from where it is possible in late summer to hike to a promontory overlooking Eliot Glacier at an elevation of 8,700 feet; and the Salmon River, upstream from Welches, which flows out of the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness. An extensive zone surrounding Mount Hood’s summit is also a designated wilderness area, as is the Badger Creek Wilderness east of the mountain and the newly created Roaring River Wilderness to the southwest.

  Many of the forest trails around Mount Hood (including mountain bike trails and Nordic ski routes) depart directly from US 26 or Highway 35, but the ease of access from Portland ensures that these trails are crowded on good-weather weekends. The farther you get from the main highways, however, the fewer people you are likely to encounter; if you actually get out and hike more than a few miles it’s possible to find solitude even in mid-summer. If you’d like to spend a bit more time on the mountain, there are plenty of inexpensive forest service campgrounds for tent or trailer camping; backpackers will find an abundance of backcountry campsites, especially in designated wilderness areas. For shelter under a roof, you can stay in one of several hotels, or rent a cabin in Government Camp or in one of the communities on the mountain’s west side.

  South of Mount Hood, the Cascade Mountains are a patchwork of clear cuts, stands of second-growth timber, and some small swaths of remnant old growth, primarily in roadless and wilderness areas. State Highway 224 winds from Estacada up the scenic valley of the Clackamas River; the river drainage harbors destinations like the Bull of the Woods Wilderness and Bagby Hot Springs (which for many years was plagued by frequent parking-lot break-ins, although the situation has improved in recent years). The adjacent Opal Creek area, east of Salem, harbors one of the finest remaining stands of old-growth forest in the state. The other main road to penetrate this region, State Highway 22, runs east from Salem past Detroit Lake, a reservoir that is a popular destination for boaters. Various byways and forest roads connect the two main roads and lead to out-of-the-way attractions like Breitenbush Hot Springs (503-854-3320, www.breitenbush.com) and Olallie Lake. At the crest of the range looms Oregon’s second-highest peak, Mount Jefferson; the surrounding area, including such beauty spots as Jefferson Park (a lake-dotted meadow basin near timberline)
and the curiously shaped peak of Three Fingered Jack, is part of the Mount Jefferson Wilderness, where motorized vehicles are prohibited.

  Much of the Mount Hood region lies within Clackamas County; for trip ideas, contact the county tourism department, Oregon’s Mt. Hood Territory (503-655-8490, 800-424-3002, www.mthoodterritory.com).

  The Columbia River Gorge and the Hood River Valley

  Traffic permitting, you can drive east from downtown Portland on Interstate 84 and, within half an hour, find yourself amid the splendor of the Columbia River Gorge. Here, the Columbia River forces a passage westward through the Cascades, through a palisade of basalt cliffs that tower hundreds or thousands of feet above the river. The Gorge isn’t wilderness—multiple dams shackle the Columbia, major highways and railroad tracks run along both shores, and several towns and small cities perch on the banks—but it is nonetheless a spectacular place.

  Interstate 84 runs the length of the Gorge on the south side of the river, but by far the best sightseeing route is the Historic Columbia River Highway, which branches off from the interstate at Exit 17 in Troutdale and climbs through the town of Corbett to historic Vista House (www.vistahouse.com) at Crown Point, a promontory high above the river that offers a spectacular view eastward (upriver). From Crown Point, the highway descends through mossy forest, past several spectacular waterfalls, including two-stage, 620-foot Multnomah Falls, the state’s biggest natural tourist draw. The area at the base of the falls can get very crowded on summer weekends, when tour buses disgorge their passengers to gawk at the spectacle, but the parking lot off the historic highway is often nearly deserted on winter weekdays. (A separate parking area, accessible from Interstate 84, attracts passing motorists all year.) A word of warning about parking near the waterfalls: these parking areas are notorious sites for car prowls (break-ins), so be sure to lock your car and keep all “attractive” possessions out of sight. Nearby Oneonta Gorge is a narrow, rock-bound chasm that leads to yet another waterfall. Many more waterfalls are accessible by trail only, as are the most spectacular views, which are available from Angel’s Rest (a 4-mile roundtrip hike from the historic highway) and other similar clifftop perches on both sides of the Gorge.

  Take a break from natural splendor at Bonneville Dam (541-374-8820, www.nwp.usace.army.mil/Locations/ColumbiaRiver/Bonneville.aspx) and admire the engineering feats that inspired Woody Guthrie. The dam’s visitor center and fish ladder (with viewing window) are generally open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and tours of the power plant are sometimes offered, but heightened security can cause closures on short notice; call or visit the website before scheduling a visit. Upstream of the dam, at the town of Cascade Locks (www.cascadelocks.net), the Bridge of the Gods leads to the Washington side of the Gorge. (The Pacific Crest Trail also crosses the river on this bridge.) Washington State Highway 14 runs along the north bank of the river for the length of the Gorge, and makes a good alternate or return route. The Washington side includes such attractions as Beacon Rock State Park, several hot springs resorts, and Skamania Lodge (509-427-7700, www.skamania.com), a resort outside Stevenson.

  Continuing eastward on the Oregon side, as you approach Hood River (www.hoodriver.org) the climate quickly becomes noticeably drier, with oaks and ponderosa pines replacing the Douglas firs that cling to the mountainsides further west. Hood River, long a small regional commercial center and world-class windsurfing/kiteboarding destination, has recently boomed, and housing appreciation rates have been among the highest in the state. It’s easy to see why—with Mount Hood to the south and the Columbia River and Mount Adams to the north, with abundant outdoor recreational opportunities, and with substantially less rain than Portland, it would be surprising if the place didn’t boom. While not all locals are happy about Hood River’s changing demographics, the change has led to the opening of several excellent (albeit spendy) restaurants in the historic, hilly downtown. At just over an hour from Portland, Hood River is a wonderful destination for a weekend getaway; try one of the many bed and breakfasts in town or across the Columbia in White Salmon, Washington.

  From Hood River, you have a range of options for continuing your tour. You can turn south through the scenic Hood River Valley, a major fruit-growing region. The valley is especially beautiful in spring, when the apple, pear, and cherry orchards are in bloom (with a snow-covered Mount Hood looming picturesquely behind), and during the late summer and fall harvest, when fruit stands and pumpkin patches open for visitors. You can follow the so-called Fruit Loop (www.hoodriverfruitloop.com), and so start and end at Hood River, or continue up the valley on Highway 35, pass over the shoulder of Mount Hood, and return to Portland via US Highway 26. You can head north toward Mount Adams country and the hamlet of Trout Lake (see Washington State, below). Or you can continue eastward through the Gorge into an increasingly arid landscape.

  If you choose to continue upstream along the Columbia from Hood River, you will pass scenic wonders like the Nature Conservancy’s Tom McCall Preserve, which puts on a colorful show of wildflowers in April and May. At The Dalles (www.thedalleschamber.com), once a major stopover on the Oregon Trail, visit the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center (541-296-8600, www.gorgediscovery.org). About 24 miles east of The Dalles, on the Washington side, stands the peculiar, castle-like Maryhill Museum of Art (509-773-3733, www.maryhillmuseum.org). Built in the nineteen-teens by Quaker entrepreneur Sam Hill (who was not the basis for the expression, “What in the sam hill?”), the museum now houses an eclectic collection of European, American, and Native American art, including a major assemblage of Auguste Rodin sculptures and watercolors. Nearby, don’t miss the full-size replica of Stonehenge, built on a bluff by Sam Hill as a memorial to soldiers who lost their lives in World War I. This part of the Gorge has a favorable climate for growing wine grapes, and a number of wineries have opened in recent years.

  Much of the Gorge is protected within the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (541-308-1700, www.fs.usda.gov/crgnsa). For general tourism information, contact the Columbia River Gorge Visitors Association (www.crgva.org).

  The Oregon Coast

  Less than 90 minutes to the west of downtown Portland (as always, traffic permitting), the often fog-bound beaches and rugged headlands of Oregon’s Pacific Ocean coastline beckon. The drive west on US 26 climbs over the low crest of the Coast Range—Saddle Mountain State Natural Area (www.oregonstateparks.org) encompasses the highest point in the northern Coast Range and makes a good detour on a clear day—and then leads through damp mossy valleys toward the sea. Eventually, Highway 26 dead-ends at US Highway 101, which runs the length of the Oregon Coast (and almost the entire length of the West Coast of the United States, in case you feel like heading to L.A.). Be aware that 101 is not a fast road; it has frequent hills, there are only two lanes for most of its length, and lumbering recreational vehicle traffic can be a nightmare during the summer. A scenic alternative to Route 26 is State Highway 6, which winds through the Tillamook State Forest to the bayside town of Tillamook (see below).

  Seaside (www.seasideor.com), the first town to the north, has a bit of a carnival atmosphere, with a busy waterside promenade, several factory outlet stores, and plenty of saltwater taffy vendors. To the south, artsier Cannon Beach (www.cannonbeach.org) offers a long stretch of sand, with locally iconic Haystack Rock accessible at low tide. Between these two towns, scenic Ecola State Park (www.oregonstateparks.org) beckons visitors with isolated beaches, tidepools, and the rocky cliffs of Tillamook Head.

  The short stretch of Highway 101 north of Seaside leads through the quiet, affluent resort town of Gearhart to Fort Stevens State Park (www.oregonstateparks.org) and its bike paths, crumbling military fortifications, swimmable lake, and excellent beach (complete with a small shipwreck) just south of the mouth of the Columbia River. Nearby Fort Clatsop (www.nps.gov/lewi/planyourvisit/fortclatsop.htm) marks the spot where Lewis and Clark passed the winter of 1805–06 (moaning all the while in their journals about the incessant rainfall). The city
of Astoria (503-325-6311, 800-875-6807, www.oldoregon.com) lies just upriver from the mouth of the Columbia. This historic, quirky, and slightly gritty (yet generally attractive) waterfront town has a vibrant Scandinavian heritage—there are still Finnish saunas in Astoria—and a strong maritime flavor, as the exhibits in the Columbia River Maritime Museum (503-325-2323, www.crmm.org) attest. Victorian homes on steep hillsides are reminiscent of San Francisco homes (but with bigger lots and smaller price tags), and on (infrequent) clear days there is a magnificent view from the Astoria Column, perched on the city’s highest hill. The city has seen a recent boom in good restaurants and boutique hotels.

  From Astoria, you can loop back to Portland via Highway 30 along the Columbia River, or continue north over the Astoria-Megler Bridge to the beaches of the southern Washington coast. The community of Long Beach (360-642-2400, 800-451-2542, www.funbeach.com) is reputed to have the longest drivable beach in the world; this claim leaves unanswered the question of why you would want to drive 17 miles down a beach, avoiding volleyball players and giant chunks of driftwood, and hoping you don’t get stuck in the sand with the tide advancing.

  If, instead of heading north from Seaside, you choose to drive south from Cannon Beach, you’ll pass through the small vacation communities of Arch Cape and Manzanita on your way to Tillamook, the state’s cheese capital. The Tillamook Creamery (503-815-1300, 800-542-7290, www.tillamook.com), although not the blockbuster experience it once was, is still one of the most popular destinations on the coast, and the gift shop sells cheddar cheese curds. (It’s not all about cheese though; you might want to visit the ice cream counter, the only location that stocks every flavor of Tillamook Ice Cream, and will even serve them all up to you at once in a multi-scoop bowl.) From Tillamook, take the Three Capes Scenic Route past Capes Meares, Lookout, and Kiwanda as an alternative to busy Highway 101.