Tasty Pot is a chain restaurant that specializes in Taiwanese hot pot dishes. It originated from Taiwan, but has expanded to North America with multiple locations across US on both East and West coast. It also has a restaurant located in Canada. Tasty Pot has recently expanded to Oregon and opened a new location at Beaverton, thus we decided to give it a try.
We got to Tasty Pot at Beaverton around 1PM in the afternoon. The restaurant was not entirely full but was still crowded. The waitress politely took us to an open table and gave us the menu. On the menu, there were 12 different hot pot dishes with 3 different prices. The cheapest was $14 and the most expensive one with lobster was $18. The expensive hot pot was also served with a larger pot. We ordered Beef and Curry hot pot and chose rice and black tea.
After about 5 minutes, the hot pot was delivered to us. The hot pot plate was quite unique and detailed. It definitely looked different from the one at boiling point. In addition, we could hardly spot the fire underneath the pot.
The Curry hot pot had very similar ingredient as the one at Boiling Point with fish balls, beef, imitated crab meat, cabbage, etc. The difference was that there was a raw egg placed in here and the curry taste though was much lighter. The Beef hot pot was similar to the one at Boiling Point as well, but less spicy. The additional ingredient in the Beef hot pot includes clam and taro. One thing that was different at Tasty pot was that there was a tomato in all the hot pot dishes.
Tasty Pot also served bubble tea as A-Cha brand. We did not order it however as we already got black tea from the lunch meal.
Overall, Tasty Pot was not bad and had the essentials of Taiwanese hot pot dish. Since it has a restaurant located in Oregon and Oregon does not have sales tax, we no longer need to drive 3 hours to go to Seattle to enjoy Taiwanese hot pot.
Valley of Fire State Park is the first state park in Nevada. It is located an hour East of Las Vegas and very close to Lake Mead. Valley of Fire State Park is not as famous as Red Rock Canyon National Park, but it does offer an amazing view of cool land formation just like Red Rock National Park. Valley of Fire State Park is a very popular park for local people. When we were at Las Vegas last time, Valley of Fire State Park was the place the the taxi driver highly recommend.
As we were visiting Death Valley National Park, we had more time on our hand and decided to check out Valley of Fire State Park. We got to the entrance of the park around 9AM in the morning. The entrance fee was $10 for the day. The first place we stopped at was at the Bee Hives. There wasn't any trails here, but it was a great spot for photography. We had a full view of the red rocks around us and there were many special and cool rocks with holes that we could use as frames to take pictures with.
The next place that we wanted to visit is the famous Fire Wave trail. As we were driving on the road, we saw a group of Bighorn Sheep on the side of the road! What are the chances? It was amazing to see these sheep and they were eating and crossing the road. We did not dare to get off the car to get close to them because we were worried that they might get aggressive. We really loved that fact that we could see wild animals at Valley of Fire State Park.
Fire Wave trail was an amazing trail and we loved the color of the rock along the trail. We enjoyed it so much that we actually get wondered off the trail a bit without knowing it. The next trial we did was White Domes trail. This was another wonderful trail with its own uniqueness to it. It also had beautiful colors on the rock and we could not get our eyes off from it.
Then we drove to Fire Canyon view point. From the view point, we could see the land formation of the red rocks from the top. We could see that the bottom of the rocks had white color, but it became red at the top. We could even see the clear cut line between red and white color. While we were there, it was extremely quiet and felt like a zen moment.
The last trail we did was the Mouse Tank trail, or the Petroglyph Canyon trail. This was the trail with petroglyphs from the primitives on the rocks along the trail. It was a wonderful experience to see these petroglyphs.
It was a great experience visiting Valley of Fire State Park. We were so excited and happy that we visited this place. In fact, we actually think that Valley of Fire State Park is more interesting than Death Valley National Park. Thus we highly recommend to visit Valley of Fire State Park when time permits!
Mouse Tank trail is one of the first hiking trail after driving pass Valley of Fire State Park. The trail is essentially composed of red sand and all the rocks on the side of the trail are red as well. Most importantly, the most interesting part of Mouse Tank trail is that there are petroglyphs on the rock from the primitives who used to live in this area. Most of the petroglyphs are still kept in great shape for people to study and look at.
The trail itself is only about 0.8 miles round trip. It is rather short, but interesting. As we started the hike, we could see all the red sand on the trail. The color of the red sand was beautiful and looked like clay to us.
At the beginning of the trail, there was also a board showing many of the common petroglyph symbols that we would see along the trail and the board also stated the possible translation of each symbols. We took a photo of the board to see we could translate the petroglyph when we see it.
As we hiked into the canyon, we started to see the first rock with petroglyph symbols. The symbols were carved on the rock wall that has black stain on it. The symbol was kept in great shape and we could still clearly see what the symbol is. There were symbols for the sun, rain, people, and some strange bat like human creature. We were thinking that maybe the primitives were trying to indicate some alien like creature with that bat like symbol.
Then we walked further in, we saw even more symbols carved along the rock wall. There were just so many and it was so exciting to see these historic carvings. Walking on the red sandy trail and seeing these ancient petroglyphs made us feel like archaeologists! It was an amazing experience to have!
At the end of the trail was where Mouse Tank was. Mouse Tank was like a water tank in between the rocks and never got drained. We imagined that the primitive people could have used this water tank to preserve water and use it for later.
Overall, we highly recommend visiting Mouse Tank trail to get a great experience with petroglyphs. It was so wonderful to see the left over of the primitives and trying to translate these symbols were very fun as well.
White Domes Trails is located at Valley of Fire State Park in the state of Nevada. The trail head is located at the end of Mouse Tank Road, or White Domes Road. The road sign was not very clear on the name of the road. The trail itself is about 1.4 miles long and it is a loop that loops back to the parking lot. The trail itself is quite easy with a descent at the beginning of the trail to head down the canyon. The sand on the rock can sometimes make the trail slippery so extra caution is advised.
We got to White Domes Trail around 11AM. The parking lot is about half full. As we approached the trail head, we saw a group of people on top of the rock on the side. There were even small kids among the group. It is quite dangerous to do such thing as these people seemed to be amateurs without any proper gears.
The beginning of the trail is a sandy trail and our foot simply sunk in for every step that we took. It was difficult to walk on, but got better later on the trail. We also saw some elderly people hiking on the trail taking every step down the canyon cautiously. The view from the top of the trail looking down the canyon was beautiful. The color on the rock was magnificent with soft purple highlights. These rocks simply look like a loaf of taro flavored bread.
As we got down to the bottom of the canyon, we saw even more weird shaped rocks. Some rocks look like a turtle coming out of the cliff. Other rocks have a shape of a tiger resting on the rock.
As we hiked further in, we reached the path that went between vertical cliffs. It was an awesome land formation and we were excited to take several photos here. We never had the chance to see such land formation in the Northwest.
The trail then looped around into an open field and we could see the open field on the far side and all the red rocks. The view was magnificent. There were also many rocks with large holes for people to sit in. These holes were as large as a full adult and we could lay down and sleep in there.
White Domes trail was quite an awesome experience and we highly recommend doing this hike when visiting Valley of Fire State Park.
Fire Wave Trail is the most popular hiking trail at Valley of Fire State Park in Nevada. The trail is only about 1.5 miles round trip with no elevation gain. As the name of the trail suggests, the trail takes the hiker through a trail with lot of wavy sand stones with red color. The trail is about 10 minutes from Valley of Fire Visitor Center and the parking lot is large enough to accommodate about 50 cars.
We got to Fire Wave Trail around 10AM in the morning and there was only few cars there. We started the hike by kept walking towards West, but shortly after we realized that we were off the trail. It was a bit hard to tell where the trail was in the beginning due to the sandy path and the lack of markers. The shrubs that was spread on the ground also made it hard to know which route is the correct path. Thanks to Google Map with GPS, we were able to see the trail on the map and able to get back on the trail.
The first part of the trail was sandy, but once we got around the large rock, the trail was on the rock. We could start seeing the red colored wavy rock. It was very beautiful. In addition, it was also very quiet on the trail. We could not hear anything other than the wind.
As we approached to the end of the trail, we started to see the infamous fire wave rock. From afar, it looked like a taro pastry dessert. The color of the rock was not a bright red color. It was more like soft red with a tad of purple highlight in between. It had a shape of an ice cream scoop, which was very interesting.
Other than that, there was another big round rock on the side. That rock simply looked like a cinnamon roll. As we looked at these rock, it was making us hungry.
We saw many people sitting on the rock enjoying food. We also climbed to the top of the fire wave rock to take an awesome photo with us standing on the very top. It was very easy to climb, but do need to be cautious not to fall on the right side where the vertical drop is.
Fire Wave Trail was one of the most interesting hike we have done. The vibrant color of rocks that we see on the trail was simply amazing. The hike was also very easy and suitable for kids and senior to walk on. As we got back to the parking lot, there were also people asking about the difficulty of the trail and we simply told them not to worry.
Death Valley National Park is one of the most famous National Park in North America. The National Park is split among Nevada and California, with most parts in California. Death Valley National Park is also known to have the lowest point in North America at Bad Water Basin and has excessive heat during the summer time. Other than being hot, Death Valley National Park is a popular place for stargazers since it is known to be the darkest place in North America and has won the Dark Sky award.
We visited Death Valley National Park over the winter holiday as the temperature would not be too high like summer. The entrance fee to Death Valley National Park is 30 dollars for a week. There was not a cheaper option for day use unfortunately. Also, the fee can be collected at the automated paying machine without going to the visitor center. Driving through Death Valley National Park was quite an interesting trip to see pretty much desert on the side of road.
We went to Zabriskie Point the first thing in the morning before the sunrise. The color of the sky was a beauty and the landscape of the badlands was breath taking. We then went to Bad Water Basin to checkout the lowest place in North America. The reflecting surface on the salt flat was unexpectedly amazing!
We then went to Visitor's Center at Furnace Creek to take a break and grab some food to eat. Afterwards, we went to Harmony Borax Work that was only a mile North of Visitor's Center. Harmony Borax Work used to be a factory manufacturing borax and shipped borax to California for use. It has closed down for a long time, but the remain was still there. This would have been a perfect place to take Milky Way photos due to its open sky and many objects could be used as the foreground.
After that, we went to Mesquite Sand Dunes. This was the only place in Death Valley National Park with sand dunes. We have never seen sand dunes before, thus it was a pretty cool experience for us to trek on sand dunes.
The last stop for us at Death Valley is at Dante's View. Dante's View is at the top of the mountain with elevation of nearly 1700m. It can be reached easily via car as there is a road leading up to it. Dante's View overlooks the entire Bad Water Basin of Death Valley. The sunrise here would have been magnificent as well. One thing to note that is the road is very narrow with sharp turns. Thus extra caution is advised.
In general, we loved Death Valley National Park. The water at the Bad Water Basin salt flat that created the reflecting surface was an unexpected pleasant surprise. The only unfortunate park was that the weather was mostly cloudy and we could not see any milky way. Perhaps we will have better luck next time!
Bad Water Basin is the heart of Death Valley National Park. It is 83 meters below sea level, which is the lowest point in North America. During the summer, its temperature can be as high as 47 degrees Celsius. Thus this place is known as the Death Valley, where there is really not much that survives down here. During the winter season, it does attract tourist to visit this place to see the salt flat and the wondrous landscape.
The Bad Water Basin is simply off the Bad Water Basin Road. We got there around 9AM in the morning. When we stepped off the car, we could see lot of white salt on the ground. There was a ton of them! Salt was everywhere! Right above the parking lot on the cliff wall, there was a sign indicating where the sea level is.
We stepped onto the board walk and there were board signs with information showing that there were water around this area all year long and created a small ecosystem down here. The water all came from the melted snow in the mountains nearby. However, due to the rise in temperature and decrease in precipitation of 2 inches a year, the pond has shrunk quite a bit. The wooden board walk is to prevent people from stepping onto the fragile ecosystem.
Once we stepped off the board walk, we walked towards the salt flat. There was so much white salt! We continued down the path and reached the salt flat. We were surprised that there were large amount of water on the salt flat. Since the salt underneath the water is clear white crystal, it created a perfect reflecting mirror. It was just beautiful!
We were very lucky to encounter the water here at Bad Water Basin as the precipitation is very low. The downside is that in exchange of seeing water here, the sky was cloudy and we would not be able to see the milky way at night.
While we were taking photos on the salt flat reflecting surface, we also saw an Instagram celebrities taking selfies and doing live broadcast. It was quite interesting to see her doing model like dancing moves on the salt flat.
Overall, we were quite excited and had a lot of fun at Bad Water Basin. Seeing the water on the salt flat was definitely an awesome experience to see a huge reflection of the mountains nearby! This is definitely a must visit place at Death Valley National Park.
Mesquite Sand Dunes is located within Death Valley National Park and it is the only place that has sand dunes within the park. It is about 30 minutes North of Furnace Creek visitor center and easily accessible. The sand at Mesquite Sand Dunes is very thin and thus attracts tourists to come visit.
We got to Mesquite Sand Dunes around noon and there was already a lot of people. It did not have a large parking lot, but we were lucky to find a parking space very quickly. Mesquite Sand Dunes occupied a much larger area than we thought. It took us a long time to hike all the way to the center of the sand dunes.
It was also quite difficult to hike on the sand. Especially when hiking uphill on the sand dunes, our feet would sink in and slip down a little. By walking on side ways, it made going uphill a bit easier.
On the information board, it indicated the reason why this was the only place with sand dunes. In order to create sand dunes, the wind must carry the sand to here and also need to have conditions to trap the sand here. Mesquite Sand Dunes was located in the middle of the valley surrounded by mountains, and thus trapped the sand here.
We hiked for a while and still couldn't reach a place where there was no other foot print. We were close by did not go any further. The East side of the sand dunes had much less crowd and it was a good place to go to take great photos.
While we were there, there were also people carrying slides to slide down the sand dunes.
In general, Mesquite Sand Dunes was a very interesting place to visit. It was rare for us to see sand dunes and thus we were very excited. One thing to note is to carry as much water as possible since it can get very hot at the sand dunes. In addition, there could be rattle snakes around the area and visitors need to be very careful. Next time when we visit, we might try to do a night hike at the sand dunes under the moon light.
Zabriskie Point is a popular tourist attraction located in Death Valley National Park. It is located near Furnace Creek and has a great view of badlands in the Death Valley. Due to the location of Zabriskie Point and its land form, it shows wonderful colors during the sunrise hour. Thus many tourists and photographer come visit this place to have an opportunity to take a perfect shot. As we are visiting Death Valley National Park this weekend, we would definitely not miss the opportunity to visit Zabriskie Point.
It took us about an hours to get to Zabriskie Point from Pahrump and we got there around 6:20AM and the sunrise is at 6:50AM. We were about 30 minutes early, but we could start to see the twilight from the East. We got our cameras and tripod out to get ready to take some awesome photos.
There were already quite a lot of people at Zabriskie Point. From the parking lot, there was a path that leads to the view point. The path was about 0.2 miles long. When we got to the view point, there were already many cameras with tripod set up. We recommend to use tripod here since it was still dark and needs long exposure to capture all the necessary colors.
As the time approaches the sunrise hour, we started to see the golden ribbon and the beautiful pink colored cloud on the East side. It was breath taking. We were only able to see due to the cloud and the overcast weather at Death Valley National Park during the weekend.
As the sun rose, we walked down the view point platform onto the rock beneath it to have a better view on the West side. Then we moved the cameras to face the West over the badlands. The sun light shone on the wavy land form with beautifully brushed color was just amazing. The tip of the rock was exactly where the sun light was spotted on and gave a beautiful color on the rock formation.
Overall, the view at Zabriskie Point did not disappoint and it was just so beautiful. Although it was freezing cold in the early morning at this time of the year, we still highly recommend to wake up super early just to enjoy this sun rise view.
I Am Thai Cuisine is a restaurant the specializes in Thai dishes as its name suggests. It is located near Las Vegas airport and it is a rather large restaurant that can hold a lot of people. We chose to come to here for lunch after spending a day at Valley of Fire because the restaurant is very close to the Car Rental Center. In the same plaza, there is also a gas station to allow us to fuel up the car before returning the car.
By the time we got to I Am Thai Cuisine restaurant, it was already 3PM. It was a tiring day at Valley of Fire and were were very hungry. We ordered the dishes immediately as we sat down, and got a Beef Pad Thai and a Chicken Pad See Ew.
We actually waited for a while to get our food delivered to our table. The Beef Pad Thai came first. It was a rather large portion and smelled really good. However, we thought that the noodle was a bit overcooked and had became very soft and squishy. In addition, the sauce of Pad Thai was quite sweet and a bit too sweet. We had to add additional spiciness to it to soften the sweetness.
The Pad See Ew was good. It came with large sized noodle with lot of chunky green Chinese broccoli. We liked it a lot. The sauce was sweet, but not as sweet as the one for Pad Thai. The sweetness of the sauce had a good balance to it. The noodle was perfectly cooked and pan fried as well. It was soft but not squishy.
When we got our bill, we were offered mint candy, which is nice to freshen the taste.
Overall, I Am Thai Cuisine was not bad, but not very spectacular either. The reason we picked this place is because it is located close to the car rental place so that we could return the car right away. We would probably try a different restaurant next time.
Romero's is a classic Mexican restaurant located at Pahrump, above an hour West of Las Vegas. It offers authentic Mexican dining experience and offers a wide variety of Tequila. The menu actually states that it offers the most variety of Tequila drinks within Pahrump. We were exhausted from the activities during the day at Death Valley and wanted to have some Mexican food for dinner.
We went to Romero's around 5PM as the restaurant closes at 8PM. When we got there with our car parked, we saw another fine dining Italian restaurant beside it but seemed to have not opened yet.
As we sat down at the table, the server brought us the water immediately. The server was also very accommodating for providing vegetarian options and allowed us to switch side dishes around such as replacing beans with salad. She every let us to switching ingredients used in burrito.
We ordered the 3 taco meal and a Chimichanga. The 3 tacos comes with shredded beef, ground beef, and chicken. We ordered it to have 1 of each. The taco came with hard and warm tortilla shell with lettuce and tomato in it. The taco was very tasty with crunchy texture of the taco. The dish also came with Spanish rice which was also very tasty.
The Chimichanga is a fried burrito. We were thinking that the sauce would be place on top of the Chimichanga, but the sour cream and guacamole were placed on the side. The Chimichanga was large and filled with beans, cheese, and meat. The dish also came with Spanish rice and salad.
Other than the main meal, we were also offered tortilla chips with salsa. We really like the home made salsa. It was not too spicy and still had great taste to it. We loved it so much and kept on asking the server to bring more to us.
Overall, our dining experience at Romero's was outstanding. We loved the food and the service exceeded our expectation. We would definitely come back here again when we visit this region in the future.
Yi Mei Champion Taiwan Deli is a popular Taiwanese cousin restaurant that offers authentic Taiwanese breakfast experience. It has restaurants located in California and Las Vegas. The restaurant is generally pretty busy in the morning during the breakfast hour and gets less crowded in the afternoon. As we were flying to Las Vegas in the morning, we wanted to give this a try after we land at Las Vegas.
We wanted to get to Yi Mei Champion Taiwan Deli around noon right after we landed at Las Vegas airport. However, we waited for so long at the Budget car rental center because the service was extremely slow. We finally got to Yi Mei Champion by 1:30PM and the restaurant was quiet and only had about 4 tables.
After we entered the restaurant, the server greeted us politely and offered us a table. We sat down and looked at the menu and immediately knew what we wanted. At that time, we were not sure whether we were supposed to order at the counter or wait for the server to come. As we walked towards the counter to ask, the server apologized right away and said he would swing by in a minute.
We ordered a bowl of Spicy Beef Noodle, Egg Pancake, Rice Ball, Zong Zi, and Radish Pancake. The server were surprised with the amount of food that we ordered and attempted to stop us to order more.
The Rice Ball was delivered to us right away. This Rice Ball is a classic Taiwanese breakfast and we got the sweet one with peanut butter. The Rice Ball was splitter into 2 from the middle to better serve people to eat. Egg Pancake came next and it was perfectly cooked, The down side was that it was not served with sweet and hot sauce that usually comes with the dish in Taiwan.
Zong Zi and Radish Pancake came at the same time. Zong Zi was wrapped with bamboo leafs with sticky rice and meet in it. It was steamed perfectly to have everything cooked with great taste. Taiwanese Radish Pancake is very different from Cantonese ones. Taiwanese Radish Pancake is fried on the pan instead of steamed. It has crispy crust with great texture.
The Beef Noodle came last and it was a bit spicy than we thought. The noodle used in the Beef Noodle was a bit too soft. We preferred to have harder noodle to make it more chewy.
Overall, We enjoyed our dining experience at Yi Mei Champion Taiwanese Deli. The food was great and authentic. The service was great as well where the server greeted us with great manner through out. We would definitely come again next time.
Village Square Cafe is a popular brunch place in Washington state and has multiple locations across the state. It opens early in the morning and remains fully occupied until it closes in the early afternoon. The restaurant offers variety of breakfast meals such as sandwiches, omelet, and French toast. As we were visiting Seattle this weekend, our friend suggested to have brunch together at Village Square Cafe and catch up.
We got to Village Square Cafe Redmond location by 9:15AM and there was already a line at the front of the restaurant. We put our name down and was told the wait is about 25 minutes, which was not bad. At the front of the restaurant, there was a breakfast bar with about 15 seats. This allowed people to just sit down whenever a seat is available.
Once we sat down at our table, the waitress brought cups of coffee for us. We ordered egg Benedict, French toast, omelet, and veggie sandwich.
The Egg Benedict came with 3 pieces of house made pancakes. The egg yolk was silky smooth with amazing spice on top of it. The Veggie Sandwich came with fruit platter that had strawberry and banana. The omelet came with toast which we could choose to be white or brown. We were also given jams and butter for the toast. The omelet had ham, onion, and pepper in it. The omelet was cooked perfectly and soft. The omelet also came with hash brown. The hash brown was good, but seemed to fall apart as we tried to pick it up to eat it. The French Toast was one of the best we have ever had. It came with 6 pieces with fruits and whipped cream on top. The toast was very soft and tender and sweet.
Overall, Village Square Care did not disappoint. It was one of the best brunch place we have been to. The wait time was not bad either as people tend to finish breakfast quite fast. Unfortunately the restaurant is only available in Washington state and not in Oregon.
Kkiko Korean BBQ is a Korean restaurant specializes in table top barbecue as its name suggests. The restaurant is located in Beaverton where a lot of Korean restaurants are at. The restaurant also had outdoor sitting area to enjoy the breeze of wind at night. The review of this restaurant has been spectacular and shows that the restaurant is extremely busy during the dinner hour and towards the late night. We took our car to the dealership for annual maintenance and had to wait for 2.5 hours. Thus we decided to try Kkiko Korean BBQ since it was within the walking distance from the dealer.
We got to Kkiko Korean BBQ by 1PM and there weren't many people in the restaurant. Not even 10 tables were occupied. However, we still had to stand at the door for 10 minutes along with 2 other groups of people. This was because there was only 1 person working on the floor and she was so busy and couldn't get us to sit at a table even though there were many other tables available.
We finally sat down at the table with a barbecue cook top. We were given menus and cup of water, but waited for a very long time before the waitress came by to take order. By the time we made our order, it was 15 minutes later.
Instead of choosing the 2 persons barbecue combo, we opted for short ribs and slices of Angus beef. Soon after we placed our order, side dishes and rice bowl were soon delivered to us rather quickly. The side dishes were the usual Korean restaurant side dishes together with a big bowl of green garlic. Short ribs and a place of Angus beef were soon delivered to us as well. On top of the Angus beef, there were slices of onion, 2 sticky rice cakes, and a butter to wipe the grill with.
We placed the Angus beef and onion on top of the grill right away, but we felt that the grill was not hot enough yet. It was cooking very slowly and did not make sizzling sound. Thus we turned up the strength of the fire a little to heat it faster.
The Angus beef were sliced with 5mm of thickness. It was very easy to barbecue these and it was very juicy. We liked it a lot. Mixing the Angus beef together with green garlic was a delight. The green garlic was a great help to soften the taste of grease.
There were 4 pieces of large short ribs on the plate and these short ribs cook quite fast. We loved the short ribs a lot. It had both the fatty part and the lean part of the pork. Mixing it with rice and green garlic was the best choice.
The barbecue sticky rice cake was an interesting addition here. It was soft after cooking on the grill and taste just like S'mores.
Overall, Kkiko Korean BBQ offers authentic Korean barbecue experience. The downside is that it was expensive. It would cost around $60 for 2 people. Also, we hoped that the owner of the restaurant could try to improve its service by hiring more people so that people don't have to wait for so long to get the food.
Viento State Park is a state park located in Oregon, along the Columbia River. It is about an hour East of Portland and the park entrance is essentially just right off Highway I-84. Viento State Park itself is not big and does not have many day visitors. It does however, have 2 camp sites located at North and South of Highway I-84. During the autumn season. many trees in Viento State Park turns its leaf color into bright yellow, which is quite a lovely scene.
On this beautiful weekend in late October, we decided to drive to Viento State Park to enjoy an autumn hike and check out the fall color in Oregon. We let early in the morning and got to Viento State Park by 9AM. There was no one else there. The day use parking fee is $5 and NW Pass is not honored here unfortunately. As mentioned before, there are campsites in Viento State Park and does not require reservation.
While we were there, we saw another car came by and started doing photo shoot with a female model. We were guessing that this is a popular area for model photo shoot.
We strolled around and headed North towards the river. As we approach the river, we came across the rail road. It was a very clear and straight rail crossing at this point where we could see very the train from very far away. We enjoyed some time here taking some photos.
We then drove to the South side of Viento State Park. There are several hiking trails here. We took the shorted and easier trail and this is Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail. The trail used to be a road for cars hundred years ago. Now the trail is only used for hiking and biking. The trail is only 1 mile long and connects Viento State Park with Starvation Creek Falls. We took this trail and headed towards the waterfall. The scenery along the trail was also amazing with all the fall colors.
When we got to Starvation Creek Falls, there was no one else there for some reason although there were cars in the parking lot. We enjoyed our time seeing the water falling down from way above. It was as amazing as Multnomah Falls.
Overall, Viento State Park is a good place to spend the day for a family with small children. The trail at the park is quite easy and very well paved. Hiking trail even has fence around it preventing people stepping off the trail. Biking is also a great option here as the biking trail is well paved.
Landon Bay is located near Kingston, Ontario in Canada. It is within the jurisdiction of Canada's Thousand Islands National Park. The Thousand Island National Park is a place that encompasses lot and lot of small islands along the St. Lawrence River along the US and Canada border. Landon Bay is located near the West end of the National Park and has several camp grounds and hiking trails. During the autumn season when the maple leaves begin to change color, the hiking trail here is a magnificent place to go.
Landon Bay is on the East side of Kingston and about 2.5 hours of drive from Toronto. We left early in the morning around 6AM and drove East bound on Highway 401. We stopped by the rest area after 1.5 hours in and we could see the forest across from the highway having variety of colors. It was very pretty. While we were at the parking lot, we also saw a very cute yellow Labrador retriever sitting in the car by itself waiting for its master to come back. The car was still turned on and the dog was sitting on the driver's seat. It looked as if the dog was driving the car.
We got to Landon Bay by 9AM in the morning. The parking lot at Landon Bay was very small and only fit about 10 cars. We were lucky to find a parking space since we got here early. Many people who could not find a parking space simply parked their cars on the grass or along the road.
As we headed towards the hiking trail, we could see beautiful yellow and red maple leaves with sun light shining on it. It was amazing. The hiking trail started with an archway made out of rocks. As we stepped on the trail, it was covered by lot of fallen yellow leaves and was very very soft. It was quite enjoyable to walk on.
As we moved further along the trail, we headed towards the lookout point. There were steps built for people to climb onto the rock. We could see St. Lawrence River on the far side and many small islands along the river. It was a very relaxing view.
After the lookout point, we headed further along the trail. We then reached the Wishing Tree. The Wishing Tree was a gigantic tree with branches growing upwards instead of sideways. It was very cool.
Hiking in the forest of Landon Bay during autumn season was so relaxing and enjoyable. The sunlight shining through the leaves make the forest look golden. It was one of the most relaxing hike we ever had and would definitely look for places like this in the future again.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse is located at central Oregon coast, near the city of Newport. It is popular among visitors due to its unique tide pool ecosystem. The tide pool consists of various marine life creatures such as starfish, sea anemone, and others. To get to Yaquina Head Lighthouse, it is about 2.5 hours away from Portland, so it is definitely doable as a day trip during the weekend.
We headed to Yaquina Head Lighthouse at 8AM in the morning so that we could get there before the low tide that would happen around 11:20AM. The low tide would bring the tide down to about 1.2M (about 4 feet) and we would have access to the tide pool to see all the marine life. The lowest tide was actually around 4AM in the morning but we would not be able to get there that early and not sure if it would be even accessible.
We got to Yaquina Head Lighthouse around 10:30AM. The admission fee is $7 per vehicle or people could park the car outside and walk in for free. The ranger station only took cash, but there was an automated parking machine that takes credit card. We drove to the Yaquina Head Interpretation Center first to take a break and visit the information on the lighthouse. People could park car here and do a short hike to the lighthouse because the parking space at the lighthouse is limited. We chose to drive to the lighthouse and parked there instead since it was still early.
As soon as we got to the lighthouse. we took the stairs down to Cobble Beach, where the tide pool is at. There was a sign showing where the tide pool is in case people could not find it. The Cobble Beach had tons and tons of round volcanic rocks. These rocks were washed and eroded by the ocean waves and became extremely round. When walking on the Cobble Beach, do watch steps so that you don't trip yourself over the rocks.
As we headed down to the tide pool among the rocks, we had to be very careful to walk around the marine life creatures so that we would not step on them. We saw a lot of green sea anemone in the tide pool and they were soft when you touch them. There were also purple sea urchins in the pool. On the rocks further away, we could see many seals laying on the rocks. These seals don't come close to the beach however and there were signs telling people not to approach further.
When we went to the lighthouse, we could see the far side of the ocean. Some people said they were able to see the whales migrating South with binoculars. Unfortunately we did not see any.
Overall, this was a very interesting experience to see all the marine life at the tide pool. The tide pool here is very accessible and highly recommend to come here for a visit.
Broken Top is one of the volcanic mountain located near Bend in central Oregon. Its name came from the fact that the top of the mountain was broke off with jagged edges. The mountain is located in Three Sisters Wilderness, and it is located very close to Mount Bachelor and South Sisters. Broken Top hiking trail is not as popular as South Sister, but there is still a trail the goes all the way to the top of Broken Top. In addition, the hike to Broken Top is not as strenuous as the hike to South Sister Summit. The elevation gain is only about 2000ft over 7.5 miles from Todd Lake. Since it was already September near the end of the summer, we decided to do the Broken Top hike as the last long hike that we do this year.
We left Portland and headed to Bend right after work. The traffic on the highway was much better than what we expected. We were thinking that perhaps most people had already left Portland to enjoy the long weekend. We were able to get to Bend within 3.5 hours at around 9:30PM. We did not stop at Bend however. We continued further and headed towards West on Cascade Highway to get to Devils Lake. This is where the trail head is for South Sister Summit. We planned to stay here overnight in the car and do the Broken Top hike early in the morning.
When we got to Devils Lake, it was pitch dark and there was a lot of cars in the parking lot already. It was almost full but we were able to find a nice spot. As we got out of the car, we could see so many stars blinking in the night sky above us. The milky way was stretching over the sky. It was so clear.
As we walked around to get prepare to rest, several more cars came to the parking lot. The people were here to do the night hike to South Sister Summit and asked me how to get there. We were surprised with the number of people doing night hike at this time. It was probably due to the long weekend.
We rested in the car over the night. We brought thick blankets with us as the night did get very cold after midnight. We lowered the back of the car seat so that it would lay more flat to get us more comfortable, but it could not get completely flat unfortunately. During the night, we seemed to have accidentally hit the button to open the trunk and that scared us a bit. Luckily, it was us who accidentally opened it and it wasn't someone else who tried to do so. At around 5:30AM, we woke up and could see the twilight in the sky. We got up and started to get ready for the hike.
We drove the Todd Lake at around 6:00AM since this is where the trail head is to get to Broken Top. From Todd Lake to Broken Top is about 7.5 trails. We would first hike on Todd Lake trail, and after 3.5 miles, we would switch to Broken Top trail. There is a shorter trail to get to Broken Top. This shorter trail requires people to drive further in into the wilderness on a poorly maintained forest road and requires high clearance vehicle. Although we did drive an SUV, we did not want to risk it. Besides, we didn't think 7.5 miles with 2000ft elevation gain was a big deal.
We started hike at around 6:30AM on Todd Lake trail. It was extremely quiet since it was early in the morning. We could see fogs floating above the lake. It was actually quite boring not seeing anyone on the trail. We hiked nearly 3.5 miles to Broken Top trail before we actually ran into another group of hikers.
The previous 3.5 miles was mostly in the forest. Starting from Broken Top trail, we were within the deserted wilderness of Three Sisters. We could see miles and miles of wilderness and could not see a single soul. It felt very quiet and felt like we were isolated from the civilization. We continued on Broken Top trail and there were few parts where we had to step on the stones to cross streams of river. After about an hour walking along the trail to get to the backside of Broken Top, we finally got to the bottom of Broken Top to get ready to climb upwards. This is also the intersection between the long trail and the short trail, and we started to see more people here since most people would do the short trail hike.
From here, the trail started to climb a bit, but not too steep. This part of the trail was filled with volcanic ashes with streams of water running through. We also saw several dogs enjoying its time running around along the flat surface. It was a great scene to see. One of the large dog actually ran towards us and gave us a cute hop. We bet that he probably smelled the jerky in my backpack.
The final 0.25 miles to get to No Name Lake was probably the most difficult part of the hike. The trail was steep with a lot of lose rocks on the trail. We had to be a bit careful when going upwards. This part was very short however and we finally reached No Name Lake. This lake is located at the top of Broken Top and is formed from the melted snow at Broken Top. The color of No Name Lake was not as clear as I thought however. It was a bit dirty looking color, probably due to the volcanic ash.
From No Name Lake, we continued further for about one more miles to get to the North side of Broken Top. From the ridge on the back side, we could see South Sisters, North Sisters, Mount Washington, and Mount Jefferson. It was an amazing view. We highly recommend to hike 1 more miles after reaching No Name Lake so that you could get an amazing view of Cascade mountains.
Overall, we had an amazing time hiking this trail. It took us about 3.5 hours to go from Todd Lake to the top of Broken Top. When we got back to Todd Lake, it was about 1:30PM. We were physically tired, but pushed ourselves to get back to the trail head. We highly recommend doing this hike to enjoy the wild. If 7.5 miles is too long, the shorter hike of 2.5 miles is always available.
