PACIFIC NORTHWEST VACATION

Our family vacation this year consisted of a trip to northern California to visit relatives, followed by some camping in Oregon and some more family visits in southern Washington. As excited as I was to take this vacation and meet some of my wife's family, I have to admit that the thought of being so close to so many beautiful skateparks was very prevalent in my mind.

Let me start by saying that the camping was great, the time I spent with my wife and two boys was priceless, and the hospitality of my wife's family was unmatched. The whole vacation was a blast and I plan on composing a nice photo essay of the entire trip soon. But since a small part consisted of touring some of the the Northwests finer attractions, I decided to put this together first.

All pictures are thumbnails and can be clicked for a larger view.

As I said we started in NorCal and visited my Father-In-Law. We always have fun in Clear Lake and couldn't leave without a boat ride on the lake. However on the way up I spotted something on the side of the road:

Now these are a little deceptive as I soon found out. I'll post the little bit of video of me trying to skate these a little later. You'll notice they're all a different sizes and some are oval shaped. The only one that could really provide anything ridable was the last oval one to the left, and I didn't get that on video. It's a good thing because as we were leaving a worker on the site pulled in and gave us a dirty look, and a Range crused by right as we pulled out.

We camped one night at Lake Shasta and then two nights in Ashland Oregon. This was in hopes of hitting at least one of the three parks in the area Ashland Talent and Medford. I got to skate two of them.

Ashland was a very fun park with lots of lines, a nice deep pool(that you see in the foreground) and lots of smaller stuff for the beginers too. Obviously I was hitting the pool as much as possible and trying to find my lines. I kept trying to find words to describe the difference in these prks and what we have in SoCal, and all I could come up with is 'Organic'. These are parks for skaters by skaters. There's just crazy-curvey bumps and hips all over the place that took a little getting used to, but made the ride so much more fun!! I can tell that these parks will breed some rippers that will tear up ANY terrain!

On to Medford,

I would say this was probably my favorite, but I didn't get to skate it very long because there was a contest or something going on. I kinda just started skating during the warm-ups. Left to right there is a nice street section, with a snake-run right in the front, and two monster bowls in the back corners.

The big bowl in the back was amazing!!

I really wish I could have spent more time here. There is also a really cool park with lots of info on composting, natural gardening, a human sundial and more. A really cool park/rec area.

We drove past many many more parks that I wish I had enough time to visit, but we were on a schedule, and our destination was White Salmon Washington.

White Salmon is on the southern border, right accross the Colombia River from Hood River Oregon. I knew they had a park there but it wasn't all that great. But then a couple of months before we left, I heard about the posibility of Dreamland builiding a pool there. Would it be done in time for my visit? The clock was ticking, and about a week or two before I left, there was an update that production had started and was in full swing!

We arrived on Saturday night, and with the beauty of the internet, I was able to find out that the pool was completed the day before!! Monday morning I packed my gear to check it out.

What I found was a thing of beauty!! Nice deep pool with two little shallows. Fresh smooth new 'crete in the shade and most of the locals were a little intimidated by the size. Cool!! More runs for me! Word is they're going to get a snake run in there next. The rest of the park wasn't bad, but it was nothing compared to this gem!! I had fun for a short while before I had to go.

This one bowl had so many posibilities, it was a lot like a backyard pool, just a little more gnarly!!

The trip home sent us past Lincoln City, Newport, Waldport, Brookings and many more great parks that time wouldn't allow me to test out.

One thing I need to say is that everywhere I went, the skaters were so friendly and cool. A couple of guys who I had only said Hi to, were on there way to the store a little bit later and asked if I wanted them to get me anything. Lots of hospitality.

As I said the rest of the trip was a blast, but this was the skating part. I definately recommend a trip up north if the time allows for you, and make sure to plan a little more time than I did!