Willamette Valley wine country was a couple hours drive southeast of Astoria. It was beautiful to see acres of grape vines and sunshine again. The area is known for the best Pinot Noir wineries in the United States.
Willamette Valley-McMinnville
We stayed at the Olde Stone Village RV park. It’s in the heart of the Willamette Valley wine region. Our site had full service with good wifi and satellite reception. They allowed RV washing, so we did and the Jeep got a bath also. Long overdue!
Downtown McMinnville was picturesque with lots of tasting rooms. Their prices were higher than we expected, but the quality of some of the Pinot Noir wines were outstanding. We enjoyed a delicious meal at 1882 Grille.
Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum
An incredible aviation and space museum in the Willamette Valley. It’s home to the Spruce Goose, built by Howard Hughes out of wood due to restrictions on metals during World War II. The museum is adjacent to the Olde Stone Village RV park.
In addition to the museum, there is a theater and water park. It’s comparable to the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, Arizona.
We explored the Willamette Valley wineries, but limited them to 1-2 per day. Thinking we would have needed a year to see them all.
Westfir, Oregon
We headed south from McMinnville through the Willamette Valley to Eugene then east to Westfir, Oregon.
We stayed at Casey’s Riverside RV Park in Westfir. A picturesque site facing the North Fork of the Middle Fork of the Willamette River. The water moved very quickly so we kept Jake well away. They had full service sites with decent wifi, but we were not able to get satellite.
The Office Bridge is Oregon’s longest covered bridge crossing the North Fork/ Middle Fork of the Willamette River at Westfir.
There were spring wildflowers everywhere.
The Salt Creek Falls are Oregon’s second tallest waterfall at 286 feet. There was a short hike that provided numerous views of this stunning waterfall.
The spring swollen rivers and streams were beautiful to watch.
