Kyla Merwin Cheney's blog

Discover the beauty of quiet coastal water trails on a guided “Hot Apple Cider” kayak tour with Kayak Tillamook County. With over 800 miles of water trails on bays, estuaries, and coastal lakes, Tillamook County is a paddler’s paradise.

Portland's Japanese Garden, photo by Michel HersenIn Celebration of Oregon’s Urban Parks

Every city has one. A respite of green, a roadless gathering place, a patch cut out of the buzz and bustle of time. Urban parks: they drawn us in like bees to honey. I’m putting some thought as to why that is, besides the obvious, that they’re pretty.

1. They connect us to nature.
2. They connect us with each other, through planned events and happy happenstance.
3. They are often built near or around lakes, ponds and rivers, and water soothes us somehow.
4. They provide us with a break in the action, the eyes and the ears, offering expanses of green space where we normally have concrete and cars.
5. They drawn flora and fauna...

So, there you have five reasons, and below are five of my favorite urban parks. Tell me about your favorite city park, and what draws you there, and I’ll send you a free packet of pretty picture postcards.

This is definitely one of those Sunday afternoon rambles with the kids, with an opportunity to catch up on some Oregon pioneer history along the way. Winter’s really the only time to see Fish Lake anyway, since in the summer the darned thing often dries up completely. But in late winter it’s a lovely 1-mile-long lake that you can certainly loop around. If you’re going to make this a stop on a trip between Bend and Eugene be sure to get a look at the old cabins and structures that date back well into the nineteenth century.

There are an abundance of recreational opportunities in the area. Whether you like to hike, mountain or road bike, kayak, fish, ski (water and snow), camp or backpack, you will find it here in the Willamette National Forest. The area features nearly 500 miles of trails and dozens of lakes and waterways.