Portland’s Best Day Trip Includes The Timberline Lodge, Hood River, Full Sail Brewery & Waterfalls
Here’s PubClub.com’s guide and directions to #1 Portland day-trip: “The Loop.”
We recommend heading first to Mt. Hood, then looping back via Hood River. This places most of the driving in the front part of the trip and will have you back at the pubs before dark (in the summer, anyway):
• Take the 84E a few miles past the airport to the Wood Village exit. It goes through one of those new residential areas, the kind where coyotes, snakes and other creatures appear in people’s backyards because they built houses where those animals used to roam.
Continue straight down this road until you pass the turnoff to Highway 26. We say “pass the turnoff” because this is Oregon and there are no advance signs informing drivers the highway is near. The sign is across the street and you will pass it before you realize it’s there.
Perhaps it is helpful to know that Highway 26 is just past an auto parts store. This is not a major intersection but there is a light and a left-turn lane. There is a blue “Scenic Loop” sign just before the auto parts store but, this being Oregon, it’s is the first mention of “The Loop” on any road sign or a map.
• Follow the 26 and stop at either Government Camp or the Timberline Lodge for a beer and lunch if you are hungry.
• A few miles past Timberline is the well-marked (WOW!) turnoff to Highway 35 to Hood River. About 45 minutes later though great scenery, you will arrive in a clean, tiny town. Take the necessary 30 seconds to explore it, then go to the next-to-last-road by the river and take the Full Sail Brewing Tour. Tours are every hour until 5 p.m. Don’t worry if you arrive at 4:01, or 3:01, as there is a “tasting” room to sample what you are about to see being made.
• On the way back, hit the Scenic Highway for the Multnomah and Horse Fall Trails waterfalls. If you have the time and the inclination, there’s also some locks and a dam, the latter of which gives tours.
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