Stacey and I just returned from a week long family vacation in Oregon.

Pictured above is Smith Rock. The major rock faces of Smith Rock are composed of welded tuff (compressed volcanic ash) that reach heights of up to 550 feet. It is generally considered the birthplace of modern American sport climbing. Although, we didn’t do any serious climbing, we did spent a day hiking around here along the Crooked River with our family.

Below are some shots from Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is located in Southern Oregon on the crest of the Cascade Mountain range, 100 miles (160 km) east of the Pacific Ocean. It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin, created when the 12,000 foot (3,660 meter) high Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago following a large eruption.

Generous amounts of winter snow, averaging 533 inches (1,354 cm) per year, supply the lake with water. There are no inlets or outlets to the lake. Crater Lake, at 1,943 feet (592 meters) deep, is the seventh deepest lake in the world and the deepest in the United States!

Evaporation and seepage prevent the lake from becoming any deeper. There was still like 10 to 15+ feet of snow everywhere! My dad’s parents once camped here when my aunt was only 6 months old!

…Ok. Enough about volcano carved world wonders, we also saw some sick bikes in Oregon! Not to mention visited several good friends who call Portland home.

Stacey and I spent our first night in Oregon at Jen Hufnagel’s crib in East Portland. Thank you Jen! (Jen’s mom also hosted the NB crew in Indianapolis during NAHBS. What a hospitable family!) We chomped some food at Hungry Tiger with Jen’s brother Jordan of Hufnagel Cycles and stopped by his shop.

The next morning we all met back up and rolled in style on three Hufnagels and a Merckx to Junior’s Café. Damn that food was good as hell.

Before Stacey and I dipped to rendezvous with our family to head toward Bend, we stopped by Veloce Bikes. This shop is real swell and certainly worth a stop when you next find yourself in Stumptown. The owner, Dimitri, is very friendly and has great taste in bikes! The shop has a solid combo of high end modern masterpieces and ultra-rare museum worthy artifacts.

Among the younger artifacts, they have a limited stock of vintage steeds that really caught my eye. Among them were this Masi Prestige track bike:

And, this Frejus:

On our very last night in the state we met up with our friends Matt & Valerie who moved out West from Atlanta last summer. It was great to see them again and catch up. Thank you guys again for the ride!

Moral of the story is Oregon is killer and Portland sure is rad. Even worth a return in October for Oregon Manifest Frame Show? Maybe!