We’re planning to take a week off in August to take our first major family road trip. The kids are 3 & 6 now, and probably close to old enough to tolerate 3-4 hours in the car per day without driving us insane. We had toyed with the idea of going down to Yellowstone when we thought Tom’s dad would be coming with us, but since he’s elected to sit this one out, we’re thinking of just toodling around the state of Oregon.
One of my favorite places to visit in Oregon, other than the coast, is Crater Lake. However, I’m not sure the kids are old enough to get anything out of it. Since we’ll be traveling in August, I’m not wild about going to Bend, since it’s so high desert and I’m not a huge fan of deserts in the first place, much less hot ones.
So now we’re thinking we might just spend 4-5 days camping at the coast and then stay one night near a lake or river somewhere in the Willamette Valley area, on our way home.
I will say that I’ve done a night or two of research on the “family road trips with small kids in Oregon” topic, and the blogosphere is not rich with great data. I may end up having to blog our adventures just because so few other people seem to be doing so, and as every parent of small kids knows when planning a trip, more data is better. I have a nifty new iPad to use for beta testing now, so there’s really no excuse left for me to do some travel blogging this summer. 🙂
The Thing With The Stuff 
Florence is always a nice place to visit. We stop by there every time we make a trip to Oregon.
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Thanks for the tip! I’ve driven through Florence, but I’m not sure I’ve ever stopped there. I think we’re going to only as far as Waldport this year, but I have my eye on Florence and Coos Bay for another trip. 🙂
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And you will SO deserve a road trip after all the wonderful work you have been doing. I flew over Oregon (luckily I had a native Oregonian (?) sitting right next to me pointing out all the highlights) – took some magic mountain shots – I imagine that driving through it would be a million times more magical than flying over the top of it.. c..
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We camped at Tillicum Beach Campground a few years ago and really enjoyed.
Lost Lake (just south of Hood River) is gorgeous and seemed pretty good for kids: http://lostlakeresort.org/
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My kids do far better on road trips than I ever would have expected. We did some 8 and 12-hour long trips at young ages with both of them out of necessity, expecting it to be fairly awful, but it wasn’t. I think it’s different now than the road trips we remember as kids? I think cars (and children’s car seats) are more comfortable, and iPads for videos and games make the time go by easier than trying to read or count license plates or whatever. Good luck, I hope you all have a great time!
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