Just got word my company is moving our training team up to Pendleton OR soon from central coast CA. Just looking for any information!!

Quick recon tells me that staying in Walla Walla or Pasco/Kennewick/Richland will be best, and air travel in and out of Pasco. I've heard a rumor that the area is up and coming wine country, which would be awesome.

Thanks for any info!

Nothing to add other than my counterpart in Gig Harbor WA says Walla Walla is huge wine country.

Central coast California is one of the most beautiful places in the country and eastern Oregon is ugly and boring with arguably nothing to be excited about. That said, I have no first hand experience with the area you've specified in Oregon (just a lot of driving through the southeast regions), just from others I know in Washington and Idaho. I feel like it's ok, but I haven't heard much positive, especially compared to central CA, which is probably my favorite place in the country. Why did they switch?

WoMD said:

---

Central coast California is one of the most beautiful places in the country and eastern Oregon is ugly and boring with arguably nothing to be excited about. That said, I have no first hand experience with the area you've specified in Oregon (just a lot of driving through the southeast regions), just from others I know in Washington and Idaho. I feel like it's ok, but I haven't heard much positive, especially compared to central CA, which is probably my favorite place in the country. Why did they switch?

---

That's some opinion for never coming to NE Oregon.

Pendleton itself is meh. The Blue Mountains are a true gem.

• Joseph, OR is one of the prettiest places in America. The Wallowa Lake tram to hike some of the alpine trails and grab lunch at the Summit Grill is chef kiss. If you're into skiing, the Wallowa backcountry huts and cat trips are very cool and fun.
• Baker City / Anthony Lakes: Geiser Grand Hotel and A-lakes has some of the best skiing in Oregon + some of the best side-country. Lot's of Boise skis here.
• Hells Canyon National Rec area. Deepest gorge in the US. Devils peak is 8k' above the Snake. It's pretty cool.
• The John Day Fossil Bed National / The Painted Hills are dope and otherworldly.

About that wine in Walla Walla. A friend of a friend, there's a guy named Greg Harrington (Maser Somm) that owns a lot of vineyards in Walla Walla. Greg was a hitter in NYC and the wine world and left to start his own thing in WA. He was wrapped up in the Court of Somm scandal for allegedly sweeping some stuff under the rug (he was the Court Chairman).

So saucy story, but a very legit operation at Gramercy Cellars (https://gramercycellars.com/) in Walla Walla.

Government contracting is funny like that.

None of us want to go.

Thank you!!

So….are you saying Walla Walla is NOT wine country???

Walla Walla has some damn good onions

Pirate04 said:

---

Thank you!!

So….are you saying Walla Walla is NOT wine country???

---

It's wine and questionable morality country with Greg. Dude is legit, one of the top Somms in the US. My friend of the friend tried to break his youngest Master Somm record and couldn't. In terms of wine, the guy is IT in the US and chose Walla Walla to make his name.

I frequent walla walla. It's fantastic. It is an established wine area not up and coming.

I sell them!

Walla Walla and the Yakima valley have great wine and visiting the vineyards are fun. A general perspective I saw was the Pendleton Oregon area although nice most of the residents were the cargo short, pocket T- shirt crowd and it seemed once you crossed into Washington State people seemed to dress more polished. I liked Walla Walla as it had great food and a lot of wine shops.

I worked in that area quite a bit over the last few years and really enjoyed the area, spent more time there than home. Pendleton is a neat little town, almost like an old west town with a great history and some cool underground history. The area is very much high desert, dry, windy, but can be a beautiful landscape. Pendleton has some great concerts with the roundup/jamboree and is home of the fancy wool.

The Tri-Cities (where I spent most of my time) is a little over an hour away and is probably your best place for shopping/supplies/airport, etc; Walla Walla has a small airport with a few flights to Seattle. There are some great wineries in Wallla Walla / Tri-Cities as well with some beautiful backgrounds; I really like Revelry and L'Ecole. I think everything along the Gorge is awesome, and one of my favorite wineries (Cascade Cliffs) is right on the Gorge on the way west. Lots of great places within a few hours as well such as Hood River, the Blues as mentioned above, Coeur d'Alene, Bend, and Boise. I find the geology in that whole PNW region fascinating.

I really enjoyed working in the area and it's a pretty conservative region as well.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any questions!

If you're talking within 3-4 hours, you can also include Leavenworth as a legit destination.

Hood River is the dream right now. We're there 2-3 times a week heading to Hood. 84 is so much easier than 26 these days. Wife works for mega-regional hospital and if they ever had a clinic or something in HR, we'd bounce from PDX instantly.

Thank you to everyone who commented! It makes me feel a lot better about the move and new adventures. Leavenworth is actually on my bucket list so I'll be excited to go there!

RangerRick9211 said:

---

If you're talking within 3-4 hours, you can also include Leavenworth as a legit destination.

Hood River is the dream right now. We're there 2-3 times a week heading to Hood. 84 is so much easier than 26 these days. Wife works for mega-regional hospital and if they ever had a clinic or something in HR, we'd bounce from PDX instantly.

---

Please take down your post as the HR/Parkdale/MH area is my dream and our frequent summer destination from Texas. Will likely eventually buy property out there....

Visited this area for first time last summer and absolutely loved it. I'd love to throw a rooftop tent on my 4runner for the summer and explore that whole region.

We stayed at Sunriver for about 8 days a few summers ago.

I love that part of Oregon. Sparsely populated. Desert on one side, beautiful mountains the other. Crater Lake NP is stunning. Can't grasp its beauty from pictures.

Sunny in Bend but snowing up at Mt. Bachelor.

This is not north east Oregon but outside of liberal hellhole Portland, Oregon is mostly a hidden American treasure.

Pirate04 said:

---

Thank you to everyone who commented! It makes me feel a lot better about the move and new adventures. Leavenworth is actually on my bucket list so I'll be excited to go there!

---

Leavenworth is amazing in both the summer and winter, but must people know if for Christmas. Any town with 20+ wine tasting rooms, 2 distilleries and 2 breweries in a 1 mile downtown is all right with me.
I'll add in going to a concert at The Gorge as well for things to in E. Washington. Outside of the Gorge, you can go to Quincy which has 6-7 wineries, and Wenatchee, which is the "big city" according to my relatives up there.

StillNotAnAggie said:

---

Pirate04 said:

---

Thank you to everyone who commented! It makes me feel a lot better about the move and new adventures. Leavenworth is actually on my bucket list so I'll be excited to go there!

---

Leavenworth is amazing in both the summer and winter, but must people know if for Christmas. Any town with 20+ wine tasting rooms, 2 distilleries and 2 breweries in a 1 mile downtown is all right with me.
I'll add in going to a concert at The Gorge as well for things to in E. Washington. Outside of the Gorge, you can go to Quincy which has 6-7 wineries, and Wenatchee, which is the "big city" according to my relatives up there.

---

And if you're in Leavenworth, mine as well head up Stevens to places like Index.

Trash coffee, but dooope view: https://www.tiktok.com/@seattleinsiders/video/7027078824214940934.

Also out of Leavenworth, the Enchantments. In the fall. Larches turning. It's up there with Maroon Bells, Dolomites, etc for prettiest thing I've ever seen. Pull a permit asap (lottery in 5 days). Hope you get one and it's timed right!

Here is my post from our trip to Cannon Beach in Oct a couple years ago.

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3264742/replies/61235772#61235772

I posted this to the wrong thread