Warren Judd continues his caravan holiday of the United States.
I recently spent almost a year camping in the United States, during which time I circumnavigated the country, visiting 36 states.
The state I explored most thoroughly was Oregon, lying between California and Washington in the Pacific northwest.
If we transposed it on to New Zealand latitudes, it would extend from Kekerengu north of Kaikoura, to Milton, south of Dunedin.
The population, at 3.9 million, is a little lower than New Zealand's and the land area of 255,000 square kilometres is slightly less than ours (269,000sq km).
Their highest mountain, Mt Hood, at 3428m is about 300m lower than Mt Cook but it is very accessible and little more than an hour's drive from the main city, Portland.
With a metropolitan population of 2.2 million, Portland is considerably larger than Auckland (1.3 million).
Of all the states I visited, Oregon is my favourite.
It's a manageable size, quiet, liberal, is one of five states to have no sales tax, and scenically it is diverse and stunning.
The western half is wet and lush, whereas eastern Oregon is high, dry semi-desert for the most part.
Because I have friends in Portland, I spent a few weeks there and thought it a wonderful city.
It is modern and the central city has a very laid-back feel to it, less bustling than Auckland with wider streets.
It's situated close to the confluence of two major rivers, the Willamette (pronounced like damnit) and the Columbia.
The Willamette runs right beside the downtown area with pleasant fringing parks.
Within walking distance of downtown is a vast hilly parkland that runs for miles and includes forest, walking trails, a world-class rose garden, zoo, botanic plantings and much more.
On Saturdays, a classy craft market is held down by the river.
Public transport is good and there's a fine above-ground metro-rail system, from which Auckland could learn.
The city is considered the greenest in the US and is known for its microbreweries, culture and liberalism.
The rambling and wonderful Powell's Books, which claims to be the largest independent seller of new and used books in the world, is also downtown.
Intel is a major employer.
Incidentally, I got there by train from LA, at a cost of $US125 ($NZ150) per person for the 29-hour journey; a particularly scenic trip I'd highly recommend.
Like Auckland, Portland is situated on a volcanic field but one considered extinct.
However, on a clear day from higher points, you can see Mt Hood about 90km east and Mts St Helens and Adams to the northeast.
These are just a few of the peaks in the mighty Cascade Range, which runs from Northern California up to British Columbia 150km-200km inland from the Pacific.
Many of these mountains have erupted within the past 4000 years, and the volcanism is associated with the ongoing subduction of the Juan de Fuca Plate by the North American Plate off the west coast.
Oregon has a wild west coast somewhat like the West Coast of the South Island, a picturesque mixture of open bays, longer sandy beaches and river estuaries interspersed with rocky bluffs and backed by rugged hills.
Near-shore islets are common.
As far as I know, it's the only state in the US to have its whole coastline in public ownership and with good public access.
A fine scenic highway runs the length of the coast and there are lots of reasonably priced state parks where one can camp, as well as a number of pleasant small towns.
I particularly enjoyed the southern section from Cape Blanco down to Brookings with its many jagged islets.
• In the north, the mighty Columbia River forms the boundary with Washington state.
This 2000km-long river has the largest flow of any North American river draining into the Pacific, and has been extensively dammed for hydroelectricity.
A highway beside the river provides the easiest access through the Cascades into central Oregon.
At Bonneville Dam, it was fascinating to watch large salmon and other fish swimming upstream to spawn.
They're diverted up an elaborate fish ladder and can be seen (and counted) as they pass a large window in the dam structure.
Sturgeon, a particularly archaic-looking fish up to 3.5m long, also occur in the river and can be viewed nearby.
The Hood River area - between Mt Hood and the Columbia River - is a very pleasant fruit-growing district 100km inland from Portland, but go another 50km upriver and you get into much drier territory where wheat is the main product!
Further south, a handful of roads climb from the green pastoral Willamette Valley (not unlike New Zealand farming country such as the Waikato in places) up the steep face of the Cascades, rising 1500m and more.
High rainfall along the western side of the Cascades (annual snow accumulations regularly reach 12m and can be double that) supports magnificent forests of Douglas fir and hemlock.
Each tree is two or three metres in diameter and 70m or more high.
Crater Lake (a national park) is a startling deep-blue lake in a caldera atop the Cascades of southern Oregon.
When I was there in the month of May, the snow was still 5-10m deep and the road around the rim was far from being cleared and open.
Crater Lake and Mt Hood are just two of some dozen stunning snowy Mt Taranaki-like peaks that cap the Oregon Cascades.
Upon crossing the high passes in the Cascades from the west, you descend little but move out on to a vast high dry plateau at an altitude of 1100-1400m, eastern Oregon, a different world.
For instance, the modern city of Bend (pop 80,000) sits at 1100m, has a rainfall of only 30cm a year but is close to skifields in the Three Sisters high-mountain area of the Cascades.
As an aside, in June 2007, Bend was considered to have the most overpriced housing in the US, but between then and March 2009, the average price dropped from $US369,000 to $US221,000.
Housing in the US is much cheaper than in New Zealand.
The 2011 American median house price was $US160,000 versus $NZ365,000 here.
Bend lies 250km from the Pacific and about 400km from the Idaho border, and most of this 400km is dry rangeland.
Between Bend and Vale (close to Idaho), there's only a single town of 3000, Burns.
Away from Burns, there's hardly a house to be seen.
What's the terrain like?
While the road is flattish, hills are always in view.
Where rainfall is above 30cm a year, Ponderosa pine grows sparsely.
Below that and there will be a sprinkling of junipers, but where rain is less than 20cm, there's just bluish sage and spindly dry grass.
Cattle will be grazed in places, but at so low a density they're usually invisible.
In some areas the hills become substantial.
About 100km south of Burns is the long ridge of Steens Mountain, which rises to 3000m, glowering above the Alvord Desert.
Even in June (early summer), roads up there were still closed by snow.
• And in the northeastern corner of Oregon are the wonderful Wallowa Mountains, their snowy peaks rising above forest just 10km from the arty little town of Joseph, a place I really liked.
About 50km east of Joseph, the powerful Snake River has cut Hell's Canyon, as deep and long as the Grand Canyon but wider and a little less spectacular, though still most impressive and unlike anything in Australasia.
The Snake forms much of the boundary between Oregon and Idaho, and its waters are used for growing potatoes and onions in the busy horticultural area of Ontario 210km east of Burns.
In the remote and almost roadless southeastern corner of the state, the dry Owyhee canyon country, river rafting is popular and about the only way to traverse some areas.
Although Oregon has more volcanic rocks than any other state in the continental US, there are a surprising number of fossil locations.
Northeast of Bend near the small town of Fossil (I had to take photos there since my children have called me Fossil for years) is the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, really three separate parks.
While I wasn't overly impressed by the vertebrate fossil displays, the colours and landforms of the Painted Hills park are sublime.
The Oregon Paleo Lands Institute in Fossil is worthwhile.
Perhaps because deserts are so alien to us in New Zealand, I found the desert and semi-desert areas of eastern Oregon particularly fascinating.
There's an endless diversity of landforms from plains, buttes and canyons to high mountains, desert plants are odd and often colourful, the animals (such as snakes, scorpions and antelope) are unfamiliar, in places there are outcrops of colourful rocks plus petrified wood and obsidian, and there are rarely any people around.
Curiously, there are also some large wetlands (such as the Warner Valley and Malheur Lake), where birds abound.
Oregon has most things that California has but in a much smaller area with 34 million fewer people!
I'd recommend Benchmark Maps Oregon Road and Recreation Atlas as an excellent aid if you're considering a serious trip.
• Warren Judd is a former editor of New Zealand Geographic.
