Grant’s Pass #1

TRAVEL THERE: WHAT I’D HAVE MISSED IF WE’D PASSED ON GRANT’S PASS

Welcome to Oregon! Well, sort of. This past summer my husband and I spent twelve days traveling the state and now I’m sharing the experience with you. I’ll tell you about the attractions we visited, the meals we ate and where we stayed. Maybe you’ll decide you want to visit Oregon, too. Today, let’s talk about Grant’s Pass.

Hellgate Jetboat Excursions

Let’s start with Hellgate Jetboat Excursions.  If you asked Bill, I’m sure he’d list this as one of his favorite things on our Oregon trip.  It was a boat.  There were times we went fast.  And there were birds.  Yep, that about sums it up.  Quite frankly, I expected more.

Yes, it was a boat.  Quite a nice one, I might add; but they squeezed us like sardines.  I like people and all that, but I’m not big on rubbing thighs with people I don’t know.  On the placid Chicago River tour I took once, it was OK.  Doing three-sixties on the Rogue River, not so much.

Yes, we went fast, but we also went slow – a lot.  First you have to get away from Grant’s Pass and the river’s edge is prime real estate.  Since the residents don’t want loud jetboats tearing up and down out behind their homes all day long, the jetboats putt putt putt their way to the wilderness area.  Then there are wildlife areas where they can’t go fast and recreation areas where they can’t go fast and rapids where they can’t go fast and…well, you get the drift.

When we did go fast, it was in tight circles.  The whole point was to see how many people they could get wet and just how wet they could get them.  The first two or three circles were enough for me, but just like going slow, we went in circles a lot.  I can imagine that with a group of eight-year-old or even teenagers, this could be a blast.  My husband enjoyed it more than I did, but after a while, even he would have been happier with some seriously fast straightaways.

The Best & Worst Parts

The best part was the birds.  There was lovely foliage along the river and many birds made their homes there.  I like to imagine how gorgeous a few of those stretches along the river would have been if it had been quiet.  Whether tearing into a turn or putt putting along the boats were loud.

Not only was our boat loud, but our guide wouldn’t shut up.  I’m sure the residents of Grant’s Pass were very nice people, but I really got to know a whole lot more about them than I really wanted to know as we crawled along during the first portion of the tour.  Like some robot without volume control, the guy had something to say about every inch of the river.  I’ve got some news for him.  It wasn’t all that interesting.  He did give us a few pertinent factoids about the flora and fauna, but the information that was most frequently pressed upon us was that this guy spent way too much time on the river and he found his own habits much more entertaining than he did those of any other river wildlife.

Grant’s Pass is a really cute historical town with some great looking galleries and shops.  The surrounding area offers all kinds of activities from fly fishing to spelunking.  Given another opportunity to visit there, I’d check out The Wolf Creek Tavern  Wild Heritage Site, visit the wildlife sanctuary  or see the Museum of Art, but I wouldn’t take another Jetboat ride.

Come back next week and I’ll tell you a few other things I might have passed on in Grant’s Pass.