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The final two days of this road trip! We spent these days in and around Portland, Oregon and making the drive back up to Seattle to end our trip. This part of the trip is far more of a choose your own adventure, as they are countless things to do around Portland. We visited the quirky Enchanted Forest Amusement Park, the last troll we needed to see of Thomas Dambo’s PNW trolls, and walked around downtown Portland. This article includes many more ideas of how to fill your time. To see the rest of our road trip, visit our articles detailing the overview of the trip, Days 1 & 2, Days 3 & 4, and Days 5 & 6.

Overview

Day 7 - Eugene, OR to Portland, OR. 2 hours total driving. Stops at:

Enchanted forest
Powell’s Books

Day 8 - Portland, OR to Seattle, WA. 2.5 hours total driving depending on traffic. Stops at:

Ole Bolle
Voodoo Donuts, Powell’s Books, etc

Map of Route

Where to Stay

The final night of the trip is spent in Portland, OR where there is plenty of options of where to stay. We stayed in the Fairfield Inn & Suites in North Portland, because it was close to the highway, had a nice pool, and a nice free breakfast. If you want to stay more within the downtown area, I’d recommend the Pearl District area where you can walk to restaurants, Powell’s books, or nice parks like Canopy by Hilton. If you want more of a neighborhood feel, Nob Hill has nice tree-lined streets and is close to the Japanese Garden. Check out hotels like the Inn at Northrup Station or Park Lane Suites and Inn.

Enchanted Forest

Enchanted Forest is a lovely whimsical, family-owned theme park that is unlike any other. It felt nostalgic, despite us never having gone there before. It was all hand-built by the Creator Roger Tofte. It took 7 years for him to build the Storybook Trail part of the park and it became a success right after opening in 1971. They continued to expand, adding more sections and rides to the park. The park had financial challenges in 2020-2021 from Covid and an Ice Storm but was able to remain open hanks to thousands of fans who helped raise money for the park. The owner passed away this year, 2026, but the park is still run by multiple generations of the Tofte family.

Admission into the park is $31 for adults if you pay at the gate, but you can get discounted admission if you pre-purchase online in advance ($27.75). Parking is free. The rides are an additional cost with the little kid rides priced at $3 and the larger rides being $5. There are 5 little kid rides - Frog Hopper, Kiddy Bumper Boats, Carousel, Kiddy Train and Kiddy Ferris Wheel. The other rides include Bumper Cars, a Haunted House, Ice Mountain Bobsleds, Challenge of Mondor, and Big Timber Log Ride. We ended up paying for 2 kids rides - they picked the train and bumper boats and enjoyed them. There was essentially no line. We did notice a bit of a line for the other rides but not nearly as bad as other amusement parks like Disney. While the rides were great, they are not needed to have a nice time at the park.

I’d highly recommend starting your time at Storybook Lane. Here you can enter into a lot of your favorite childhood stories. You can crawl into Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole, watch the dwarfs mining for jewels in a cave, slide down the Old Lady Who Lived in the Shoe’s slide, and walk through a castle. It is all a bit strange, but that is part of its character. Elsewhere in the park, there is a Western Town you can walk around and an Old European Village. Both of these spots have hidden fun or short shows you can watch. You can enjoy a treat or just cool off while watching the Fantasy Fountains Water-Light Show. There are also free live shows including a comedy show and live Irish music. The food was also surprisingly affordable and decent quality. We brought in some of our own food and bought some as well. We did not notice many water fountains, but we were able to ask one of the food counters to fill up our water bottle with tap water.

We went at opening, at 10:30am, and stayed until just after 1pm. Our kids could have easily done several more times on the slides, but we wanted to have time to head for Portland.

Portland, Oregon

The rest of the trip was spent in Portland, Oregon. We allotted only an afternoon and a morning to explore Portland, as we have plenty of opportunities to visit living in Seattle. If this is your first time in Portland, you can easily add on an extra day or two. Here are some of the highlights of things to do while you are in Portland. We did a few before heading back to Seattle in the late morning of Day 8.

Powell’s City of Books

Powell’s City of Books on W Burnside St is the world’s largest independent bookstore. It has over one million new and used books and spans multiple floors up of an entire city block. The store is massive and you can easily spend hours exploring all of the color coded rooms. There is a large children’s book section, a rare book room, shelves of used books for discounted prices, and so much more.

Voodoo Donuts and more of the Portland Food Scene

Portland has its own food scene that is known for focusing on local foods, farm-to-table, quirky combinations, brunch, breweries and food trucks. Portland’s Food Trucks are known as Food Carts and they are often organized into pods. A food cart pod is a group of food carts in an area that are permanently there and offer amenities like seating, bathrooms, etc. These food cart pods are a great idea if you have a group with diverse tastes or if you want to try multiple types of cuisines. Portland’s most well known food for tourists is Voodoo Donuts with their iconic pink boxes, but Blue Star Donuts is also popular. Like Seattle, Portland is also known for their coffee shops. Portland also has great ice cream and chocolate that are worth checking out.

If you are into food, I’d highly recommend joining a Downtown food tour or a Donut tour.

Portland Japanese Garden

One of the most popular spots to visit in Portland and for good reason. This is such a beautiful and peaceful garden. Along with the flowering bushes and stunning trees, there are koi ponds and waterfalls and serene paths. It is often considered one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan. It is located in Washington Park near the Rose Garden and Zoo. Admission is currently $22.50 for adults and $16.50 for kids between 6-17 years old and is well worth it if you are into gardens.

International Rose Garden

Also in Washington Park, this garden has over 10,000 rose bushes that bloom in the summer months from May to October. This is a public garden and admission is free, but parking is paid. The garden is open from 5am - 10pm.

Ole Bolle Troll

A danish artist, Thomas Dambo built 6 large trolls out of recycled materials in the Pacific Northwest. Ole Bolle is the troll he built in the Portland area near Nordia House. This adorable troll is seen peeking inside a Scandinavian style house. It is free to visit.

Oregon Museum of Science and Industry

This science museum is full of fun interactive exhibits. Admission is currently $22.50 for adults and $15.50 for kids. There are additional paid exhibits as well including films and a planetarium.

Oregon Zoo

A great compact zoo located in Washington Park near the Portland Japanese Garden. This zoo is smaller than the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, but it has Elephants! Admission is $26 for adults and $21 for kids.

Portland Aerial Tram

The aerial tram is used both with commuters and tourists and has just two terminals. The lower tram terminal is near the south waterfront and has parking and other public transit options. The upper terminal has an outdoor patio with beautiful views of the city and Mount Hood beyond it. The tram is a neat ride to a beautiful view point. A round trip pass is $9.

Multnomah Falls

The most iconic waterfall in Oregon is just a 35 minute drive from downtown Portland. This is a gorgeous waterfall but can be a bit tricky to visit with how popular it is. There are two main parking areas. The main lot is off the highway I-84 on exit 31 that is run by recreation.gov, during the more popular months you need a permit to access this parking lot. Unfortunately though, the permit does not guarantee you a spot as the limit the permits per day but now how long people can stay at the falls. The other option is park along the historic Columbia river highway (U.S. 30) and either park for free near Wahkeena Falls and hike a bit to Multnomah Falls or park in the private Multnomah Falls parking lot along this road. The private lot can be quite pricey at $20+. There are also shuttles that will take you to falls including the $5 shuttle from the Multnomah Falls Park and Ride from Sasquatch Shuttle or a longer shuttle tour that will take you multiple other attractions in this area.

Once you get out of your vehicle and have arrived at the falls, you can walk the short distance to the main viewing platform to get a beautiful view of the falls. You can also take a 0.2 mile uphill switchback walk to the bridge between the falls. If you are ready for a longer hike, there is a 2.4 mile hike up to the top of the upper falls. The waterfall itself is the tallest in Oregon, with a total of 620 feet, the upper falls is a 542 feet drop and the lower falls is 69 feet and some 9 feet between the two falls. There are lots of other hikes in this area that take you past many other falls. You could spend a whole day or more exploring the Columbia River Gorge sights.