Willamette Valley

The Willamette Valley covers the broad agricultural-and-urban valley between the Coast Range and the Cascades, the densely populated heart of Oregon running from Portland south through Salem and the wine country. The terrain is mostly flat — the floor of the prehistoric Lake Allison glacial lakebed — broken by the Willamette River cutting through the middle, with the Coast Range rising west and the Cascade foothills east. Most of Oregon’s population lives here. Seven counties cover the region. Multnomah holds Portland (the largest city in Oregon); Marion holds Salem (the state capital); Yamhill holds McMinnville, Newberg, and the heart of Oregon’s Pinot Noir wine country; Clackamas holds Oregon City (the end of the Oregon Trail) and Lake Oswego; Linn holds Albany; Benton holds Corvallis and Oregon State University; Polk holds Dallas. Silver Falls State Park and the Willamette Mission State Park concentrate the public-land scenery. Most trips here center on Portland and the wine country. Portland handles the urban itinerary — Powell’s Books, the Pearl District, Forest Park, the food cart scene, the Japanese Garden, and the Saturday Market; the Yamhill County wine country runs hundreds of small Pinot Noir wineries from Newberg through Dundee; Salem handles the State Capitol; Silver Falls State Park draws hikers to the Trail of Ten Falls.