Portland

New and used books share the shelves in a store that fills an entire downtown block. Its rooms go by colour names, and anyone without the map from the entrance desk ends up wandering. Rare editions are kept apart in a separate room.

A rose test garden opened in 1917 and now growing more than 10,000 bushes. Entry is free, and June, when the bloom peaks, brings the Rose Festival too. On a clear day Mount Hood rises beyond the beds.

Several styles of Japanese garden are laid out on a hillside in Washington Park. In 2017 a cultural village designed by the architect Kengo Kuma was added by the entrance. The climb from the parking lot is steep, and many take the shuttle.

One of the largest forests inside any American city's limits, with the Wildwood Trail running more than 48km through it. Several trailheads can be reached by bus from downtown, and after rain the dirt turns to mud, so wear boots.

The falls drop in two tiers off the cliffs of the Columbia River Gorge, and Benson Bridge spans them midway. The stone building at the foot is a lodge from 1925. Allow some 40 minutes' drive east; parking is a lot wedged between the freeway lanes.

Artisans from the sister city of Suzhou shipped in stone and roof tiles to build this Ming-style garden on a Chinatown block. It opened in 2000, and a teahouse by the pond pours tea for a rest.

Newspaper publisher Henry Pittock built this stone mansion on a hilltop in 1914. From the lawn the city spreads below, with Cascade peaks such as Mount Hood and Mount St. Helens behind. The house charges admission, but the grounds and view are free.

Craft stalls set up in the riverside park under the Burnside Bridge, and despite the name the market opens on Sundays too. The season runs from March to Christmas Eve, and the rule is that whoever made a thing sells it.

A riverside freeway was torn out in the 1970s to make this park, an early case of a city handing road space back to people. At the north end a plaza remembers Japanese Americans interned during World War II, and its cherry trees flower in spring.

An extinct volcanic cone in the middle of east-side housing, where a cut through the cinders shows the inside of the vent. Old open-air reservoirs near the top still hold water, and at sunset people gather to look west over downtown.

A beach town some 90 minutes' drive west, where the 72m sea stack Haystack Rock rises off the sand. Low water lets you walk out to its base to peer into tide pools crusted with starfish and anemones. The rock itself is a seabird refuge and off limits.

Built in the 1930s as a Depression relief project, at the treeline on Mount Hood's south slope. Its huge stone fireplace, hand-carved posts and woven rugs survive. It played the hotel exterior in The Shining, and fans come to restage the shot.

Perched in 1918 on a bluff where the Columbia's gorge opens westward, this stone lookout gazes far upriver to the east. Gorge winds can shove you at the railing. Old-highway drivers heading for Multnomah Falls stop here.

Science galleries and a dome theatre sit on the Willamette's eastern riverbank. A retired navy submarine floats in the river out front, and guides lead you through its cramped berths and torpedo room. The sub tour is ticketed separately.