Come Vacation in Wet and Moldy Oregon, Says an Irreverent New Travel Website, theRealOregon.com

A off-the-wall travel site that debuted this spring, theRealOregon.com offers its visitors rain-drenched days and windswept beaches instead of the usual boring tourist fare. The Real Oregon is for people who would rather eat dinner at a waterfront fisherman's dive than suffer through another four-star restaurant meal.

Creswell, Oregon (PRWEB) May 18, 2006 -- Most travel-related sites you find on the web are filled with color photos of vacationers lounging by turquoise swimming pools or playing golf under clear blue skies.

A new website launched this spring, theRealOregon.com offers its visitors black and white photos of rainy days, windswept beaches and the vast empty expanses of eastern Oregon’s sagebrush-filled high desert country.

“We’re not here for folks whose idea of a great time is visiting the factory stores in the morning and sitting around by the hotel pool getting sunburned in the afternoon,” says creator Bob Keefer, an award-winning newspaper writer who has lived in and written about Oregon for more than 20 years.

“Our visitors are much more likely to get up at dawn to go listen to birds sing in a desert marsh than they are to sit by a swimming pool. They’d rather have dinner at a waterfront fisherman’s dive than sit and be uncomfortable at a four-star restaurant.”

TheRealOregon.com offers a highly personal account of the back roads and back waters of an unusual state, from its rocky and damp Pacific coast across the snowy Cascade peaks to eastern Oregon’s cowboy country. It dings Oregon’s fashion sense – travelers can always find the Oregon flights at San Francisco airport by following the worst-dressed passengers, Keefer says – and suggests that visitors spend their time away from the Interstate highway system, exploring the state’s many unpaved roads.

The website is illustrated with Keefer’s black and white and hand-colored photography. Keefer takes his pictures the old fashioned way, on film. He prints his work in a traditional darkroom and hand-colors some images just as photographers did in the early 20th century, before color films were introduced.

“Black and white photography is perfect for capturing the feel of the real Oregon,” Keefer says. “After all, we have almost nothing but gray skies here.”

The site also focuses on Oregon’s arts scene, from the nationally recognized Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland to the state’s many art museums, galleries and visual artists.

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