Out'n'About Treehouse Treesort

The genesis of this entire trip came about almost a year ago, when we needed some holiday therapy, I randomly googled treehouses and discovered the existence of Out'n'About Treehouse Treesort in Oregon. Did we want to stay in a treehouse? Yes! Did we want to visit Oregon? Why not? Treehouses book up quickly, but the cancellation policy was cheap until a few months before the stay so we booked in September for June.

We don't usually plan our holidays that far in advance, our mantra being: "Maybe next year, we will move back to England." So for six months, all we had was a couple of nights in a treehouse, and I finally started researching what else was in Oregon in March or so. Oregon proved to be a goldmine of things to do, but it was the treehouse that lured us in.

Ewok Wish Fulfilment

There were a variety of treehouses available, ranging from ones that are about ten feet off the ground with a staircase up, to ones suspended 30-40 feet in the air and accessed by hanging bridges. Sleeping arrangements and toilet facilities also varied hugely.

The house we chose was the Pleasantree (in the above picture), which we reached by two spiral staircases and two bridges. (There was a pulley to raise luggage.)

Mind the branch on the first landing.

Our bridges.

It had a shower and a toilet and had bunk beds for the kids and a loft bed for us. By loft bed, I mean we had to climb up a ladder and then crawl around the tree trunk to a double mattress under the rafters which didn't have enough headroom to sit on one side, while on the other, you risked cracking your head if you lifted it too far off the pillow. They had warned us of this when we booked, and it certainly wouldn't be a suitable sleeping arrangement for anybody with back problems, but we got a kick out of it.

Our bed.

Lying in bed, with one foot touching the rafters.

If needed, you can sleep a fifth person in the crawlspace.

Looking down the ladder, this is basically the entire living area.

The sink and bathroom mirror were attached to the tree trunk.

Living space viewed from the bunk beds. Lack of surfaces was our biggest problem.

Behind the purple curtain in the above picture is this compact bathroom.

The house also had a porch with seats, which meant that--for the first time this holiday--we could put the kid to bed and then close a door on them instead of having to sit in dark and quiet. We had some concerns about the temperature, but with the windows open, the house stayed cool in the heat of the day. Although it cooled down significantly overnight, the blankets were more than sufficient. The shower was better than most hotels too, and phone reception was pretty decent 30ft off the ground.

In general, this whole stay worked out better than we could have hoped. The resort is a fairly small area, and we were able to let our five and seven year olds roam unsupervised. There are swings all over the place, a games area, picnic tables and a fire pit. My son didn't take long to make a friend and spent most of his time outside.

There was a stable right on site, so you could hear the horses and pet them if they were close to the fence. (While we were clearing out our room for check out, our daughter was down there chatting away to the stable girl setting up for the morning's rides.)

Stable yard as seen from our porch.

Out in the meadow where the ziplines were, there was the best tyre swing we have ever seen, suspended from a disused zipline cable, maybe twenty feet up. The zipline gave the swing some bounce, so adults were too heavy to use it (to our disappointment), but the kids had some fantastic rides with Dad slinging them about. The testing zipline also had a couple of swings attached to it, so the kids could play on it when it wasn't otherwise in use.

Possibly the World's Greatest Tyre Swing

The nearest town is Cave Junction, which is the middle of nowhere as far as Oregon landmarks go. Both days, we got takeout to eat back at the Treesort, and both the pizza and the Chinese were great. There are quite a few things to do and see, and we opted for Great Cats World Park. A guide takes you round on a walking tour that takes about an hour, most of it sitting on a bench in front of one exhibit or another while the guide fed the cat treats through a fence to encourage it to exhibit certain behaviours. It was very educational, utterly fascinating, and they seemed to be legitimate in how they cared for their animals. Besides, my husband is a sucker for mogs of all sizes, so we were onto a bit of a winner.

Sleepy roar.

Stalking.

After that, we had a hasty lunch and returned to the treesort for the ziplines. Having done junior Go Apes a couple of times, we knew the kids had no problems doing ziplines, so doing a longer course was something we had talked about for a while. Despite the price, we decided to finally take the plunge here.

There is a lot of waiting around, particularly when there is a large group, and that gets tedious... (You make friends with your group, and you learn all the guides' terrible jokes.) But the lines themselves were fantastic. We were seventy feet up a few times, a couple of lines took you at ridiculous speeds and I nearly took out the guide on one occasion when I didn't brake in time (the kids are light enough that they didn't need to brake), and all four of us had a blast.

Seventy feet up.

This is me remembering to brake.

Afterwards, my daughter and I tried out the riverfed pool.

Water going in...

Water going out.

Easily the most beautiful pool I have ever swum in, but I needed that incentive to swim--it was ridiculously cold. Of course, the day was so hot that the moment you got out it felt fantastic. I ended up swimming the length of the pool twice, while my daughter did the width two or three times, just for the rush.

Even the floor of the pool was paved with riverstones.

As much fun as the activities were, mostly it was good to stay in one peaceful place and do minimal driving for a day. The perfect midpoint to our trip, and it was with some reluctance that we said goodbye to our treehouse and headed north.