Oregon has a lot of beautiful places, but when it comes to national parks, we’re just about empty-handed.

While our state is home to several spots run by the National Park Service, only one, Crater Lake, is a full-fledged national park. Compare that to Washington’s three or California’s nine. Even neighboring Nevada has two.

It wasn’t always supposed to be like this.

Back in the first half of the 20th century, several efforts were underway to establish national parks across Oregon. Almost all of them were stymied by a combination of local opposition, economic considerations and, ultimately, the failure of Congress to pass legislation. In one case, the National Park Service decided that one of our most beloved natural attractions simply wasn’t good enough for federal designation.

Today, the four spots that were once considered for national parks — Mount Hood, Hells Canyon, Silver Falls and the Boardman Corridor — make up an incredible itinerary for an Oregon road trip, touching on some of the state’s most stunning scenery, and stretching from one corner to another.

Arranging the road trip

The shape of this road trip is a little strange — essentially a large 90-degree angle with Portland at the middle. Since Portland is the most likely starting and ending point for most travelers, that means going all the way in one direction, backtracking to the city, heading all the way in the other direction, and backtracking once more.

A better option might be to cut across the state from one endpoint to the other, essentially making a triangle-shaped loop trip. You can do this by tacking on a stop at Oregon’s real national park, Crater Lake, then continuing on through Bend and detouring over to the Painted Hills, which is also managed by the National Park Service.

If you really want to check some national park sites off your bucket list, you can also add stops at the Oregon Caves National Monument and California’s Redwood National and State Parks, both of which are on the way. It all adds up to about 30 hours of driving, though you’ll probably want to break that up over the course of a week to give yourself enough time to see everything. Your best overnight stops might be at Silver Falls, Brookings, Crater Lake, Bend, Joseph, and Mount Hood.

Silver Falls

Considered the crown jewel of Oregon’s state park system, Silver Falls State Park is a waterfall wonderland, with nearly a dozen plunges found throughout the forested canyon outside Salem. With cabins and campsites, it’s a great place to spend the night, though it’s most popular as a day trip destination for Willamette Valley locals.

In 1926, its reputation was already so firmly established that the National Park Service decided to make a visit. The ensuing report, which was dug up by the Statesman Journal, acknowledges the beauty of the waterfalls, but laments the heavy logging and homesteading around the area, noting “the region has heard the sound of the axe for many years,” leaving stumps that “from a distance look like so many dark headstones.”

Ultimately, the park service passed, leaving the door open for the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department to establish Silver Falls as a state park in 1933. That heavily logged forest has since turned into a sprawling backcountry hiking area, known for its quiet, peaceful trails.

Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor

A particularly scenic stretch of the southern Oregon coast, the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor (sometimes known as just the Boardman Corridor) was designated in 1950, named after the Oregon’s first superintendent of state parks. The patchwork of state lands includes several stunning viewpoints, beaches and hiking trails that could take days to fully explore.

In the 1930s, when an Oregon coast national park was first imagined, this area was at the heart of the proposal. By 1940, chances for the park looked good: Oregon Sen. Charles L. McNary had already introduced a bill with the proposal, approved by both Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and officials with the National Park Service. Even locals were on board. The Oregonian called it “a playground of matchless grandeur” in a feature that year.

But the bill never passed. It’s not clear what, if anything exactly, doomed the measure, but a presidential election and the growing threat of World War II probably didn’t help. Like Silver Falls, it’s since become one of our most beloved state park sites.

Hells Canyon

The deepest river gorge in North America (yes, deeper than the Grand Canyon), Hells Canyon is located in a rugged location in the far northeastern corner of the state. Its most spectacular viewpoint, the Hat Point Overlook, is a whopping seven-hour drive from Portland, including a final hour along a rough, winding gravel road.

In 1940, the National Park Service eyed a new designation for the canyon, which was already managed by the U.S. Forest Service, but locals were not thrilled by the prospect. “The proposal to make Hells Canyon a national park runs head on, like a locomotive collision, into the economics of Wallowa County,” The Oregonian reported that year. At issue were the grazing and timber fees that fed the county’s coffers — more than $10,000 a year that a remote national park would not necessarily replace.

While the national park proposal fizzled out, Hells Canyon did eventually get some additional protections in 1975, when legislation passed establishing the Hells Canyon National Scenic Area.

Mount Hood

Oregon’s tallest mountain, and one of the most stately volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest, Mount Hood has always been a major draw for people living in the region. Today, people flock to the ski areas, hiking trails and quiet cabins on the mountain, as well as Timberline Lodge, which is Mount Hood’s main tourist destination.

In 1940 — a big year for Oregon’s national park ambitions — it was assumed that Mount Hood would be designated a national park when the U.S. Forest Service moved over to the Department of Interior, home of the National Park Service. It made a certain amount of sense: Mount Rainier and Olympic national parks in Washington, centered on Cascade peaks, were already established.

But the idea soon faded away. The U.S. Forest Service didn’t move, and by 1941, the new director of the National Park Service, Newton B. Drury, said there were no plans to make Mount Hood a national park, leaving it as it remains today: a sprawling national forest.