In four weeks plus one day, the total eclipse that has science lovers holding their collective breaths will sweep across the skies of the Pacific Northwest.

It may be fair to say this will be an unofficial national holiday.

The path of totality will enter Oregon about 10:15 a.m. on the central coast, between Lincoln City and Depoe Bay, and cross the Snake River into Idaho 12 minutes later. The moon’s shadow will continue to block out the sun as the eclipse continues across Sun Valley, Idaho, and the Grand Tetons of western Wyoming, eventually vanishing into the Atlantic Ocean after passing over the Carolinas.

As a travel writer, it isn’t my job to describe the science behind this rare phenomenon, which will be seen in the United States only once in most people’s lifetime. (It last happened in this country in 1979, and won’t return again until the 22nd century.) But I can let you know how some Northwest communities are prepping for the big event — outside of Central Oregon, where planned activities, from Madras to the Ochocos, continue to be well-described in The Bulletin.

The eclipse’s path is about 87 miles wide, approximately the distance between Redmond (at the southern edge of the track) and Maupin (at the northern edge). The length of totality will be its greatest — just over 2 minutes — at the heart of this path, in such communities as Depoe Bay, Independence, Stayton, Detroit, Madras, Prairie City and Huntington, as well as in the Painted Hills unit of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument.

The moon will begin to infringe upon the sun about an hour before totality, and recede until about an hour after. The further from this central path, the shorter will be the time that the moon fully covers the sun.

Thus communities like Waldport, McMinnville, Sisters, Redmond, Baker City and Ontario will get only a few seconds of total darkness.

Outside of the path of totality — in Bend, for instance — observers will see a partial solar eclipse, in which the moon will appear to have taken a bite out of the sun. Here, however, daylight will persist; the stars will not appear in the middle of the day, as they will in places where the sun’s light is completely blocked.

Central coast

The Oregon Coast is more subject to summer rains than any other part of the state, but with the eclipse falling in the middle of the driest time of the year, community planners are counting on sunny skies to persist. That’s good news for tourism, as Lincoln City anticipates more than 50,000 arrivals, most of them from greater Portland. On most busy summer weekends, the draw is about 3,500.

First landfall will be at Lincoln Beach, between Depoe Bay and the Salishan Resort. Cape Foulweather and Otter Crest, just south of Depoe Bay, are stunning headlands from which to watch the eclipse. Another great spot is the lighthouse at Yaquina Head, just north of Newport. Other viewers may look to the dunes and the surf at Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City.

I haven’t been able to find information on any festivals or other special events in this area during eclipse week. Those who make it to the coast can spend free time flying kites on the beaches, hiking in the spruce-and-hemlock forests, booking a charter fishing trip, going on whale-watching expeditions, or just dining at brewpubs and crab shacks.

Motels are largely sold out (at exorbitant prices) for days before and after the eclipse. The best bet for Bend-area gawkers is to check out Airbnb or connect with friends who have spacious summer homes to share.

One concern for tourism officials is that visitors may plan to stay overnight on public beaches. Sunday night prior to the eclipse will feature one of the highest tides of the year (about 8 feet, shortly before midnight), and anyone with a sleeping bag spread on the sand might get very wet. Coupled with dangerous sneaker waves, which can appear out of nowhere, this may be a recipe for tragedy.

The state Capitol

The biggest eclipse-watching affair in the Willamette Valley will be in Salem, at the Oregon State Fairgrounds. The state capital is the largest city in the path of totality this side of Kansas City, and Portland’s Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) is throwing a party complete with science lectures and entertainment between 9 a.m. and noon. If you’ve already got your ticket (they’re sold out), you’ll be able to camp overnight at the fairgrounds.

At the Oregon State Capitol, tours of the building and tower (it’s not a dome) will be offered five times each on Saturday and Sunday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. The Capitol lawn will also host an 11:30 a.m. Saturday concert. On the day of the eclipse, the building will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a limited tour schedule; Margaret McCrea, president of the Rose City Astronomers, will broadcast from the Capitol Mall during the eclipse.

Only a few miles away, the Northwest League’s Salem-Keizer Volcanoes will celebrate a “Total Eclipse of the Park” during a 9:30 a.m. game against the Hillsboro Hops. “It turns out there is a considerable overlap between baseball dorks and astronomy dorks,” said event organizer and “Fangraphs” blogger Jeff Sullivan. A three-day EclipseFest pass ($50 to $60) includes viewing glasses, an 8 a.m. breakfast, a post-game brew fest, and an opportunity to witness the first formal “eclipse delay” (at 10:15 a.m.) in baseball’s long and storied history.

The town of Independence, 12 miles southwest of Salem, is pulling out all the stops for its five-day “Indy Goes Dark: The Total Solar Eclipse Festival!” Out-of-towners may camp in Riverview Park on the Willamette River, and enjoy a brewfest with live music from Aerosmith and Def Leppard tribute bands, science lectures and demonstrations, space-themed movies, group bike rides and yoga, and fireworks displays. A breakfast in the park will precede Monday’s eclipse, and a concert will follow.

Willamette Valley

Stayton is hosting a “Howl at the Moon Band & Brew Festival.” At the Oregon Garden, in Silverton, “Total Eclipse of the Garden” will include live music throughout the day and movies after dark. Tent and RV camping is offered at both of these events, and in other communities in the path, including Scio and Albany.

McMinnville’s Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum will exalt the eclipse with a weekend of hands-on activities and presentations. The eclipse party, beginning at 7 a.m. Monday, will include ambassadors from NASA, who will live-stream the eclipse as it travels across the United States.

Vineyards are another popular place for eclipse watching. At the Tyee Wine Cellars outside of Corvallis, for instance, the vineyard’s 10-acre hazelnut orchard is being turned into a campground for the night. General manager Brian Benson is throwing in three meals, a hayride, an evening bonfire, live entertainment and protective eyewear for 200 guests.

Other wineries planning to host eclipse-viewing parties include Brooks Winery (Amity), Eola Hills Wine Cellars (Rickreall) and Arcane Cellars (Salem).

Perhaps the best place to watch the eclipse will be the peak of 10,497-foot Mount Jefferson — although that seat will be limited to accomplished mountaineers. Those who summit the iconic Cascade peak will have a unique opportunity to watch the approach and departure of darkness, as the moon’s shadow sweeps up the valley of the Santiam River to the west, then races across the Warm Springs Indian Reservation to its east.

East of the Cascades

The Oregon SolarFest 2017 ($150 for five nights camping) and Solar Celebration 2017 ($250 for four nights camping) will both be held in Madras. At Madras High School, the Lowell Observatory Solar Eclipse Experience ($15), organized by the Arizona observatory that discovered Pluto in 1930, will offer a public viewing with telescopes.

In the Ochoco National Forest, east of Prineville, Symbiosis will be a weeklong art, music and sustainable-living festival ($425) on a 55,000-acre ranch in the Big Summit Prairie. The Oregon Star Party, an annual gathering of astronomy buffs in the Ochocos, is sold out and registration has closed.

There may be no more exciting place to watch the eclipse than from the Painted Hills. Both here and in the Sheep Rock unit of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, rangers are scrambling to find volunteer assistance with managing parking, camping and crowd control. As the striated layers of the Painted Hills’ clay mounds, naturally colored rust-red to butterscotch, deepen at sunrise and sunset, they might be expected to make a spectacular backdrop for the eclipse.

Of the various small towns along U.S. Highway 26 east of Prineville, Prairie City (13 miles from John Day) might be expected to offer the best viewing. Nestled beneath lofty Strawberry Mountain, it has no special events planned, but a range of campsites are available — at a charge of $200 for a minimum of two nights.

In tiny Huntington (population 450), about halfway between Baker City and Ontario on Interstate 84, the eclipse weekend coincides with the annual Pioneer Day celebration. This will include music and other entertainment, along with floats on the Snake River.

A Baker City Eclipse Festival is being planned in that city’s Geiser-Pollman Park. The National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center will offer the opportunity to walk the historic Oregon Trail during the eclipse. The 19th-century gold town of Sumpter is offering excursions on its narrow-gauge railroad. And at Baker City’s vintage Geiser Grand Hotel, planetary scientists from the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science will deliver a series of seven presentations called “Mystery of the Eclipse Explained,” starting with a 5 p.m. Saturday dinner and concluding with a 7:30 a.m. Monday breakfast.

Idaho

After crossing the Snake River around 11:35 a.m. (Mountain Time) on Aug. 21, the eclipse totality will continue across Idaho through Weiser, Stanley and Rexburg to Jackson, Wyoming. Neither the metropolis of Boise nor the resort town of McCall will enjoy full totality, although Sun Valley, Arco and Idaho Falls will have full coverage.

Weiser, a town of just over 5,000 best known for its old-time fiddlers contest each June, is jumping on the eclipse bandwagon with a four-day festival. Beginning around 3 p.m. Aug. 18, Weiser will celebrate with a street carnival and dance, a beer garden and wine tasting, car and bike shows, a golf tournament and Snake River fishing contest, concerts, movies, an ice-cream social and a fun run. A Sunday night astronomy presentation and a Monday morning pancake breakfast will precede the main event.

Tiny Stanley, whose 100 residents live hard by the Sawtooth Wilderness Area, is used to crowds as an outfitting center — but nothing like what the eclipse will bring. Sawtooth National Forest is working on clearing parking areas for expected vehicle traffic. The Boise Astronomical Society will erect telescopes in Pioneer Park, including a solar telescope, and University of Washington astronomy professor Woody Sullivan will deliver a Sunday afternoon lecture on “Awesome Solar Eclipses from Ancient Time until Tomorrow.”

The Sun Valley resort area, at the southern edge of the path of totality, will hold a Great American Eclipse Party in its Festival Meadow from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 21. There will be plenty of music, food and family activities here, but two other activities have particular appeal.

One of them is a chairlift or gondola ride to the top of 9,150-foot Bald Mountain, summit of the winter ski resort: Lifts will operate from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Reserve a seat now, while they are still available. It’s a good idea to start early to enjoy the brief total eclipse at 11:30 a.m. If you’re athletic, you can hike the summit trail, which climbs 3,300 feet in five miles. Your reward will be 360-degree views.

If you are particularly adventurous, Fly Sun Valley will pair you with an expert on a tandem paraglide during the eclipse. Dropping from the peak of “Baldy” to its base, you’ll want to be aloft between 10:15 a.m. and 12:50 p.m., during the hours of the partial eclipse. As there are limited time slots, you’ll want to book as early as possible.

Elsewhere in Idaho, the town of Arco, gateway to Craters of the Moon National Monument, will host its “Rockin’ Country Outdoors Solar Eclipse Event.” An ATV rodeo is a highlight of the four-day, three-night event ($100), which also includes camping and nightly live music.

The city of Rexburg and Brigham Young University-Idaho are reserving green spaces on campus for eclipse viewing by thousands of travelers expected to visit. A half hour’s drive southwest, Idaho Falls, a city of 60,000, has been designated an “Official NASA Observation Site.” Weekend evening speakers at the Museum of Idaho will address future NASA missions, the future exploration of Mars, and three-dimensional visualizations of the astral universe.

Wyoming

Grand Teton National Park is anticipating the busiest day in its history. As lodging has long since been booked and campgrounds are available on a first-come, first-served basis, madness might be expected. Backcountry permits are extremely limited due to high demand. But those who make it to this alpine park, immediately south of Yellowstone National Park, will be rewarded with unparalleled views of the Teton Range, which surpasses 13,000 feet in elevation. The eclipse will pass directly overhead at 11:35 a.m.

Jackson, the gateway town to the Tetons, will have events and eclipse parties throughout the weekend. Of greatest interest, perhaps, is a public event — hosted by Wyoming Stargazing — scheduled during the Monday eclipse itself. At the base of Snow King Mountain, the astronomers will have solar glasses for purchase. They will set up two telescopes, one a hydrogen alpha telescope, another fitted with a white-light solar filter, to give eclipse viewers unmatched perspective on the sun’s corona and flares while the orb is covered by the moon.

As for me, I haven’t decided yet where I’ll be watching. But I know I’ll never have another chance, so this is something I don’t want to miss.

— John Gottberg Anderson 
can be reached at 
janderson@bendbulletin.com.

If you go

INFORMATION

Idaho Department of Commerce, Tourism Development. 700 W. State St., Boise, Idaho; visitidaho.org, 208-334-2470, 800-847-4843.

Travel Oregon. 250 Church St. SE, Salem; www.travel
oregon.com, 800-547-7842.