Things to Do in Keizer

The Oregon Garden gives horticulture habitués the opportunity to fully discover the floral kingdom with more than 20 specialty gardens. The grounds bloom with horticultural rarities and aesthetic scenery, such as a sprawling, 400-year-old signature oak and an alluring collection of miniature conifers. In the Pet Friendly Garden, pups frolic around nontoxic plants, and in the Children's Garden youngsters can explore features such as dinosaur-bone digs and a real hobbit house.

The Oregon Garden also lodges the historic Gordon House, the only Frank Lloyd Wright–designed building in the state and the only one open to the public throughout the Pacific Northwest. The garden's retail nursery furnishes a crib and changing table for baby plants and also cultivates vegetation all year round, selling perennials, shrubs, annuals, and veggies.

HydroSports Dive and Travel’s certified scuba instructors tap into their enthusiasm for all things aquatic to train nascent sea explorers with thorough diving instruction. The staff formulate a roster of classes that includes a wide range of lessons, from basic tutorials that introduce essential skills to advanced courses that yield open-water certification and the ability to recite Keats underwater.

In addition to classes, HydroSports' onsite shop packs an arsenal of equipment from top-quality brands and ample rental gear for self-arranged dives. HydroSports Dive and Travel’s trainers also organize frequent diving excursions amid marine wonderlands such as Palau, Santa Catalina Island, and Poseidon's living room.

A USHPA-certified advanced and tandem instructor, John of Oregon Hang Gliding School has taken to the skies on hang gliders since 1990 and taught the sport to newcomers since 1997. He also advises the curriculum for a university engineering program laying out pointers in a systematic way, and discouraging the use of protractors as weapons. Under John’s guidance, students begin with introductory lessons and ground school before advancing along the path to earning individual pilot ratings.

The sparkle of coal is a common sight in mineshafts, but no minerals have ever been found in Warpaint International's mineshaft. Instead, the splatter of fired paintballs covers the walls, just as it does in the newly renovated, 20,000-square-foot arena's other three play zones. Within the exciting facility, competitors can navigate the small homes of an indoor shantytown and crouch behind stacked barrels in an otherwise sparse mock-hotel.

JT SplatMaster Paintball offers a gentler version of paintball for younger players who have outgrown Extreme Contact Face Painting. And Warpaint International has partnered with Sniperz Den Paintball in St. Paul to host once-a-month events on more than 50 acres ripe for play, including seven bases replete with flags. Players can also stop by the full pro shop to stock up on markers, paintballs, and other related apparel.

Silver Creek Lanes shelters patrons practicing their strike and spare skills on rows of synthetic lanes. As participants recline into custom leather seating between frames, Brunswick GSX pinsetters ensure that ten pins always await approaching orbs, even when balls are feeling pushier than usual. Black lights concoct an intergalactic ambiance during cosmic bowling sessions as players diligently avert gutter balls while surrounded by wall-to-wall media screens broadcasting music videos. Silver Creek Lanes also offers league play and special packages for birthday celebrations. As bowlers roll their shots, wafts from the facility’s grill bemuse olfactory senses with whiffs of pizza, burgers, and tasty appetizers. A pro shop supplies rollers with top of the line gear, such as cannons that launch bowling balls with extra spin.

RR Saddle Club helps connect humans without the means to own horses with equine friends and also hopes to rescue horses that are stuck in unsavory situations. Nestled in the heart of the Santiam River Valley, the club's barn houses gentle steeds who carry riders on guided trail rides through the club’s 200-acre property, past wildflower-strewn meadows, into the foothills of mountains, and through thickets of fir and maple. Visitors can also schedule pony parties for youngsters or sign up for lessons to learn the basics of riding and how to signal horses to trot, canter, and fly.