Our trail through Oregon

When you first drive into Oregon it’s the opposite of what you expect if you’re coming in from the east. There is a lot of desert-ish area. But the more you drive into the state the more gorgeous and picturesque it becomes. We quickly forgot about our view however as the sun went down on Sunday and we hit up the local Walmart for our nights stay. But after 14 hours on the road we really didn’t care where we slept. Ahh, the good old days, right? When we woke up on Monday the sun and shopping carts greeted us and we set out to get some chores done. Those chores namely being groceries, an oil change and finding someone in the Portland area to check on a few things in the #airstreamstarship. The oil change was easy and successful. The camper service, not so much, and no, we don’t want to talk about it.

Beyond the chores we enjoyed a little time in Portland for some great food (thanks or the suggestions Guy Feiri) at Tails and Trotters for a Evan and 24th and Meatballs for me and the kids then it was on to perusing at REI where we always want all the things. I found delicious coffee at a place called Baristas (shoutout to the cold brew with raw sugar) and we headed towards our place of stay at Ainsworth State Park not far out of town and in the middle of the Columbia River Gorge. Ainsworth is an awesome location but it doesn’t have many spots in the campground though so book early if you plan to spend some time there. After we dropped the camper and saw a snippet of the area we quickly realized there was only one way to sum up the area: waterfalls waterfalls everywhere!

We spent the next few days exploring waterfall after waterfall. Most of them were easily accessible from parking areas close to the road and were stunning. The backroads along the gorge are exactly what you imagine the Pacific Northwest being. The weather hovered around 75 and the sun shown for us the entire time which we know is rare. One afternoon I was able to throw out my hammock in the shade, grab a book and call it bliss… and then a few hours later jump in a waterfall for an absolutely freezing swim and called it double bliss.

In the same part of the gorge is a place called the Vista House that gives you panoramic views of the area. It’s a short and free stop off the interstate. I would suggest going for the view but skip the coffee. Also, if you need to ship something off in a hurry be prepared to drive back towards Portland because the post office at the gorge is super cute. And super tiny. And super not full service.

We packed up on Thursday and after another drive through Portland we headed north to Cannon Beach. Cannon Beach has been on my wish list for quite some time so I was so excited when we got there. That excitement was momentarily put on hold when we realized that the map that says “ample RV parking” actually only means 3-6 spots...in three different parking areas. We weren’t in a time crunch though so we made loops around town until one opened up. We walked the cute little town streets in search for food that wasn’t $$$$$ and landed at Wayfarer where Im happy to report that the burgers and chowder did not disappoint. It was reasonably priced for a sit down restaurant, had a great view and there’s no sales tax in Oregon so we already felt like we were getting a deal.

With full bellies we made our way down to the beach with the view of Haystack rock. Gray and Kyrie weren’t phased much by the cold water so they looked like baby bay watch running in slow-mo back and forth in the ocean before digging in the sand. Phoenix wasn’t as much of a fan of the wind and the waves so he settled for a snuggle nap and no one was complaining about that. As the tide went out we were able to walk through the shallow waters to the tide pools and check out the sea stars that clinging to the rocks. On the way back to the car I grabbed coffee at a souvenir shop close to the parking area and was surprised that it wasn’t half bad. I guess I should have taken note of the name of the place but didn’t expect it to be as good as it was... but it’s across from the Visitors Information Center and next door to the public restrooms on the north side of town if you get a chance to stop by. It wasn’t as good as the coffee in Portland but it knocked the Vista House coffee out of the water.

We hit up Walmart to restock the groceries and settled in at Fort Stevens State Park for the night. We are now kicking ourselves for only taking one night at Fort Stevens. We picked it for it’s easy location on our route and had no idea how amazing the park itself was. It provided our most secluded camping spot to date and had beach access and history activities galore. We could have spent a few day just there.... On a side note, for those of you that will be traveling with unnaturally colored hair just know that trying to keep that up in public showers with no mirrors is quite the extravaganza. I’ll let you imagine how jacked up my forehead looks right now after my reddish-purple dye and I attempted mirrorless salon time.