While Mt. Hood is the iconic northern Oregon emblem, we focused our time more on the Columbia River Gorge, Silver Falls State Park & NIKE for our Portland area stop. We enjoyed our scenic drive-bye of the snow topped icon and affirm Mt. Hood is gorgeous; however, Michele and Vince have been before with PBA (shout out to the best SD team ever!). Add in that we are right between winter/spring activities with a number of things we would want to do shut down for the melting snow and we so decided to explore places we haven’t seen for this stop. We also got caught up on some school work and applied for some “workamping” jobs in Washington on our rainy day. For non-RV folk work-camping (aka workamping) is a way many fulltimers float their budget, working for a season or two per year at a RV park in exchange for a parking spot and hopefully hourly pay. Some friends of ours (McDaniels ❤️) just finished a longer workamping contract in Palm Springs so we figured with our budget tightening after our west coast run, we would see what we can find and reassess out travel based on where our budget lands coming through summer. It’s also opportunity to let the boys have some socialization and routine, which has been wearing as we’ve skipped across the country. As we soaked up, sometimes literally, the lush Oregon forests and waterfalls, we adjusted our resumes and applied for wonkamping jobs in the Pacific Northwest! Prayers appreciated, the length of our trip will hang on what we find 🧐

Enjoy the scenery… we definitely did and be sure to check out Jayden’s efforts to infiltrate NIKE and Vince trying to lose Michele and Jayden in the Oregon forests toward the end of the blog 😬

Mt. Hood showing why it’s an icon as we drive northwest on HW26 from Bend, OR.

Tunnel under the highway heading to Multnomah Falls.

Multnomah Falls is on the Columbia River Gorge Scenic drive east of Portland and well worth the time. Multnomah is iconic with a footbridge ½ way up and a you can hike up the 541ft falls if you don’t mind all the switch backs. This is the lower scenic drive crossing the Multnomah Creek.

Robert’s view from the footbridge looking toward the Columbia River from Multnomah Falls.

Upper Multnomah Falls from the footbridge.

Robert’s view of the Columbia River from about ½ way up the Multnomah Falls Trail.

Another view of the Columbia endures by Robert with Michele and Vince enjoying the start of the sunset.

The scenic byway along the Columbia Gorge is HW 30 and you’ll pass a number of waterfalls, some right off the road. Horsetail is one of those and worth getting out of the car to climb down to the plunge pool.

Another Vince hydration special but think about this one... He is drinking from a horse’s tail???

Vince and Jayden looking down on Peyton fishing the Columbia.

Dusk over the Columbia River while Peyton attempted to land a big one!

Silver Falls State Park is one of the nation’s top state parks for a reason. Some amazing hikes and while there is a bit of elevation changes the rainforest like conditions propagate ferns and moss… everywhere making the walk through the park idyllic.

The hike toward the back of North Falls gas tight but one of the unique features of Silver Falls State Park is its topography. It is a gorge where multiple rivers join the Clackamas River after “falling” from volcanic cliffs, a few leaving large over hangs you can walk behind.

Made it around North Falls trail from behind the falls.

Upper North Falls isn’t as big but is quite scenic 65ft water fall with a beautiful volcanic rock basin.

South Falls has a Visitor Center and is nestled in a some old growth Sika Spruce that are pretty cool with all the moss growing on them.

South Falls 177ft plunge into the basin and some outstanding volcanic rock and forest to explore.

If you’re a fan of Disney’s Jungle Cruise…. “The backside of water”

The falls is made up of multiple layers of volcanic rock that has been carved out by water and time. Some of the holes are from trees that have long decayed or burned up and others examples of what happens when lava meets water.

View from the top of South Falls down into the basin.

Visitor Center has some food and education. Saw examples of new and old growth spruce used to make the furniture in the building as well as other plant and animals we can find in the park.

One of Portland’s many bridges on our way through to the Oregon coast.

The road out of Portland took us by a spot Jayden was hoping to see all the way across the country… NIKE Corporate Headquarters in Beaverton, OR. The images Jayden’s mind probably ranged from signing a sneaker deal to meeting MJ and all the other brand ambassadors who were likely having lunch and hoping to meet a fulltime RV teen 🤭 The reality was that NIKE Headquarters is a massive complex stretching miles in Beaverton. You also must have either a “pass” keycard/employee access to everywhere, including the NIKE Company Store… which is what Jayden was told when he met a few security guards investigating 😐 We read about this online so fantasy met reality and no new shoe contracts were signed…. HOWEVER there was a very kind NIKE employee Jayden met at the Company Store who offered him an unused shopping pass for his forthcoming birthday. So Jayden and Michele were able to get some NIKE drip and it made Jayden’s day!

Vince continued on with the RV so Michele and Jayden could explore NIKE But he left great directions … 😳 the remote coastal mountain forests were beautiful… until Michele tried to follow 😬

NIKE Headquarters has an Employee Store that you have to have a pass to enter or an escort from an employee. Jayden and Michele made friends and got a pass to the retail highlife!

The first pic is the PIN Vince sent Michele for directions to our Seaside, OR RV park. Note that the pin IS NOT near Seaside it’s in the remote forest mountains and neither Vince or Michele noticed… until Michele got to the forest access road with the gas light on and started to wonder about the directions. What would follow was a script for one of those psycho killer movies where the driver is lost n the woods and is eaten by bears or stored away by 2 toothed cannibals carrying an axe. Ok so poor choices in movie genre aside, it was legit remote and the one house Michele decided to approach was very helpful but their instructions started with “there is gas about 20miles this way and it’s just one pump”. Praise the Lord for kind mountain farmers and for the Jeep Grand Cherokees fuel line… because there wasn’t a drop of gas in the tank when Michele got to that 1 pump gas station. Once she made it around the mountain and 2 hr detour she let Vince know his directions were wrong and Vince got off the phone with State Police who were checking for accidents up on the mountain… seriously. So Vince will work on sending PINs and keep a paper map in the car with a cartographer to help read it 🙃🙏

Oregon: Greater Portland Area

WHERE WE’VE BEEN

Oregon: Greater Portland Area

Oregon: Northern Coast & the Lewis and Clark National Historic Park 🏄‍♂️

Oregon: Bend 🌋

WHERE WE’VE BEEN