Day 1 — A travel day (New York to Seattle, WA)
We started this trip with a somewhat chaotic workday which ended with us going to the airport and jetting off to the west coast. The flight was wonderful, and then, just as we were about to enter the Seattle airport, there was some sort of security threat. The airport officials kept 20 of us in the tiny jet-bridge that connects the plane to the terminal for around 30 minutes. It wasn’t my favorite place to sit but we made the most of our time. After getting out, we picked up our rental car and drove to our first airbnb, 30 minutes south of the airport. It was a bit tough to find parking, but after a long day, we settled into bed and dozed off for a nice 7 hours of sleep.
Day 2 — A travel day (Seattle, WA to Portland, OR)
Our first day of adventure! We got up early and set off for Mt.Rainier which was a short drive south. All of the drives we did in the Pacific Northwest were so beautiful, and this was no exception. My jaw fully dropped the first time I got a glimpse of Mr.Rainier (my friendly name for the mountain-volcano). We arrived at the national park and set off for the visitors center which is where a couple of the more popular trails begin. We hiked to a small waterfall and also did a little loop around a pretty wildflower meadow that circles the mountain. It was a perfect summer day, with a light breeze and everything looked so, so, so beautiful in the light. We ended our Mt.Rainier adventure by sitting at the reflection lakes and eating our lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (with a side of pringles).
We tried our best to be frugal and bought groceries at safeway to cover our water, breakfast, lunch and coffee needs. This saved us a lot of money and we were able to eat a bit healthier than we might have if we had eaten out.
On our drive out of Mt.Rainier, we stopped at the Mt. St Helens visitor’s center which was also very cool! I walked around a wildlife refuge which had views of the volcano that erupted not too long ago. I highly recommend this visitor’s center, it has a lot of information on the eruption and details on how the land changed after it.
We ended our day in Portland, a wonderful little city with lots to do. We ate a yummy dinner at Papi Chulo’s and walked down to Powell’s bookstore. I think Powell’s blew my mind. The bookstore is huge, but the thing that really blew me away was the way the store was organized. They had categorized everything in a very user friendly way. It made me want to explore all the nooks and crannies of the store. After our Portland excursion, we headed back to the airbnb and promptly fell asleep after our long day.
Day 3 — A travel day (Portland, OR to Bend, OR)
To capitalize on our “jet lag”, we decided to beat the crowds to Multnomah Falls. We got there around 7:30/8 which turned out to be a really good idea because after 9am, you need a timed entry ticket. The falls are beautiful and are framed by the iconic bridge. We hiked all the way up to the top of the falls, which is quite a strenuous 1 mile hike. At the top, we were barely able to see the falls because the viewpoint had been closed off by the park authorities who were cleaning up fake 100 bills that a tiktoker had flung into the wilderness. It was a bit annoying but the views at the top were beautiful nonetheless.
We enjoyed more pb&j sandwiches at the bottom and set off on the scenic Columbia River highway. I really recommend this drive. It is super beautiful and has many stopping points where you can get out and see the Columbia river from a higher viewpoint. There are also beautiful lavender farms along the way where you can stop and buy some fresh lavender!
After all of this driving, we made it to one of our most prized destinations, the Bigfoot Center in Boring, OR. This was a cool spot to read through how different cultures view Bigfoot. There were also tons of videos on different sightings over the past years. I thought this was a really fun museum and a cute place to stop en route to Bend.
The drive to Bend was really different and the scenery changed from lots of trees to a desert. This part of Oregon borders Nevada and is really dry compared to the rest of the state. We arrived in Bend at a really nice airbnb with a lot of space. The town of Bend is really cute and I highly recommend exploring. This was one of the towns I wish we had more time to spend in. Our first stop in Bend was McMenamins, a chain of breweries and hotels in Washington and Oregon. Here, they had converted an old schoolhouse into a hotel, and restaurant. We enjoyed a very nice flight of beer and cider. The vibes were really good and we continued walking into downtown Bend. The town is small but very walk-able. There are tons of stores and bars and restaurants to explore. We ended up eating at Wild Rose, which was some very incredible and well priced Thai food.
Day 4 — A travel day (Bend, OR to Eugene, OR)
Got up pretty early this morning since we had a lot of driving ahead of us. We drove a couple hours south to Crater Lake National Park. Seeing the lake for the first time was another jaw dropping experience. I had never seen something so large inside of another very large geographic feature. The color of the lake was a calm blue and it glistened in the sun. Watchman’s Peak was the first hike we did and it was fully worth it. It wasn’t too strenuous and allowed us to see the lake from a really high viewpoint. We climbed back down and headed to the visitor’s center to eat our lunch (leftovers of the Thai food from the day before). Our plan was to continue driving around the rim of the lake, which is a total of 33 miles. We wanted to do another hike through the trees and got to see the most beautiful waterfall ever (Plaikini Falls). The hike weaved through the old-growth forests and wildflower fields. The water was crisp and I had never seen such a majestic waterfall before.
We kept driving around the crater and our plan was to complete the full loop. However, the end of the rim road was closed so we had to drive the full circle back the way we came. This was a bit annoying and added to our already long itinerary of driving.
After Crater Lake, we drove a couple more hours to Eugene where we ate some yummy Chinese food for dinner at Bao Bao.
Day 5 — A travel day (Eugene, OR to Rockaway Beach, OR)
Our first stop this day was the the Hayward field track in the University of Oregon. This is a really neat and large track that hosts a lot of famous running events! We set off from Eugene and finally hit Highway 101 and got to see the Pacific Coast. I would say this was one of the wildest drives I’ve ever done, just because of the sheer amount of forests we drove through. The roads were incredibly windy and I had never seen that many trees in my whole life. Once we hit the coastal towns, we stopped at Devil’s Punchbowl, a cute little viewpoint with a large rock formation in the ocean. We also stopped at Cape Kiwanda, a neat part of the coastline with a large sand dune you can climb. This is where Pelican Brewery started and the views from the restaurant are beautiful.
Then, we drove to Tillamook Creamery. I’ve been dying to go here because I love their cheese. The factory itself is huge and it was quite busy. We got some mac and cheese, grilled cheese, and of course, ice cream. Everything was excellent and we also got some free samples and were able to watch how the cheese was made. This was a wonderful experience and I also recommend it to anyone driving this route.
We ended the day at our airbnb in Rockaway Beach. This is a cute town with lots of residential properties. The beach was a couple steps away from our apartment so we decided to watch the sunset along the ocean. West coast sunsets are really special and I love how chilly the beach gets at night. Another wonderful, long day in Oregon.
Day 6 — A travel day (Rockaway Beach, OR to Hoquiam, WA)
We continued along Highway 101, making lots of stops at beaches on this day. First, we stopped at the iconic Cannon Beach. This beach features Haystack rock, a GIANT rock formation off the coast. We were able to explore the tidal pools filled with mussels, anemones and sea stars. The wildlife was really neat and abundant.
Our next stop was Ecola State Park, which is located very close to Cannon Beach. I highly recommend this spot as well because it is a little less crowded and you will have more freedom to bounce around. We went to Indian Beach, which has so many tidal pools, especially during low tide. We were able to climb rocks and explore so many places on our own. The views of the coast in Ecola are incredible.
After a lot of exploring, we continued driving to a little town on the Columbia called Astoria. This is a really old town that had a large fishing and canning industry in the early 1900’s. We stopped to explore and ended up in a cute antique shop with a lot of cool finds. The last leg of the journey was up to Hoquiam, a small town at the southern edge of the Olympic Peninsula. By the end of this day, we were quite tired and passed out speedily.
Day 7 — A travel day (Hoquiam, WA to Seattle, WA)
Our final day was filled with the most driving we had done to this point. We set off early in the morning for Ruby Beach, a beautiful black sand beach on the Olympic Peninsula. The weather was perfectly misty and cast the “twilight” energy I was looking for. The Olympic Peninsula is unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. Everything felt mysterious. The water on the coast looked powerful, scary, yet calming. I felt mystical energy there.
Our next stop was supposed to be Hoh Rainforest, but the line was simply too long for us to get in, and we were on a tight schedule. We decided to walk around, but skip the actual rainforest. Afterwards, we drove to Forks, the Twilight town. There were some fun Twilight themed stores here and it was a good place to stretch my legs.
From Forks, we drove to Lake Crescent, the bluest lake I had ever seen. If you have the time to stop here and swim, I highly recommend it. This was one of my favorite spots and I wish we could’ve explored this area a bit more. From here, we set off back to Seattle, stopping at Port Angeles along the way. This drive turned out to be a bit longer than we anticipated because of traffic, but we made it back to Seattle.
Day 8— A travel day (Seattle, WA to New York)
The biggest plot twist of this entire trip is that we never actually saw the city of Seattle. I guess we will have to come back and explore more. Our travel day started at 3am since our flight was at 5am. We hopped on the plane back to New York and made it back in one piece ❤
Some reflections
This was the most action packed trip I have done this year. Every night, we went to bed tired, but good-tired. I felt like I got to see everything I wanted to see, and everything blew my mind. The beauty of the Pacific Northwest is incomparable to anything else in the United States, let alone the rest of the world. Everything I saw exceeded my expectations. Some of my favorite moments on the trip were the times we did something spontaneously. I’ve realized that I like having things planned, but sometimes the spontaneous activities bring me a lot of joy since I don’t have expectations for them.
I’d also like to pat ourselves on the back for being really frugal. Our car was VERY efficient in terms of gas, and we bought supplies for our breakfasts and lunches at Safeway so we didn’t have to eat those meals out. In total, we drove 1400 miles over the 7–8 days we were there. This is the most I’ve driven in a long time, and it was so fun! Overall, this trip felt like a sampler, the tip of the iceberg of a region so large and beautiful. I know, for a fact, that I’ll be back. This is the first of many trips to the lovely Pacific Northwest ❤ Perhaps next time, we’ll actually find Bigfoot ;)
