Hello everyone! Welcome to last installment of my Portland series blogposts. Finally, I know! Today I wanted to share with you all the outdoor adventures near Portland! Most of these locations are only about an hour or so outside of the city so they're easy day trips to get away to. I want to try and keep this one short and sweet but there's a lot to get to so keep on reading!

Our first outing from the city was to Cannon Beach, Oregon. Located about an hour and half outside the city, it's an easy, beautiful drive through the forest. Of course, it rained just about the entire time to and from the coast, but what's visiting the PNW without a little rain right?

When we arrived to the coast, we went to Ecola State Park. The weather this day was not exactly "beach weather". It was very windy and very cold. We first stopped at the secluded Indian Beach and pretty much just walked up and down the coastline. We watched crazy surfers endure the frigid waters and crazy waves and seagulls attack crabs that would wash up on the shore. That was definitely added to my list of "Coolest Things I've Seen in Nature".



We wandered around until we couldn't bear the cold anymore and ran back to heat up the car. We made one last stop to take in the views of the Pacific Coast before heading to Cannon Beach.


Cannon Beach was definitely a super touristy town, but super cute nonetheless. We definitely had a hard time finding our way to the beach. Don't get that confused with "we didn't know where the beach was"! I'm pretty confident in knowing which way the ocean is. We just didn't know HOW to get there, as far as beach access. We ended up parking in a nearby lot and walking right across the street to it! I didn't feel so bad when we were heading out and others were asking us how to get there.


Cannon Beach was absolutely mesmerizing. We wandered out onto the beach and I ran around in the sand so happy to be there. Like I said, it was extremely windy and extremely cold. My poor Sadie did not appreciate that, thus spending most of her time wrapped in blankets in my backpack. After getting to the point that I could no longer feel my toes, it was time to pack up and head back to the city.


The Columbia River Gorge is the perfect place to head to if you're as enamored with waterfalls as I am. Beginning about 30 miles outside of Portland, there are amazing trails, views and waterfalls to fall in love with. There are two I want to tell you about today but as always, definitely explore for yourself and see what you can find.

Multnomah Falls is definitely the tourist stop of the gorge. You'll have to fight for parking and fight for that Instagram shot, but I would say it's definitely worth it. It was an absolutely gorgeous sight. After seeing it countless times on my Instagram feed, I still was not disappointed. After seeing the Spurs visit just last year, I knew I had find my way there ASAP. So happy I finally did.


Latourell Falls is very underrated. You can view it from the parking lot, but why not get closer right? Lyle was brave enough to scramble across the wet rocks and get almost right under the falls. I wish I would have gone as well but I had my camera equipment to attend to. Either way, it was a massive waterfall and I could have stayed there for hours being hypnotized by it's beauty.



We actually spent the last half of our trip at an AirBnb in Hood River, Oregon. Staying here, we had easy access to Mt. Hood National Forest. Hood River was a cute town by day, but shut down pretty early by night, so there wasn't much to do.

Our first stop out in Mt. Hood was Lost Lake. We went on the last day they were open for the season, which was lucky for us because everyone was just about gone from the campgrounds. We basically had the entire lake to ourselves and it was amazing. It was so serene to just sit and watch Mt. Hood dance in and out of the clouds from the lakeside. We explored around the lake a bit before snapping a few photos for my friends at Weekend Tee.




Timberline Lodge was recommended to us by our Airbnb host. It sits at the base of Mt. Hood and was actually used in the filming of The Shining for a few exterior shots of The Overlook Hotel. The Shining is one of my favorite movies, so I found that little fact pretty exciting! On our way up towards the lodge, we pulled over and noticed it was already snowing! We stopped for a few to look around and freeze our butts off before decided to head back down the mountain.



Since this is the last you should hear of Portland (no promises), I'll end it by sharing the video of our trip! I hope you enjoyed this mini series slash the way I broke down our trip this time around. I tried to make it informative and helpful for whoever is planning a trip out to Portland! If you're ready to book your first trip with Airbnb click here for code from me! :) Again, I hope you enjoyed and thanks for reading!