• Haystack Rock | Cannon Beach, Oregon
    Oregon

    Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach, Oregon

    On a recent trip to Oregon, I had planned for us to visit Cannon Beach to see Haystack Rock. As one of Oregon’s most recognizable landmarks, it gained its fame for my generation in the opening scene of The Goonies, when the Fratellis are fleeing from the police. But that’s not the reason why I wanted to see it. I had heard that in low tide, you can walk right up to the 235-foot monolith to view clusters of bright…

  • Crater Lake | Oregon
    Oregon,  United States

    Crater Lake National Park, Oregon

    If you’re visiting southern Oregon or northern California, you absolutely must check out Crater Lake. I’ve had a fascination with Crater Lake for just about all of my life. As a child, seeing pictures of a volcanic island rising out of a lake in the Encyclopedia Britannica was such a curious sight to me. In 2011, While visiting the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in nearby Ashland, I finally got a chance to see it in person, after which I was even…