Day 4: We got up for sunrise to meet up with our other friends. It was definitely an exciting reunion since we’ve been traveling with each other a lot recently. We hung out and shot around Smith Rock. I think all of us were pretty tired so we decided to stay close to the parking lot. We made some coffee and shared stories about the first few days. Next we went into Bend to get some food and more coffee of course. Emma and I explored the town and found the cutest outdoorsy shop called Scout and Pine.
After regrouping we all caravanned out to a campground one of us knew about. We made once stop along the way to this boardwalk area surrounded by hills covered in fossilized soil. We stretched our feet and ate some snacks before getting back in our cars. At this point we had no service so stopping was our way of communication. I’d highly recommend if you have multiple cars on a road trip brings some walkie talkies. Once the nice paved road ended it took us awhile to reach our spot. Factoring in the drive it took us to get to our campsite we decided to just set up versus try and find somewhere to shoot. I don’t think any of us truly minded since we are right next to a river, which is absolutely gorgeous. Once we felt a little bit more organized we started the fire, made some food, and swapped stories. We had an early night since our plan was to make it to these specific hills by sunrise.
Day 5: we got up around 5/5:30 AM packed everything up, loaded the car, and started heading to our next spot. Now one thing that I've learned on my many content trips over the years has been, a photographers love for sunrise. On every trip there's always at least one sunrise shoot. This usually entails getting up at ungodly hours depending on how far away you are from your location because of course, you have to factor in the drive time as well. Also depending on where you are maybe the mountains might block the sun for a little bit, or like us in the situation we had to pack up a whole tent at 5am. For me, I also have to look somewhat decent because I know I will most likely be in the subject of some of these images. So I'm usually doing my makeup in the front seat on bumpy, windy, roads half asleep. Anyways just to show you the difference in light, the first image is from my phone before we left to our next spot . The other images are taken by my friend Brandon (@goodenouf) just as the sun was coming up.
After making coffee and enjoying the scenery a little we left to make a stop at Mount Hood, while on our way to Portland. So apparently they don't typically plow the snow on the road to our location, so that means we had to hike our way in. It wasn't bad except there was definitely a layer of snow which made it a lot slipperier and some of us didn't have the correct shoes. I luckily brought these super nice weather resistant boots that Luggz gave me. I’ll link them below. After about 2 miles we made and to the frozen lake, where we took pictures, ate snacks and made bird friends.
Once we got to the Airbnb we changed out of our hiking clothes and went to grab some food nearby. We found this cute Thai place with the best food and cocktails called Farmhouse kitchen Thai cuisine. A new friend Emma also met up with us
Day 6: Woke up to load the cars and then of course get coffee as the first stop. Next we went the toursity route and stopped by Multnomah falls. If you go anywhere in Oregon be sure to at least stop there, I mean its right off the road so its hard to miss. We took some photos here and one more spot along the way to Seattle.
Also peep the long exposure from my iPhone.. not too shabby even though its not the best quality. Emma and I started a series we like to call levitate haha so you may see a few more like that.
Here’s a viewpoint we stopped at for some more pictures and to stretch our legs. It’s by the Colombia river gorge. Enjoy some of these candids I captured.
From Oregon to Seattle, WA its about 4 hours so back into the car we went. I can’t stress this enough but make sure you have some solid playlists downloaded to someones phone so when you lose service you don't lose the music too. Or you can just take turns playing music depending on whose driving.
At this point the two cars split up, we went to the public market to walk around an experience that area. We ended up eating at Pink Door where I had some delicious mussels and garlic bread. I had an early night that night since I knew we were doing a long hike the next day.
