Portland

Nate and Amy continued on with me to the next few stops, Crater Lake National Park, Bend, Oregon, and Portland via the Columbia River Gorge. Oregon quickly became my favorite overall state on the whole trip. The ever changing landscape is best described by the pictures. Crater Lake, the deepest in the U.S., was created by the collapse of a volcano, the tip of which now forms the island in the middle of the lake. We took a drive around the rim and a short hike up to the ranger tower station to get the best view of the lake. It is the bluest, most pristine lake I have ever seen, so much so that it almost looks fake. Pretty awesome. From there, we headed to Bend, Oregon, but first Amy knew of super secret hot springs that we found thanks to her amazing memory.

We arrived to Smith Rock, our campground in Bend, at night and awoke to a beautiful view. It was a fantastic campground on a cliff, overlooking a river. Oh and Nate’s birthday! That called for a day of brewery hopping with some of Amy’s San Fran friends, who are also trekking across the country, choosing vans as their mode of transportation. The day was one extremely well spent, especially since Nate rocked a man bun, you know, to fit into the Oregon lifestyle.

The next day we made our way to Portland by spending the whole day driving along the Columbia River Gorge. It was amazing, once we got to the state park area, it was basically a road of waterfalls. Every new little town we drove through had at least one brewery and endless views. It was already my favorite state and I hadn’t even made it to the Oregon coast yet. We ended the day in Portland, hit the town for a bit, and got in some much needed showers. I said my goodbyes to Nate and Amy the next morning; thanks for making such wonderful road trip buddies, I’ll see you in Bacontown!

Curl power

Man bun!

Ice cream proposal

Kevin and I rolled into Portland, Maine after Connecticut to an outstanding campsite right on the ocean at Recompence Shore campground, located at Wolfe Neck’s Farm. The working farm houses sheep, cows, chickens, goats, and a number of vegetable gardens. It is attached to a state park, so the hiking was fun. Downtown Portland was also neat, and Kevin got to hit the beach for the first time. The campsite was actually located in Freeport, Maine, the original home of L.L. Bean. I checked out their campus as well, and it was giant and pretty cool. Since I’ve been avoiding major highways as much as possible, I really get to see the beauty of Maine. It also means I pass by tiny towns and on my way out, I ran into Top Dog, a cute little hot dog stand that I had to stop at of course. It was pretty bad though and I am already getting sick of hot dogs. So I’m on a hot dog fast for my next leg, Acadia National Park.