FAMILY ROAD JOURNAL · SUMMER 2026
Where the river meets the Pacific
From the Columbia to the Oregon coast, through the redwoods, and home across the Cascades.
JUNE 17–JULY 16, 2026
Thirty summer days. One road journal already taking shape.
The documented road journal
June 22–July 4- 01
June 22
River, basalt, and the road west
Columbia Hills → Astoria
Petroglyphs, still water, the sturgeon window, and the Astoria bridge holding the evening light.
- 02
June 23
Astoria, street by street
Astoria riverfront → Seaside
A waterfront morning assembled from small details before the streets gave way to sand.
- 03
June 24
Mist and Haystack Rock
The Columbia → Cannon Beach
A ship nearly lost to morning, then low tide turning the beach into a second sky.
- 04
June 25–26
Weather moving in
Cape Perpetua · Yachats · Sea Lion Caves
Tide pools, rain against the glass, and the Pacific continuing beyond the Fireside after dark.
- 05
June 27–28
The southern coast and the redwoods
Bandon → Crescent City → Jedediah Smith
Sea stacks and lighthouse rocks gave way to a forest that changed the scale of the journey.
- 06
June 30–July 1
Turning inland
Mount Shasta · the Cascades · Pullman
Snow-covered summits, open country, and 1,889.2 documented road miles back to family.
- 07
July 4
An afterward beneath the fireworks
Pullman, Washington
A final image beneath the July Fourth sky—an epilogue to the river, ocean, and road.