Portland . Mt Hood . The Gorge . Seattle : WOW

It was our first visit to the Pacific Northwest area of the USA and it exceeded all expectations! Check out the review of our travels in this month's feature blog post.

We had been planning this epic trip to the Pacific NW since the beginning of 2026. The main cause of this trip was to attend a multi day show at The Gorge Amphitheater just outside of Quincy, Washington and as we began to book and plan the trip, it quickly turned into a week of incredible day hikes, city sightseeing and amazing food!

Erin and I flew into Portland, checked into our hotel downtown and instantly went on a coffee tour to find all the well known roasters in town. I was sure to pick up a variety of beans to bring home and now officially spoiled with the beans that were bought. We got a good night's sleep and continued on the to the famous Mt Hood region of Oregon for some day hikes and sunrise postcard photo opportunities along the way.

About 30 minutes outside of Portland is one of the highest and most viewed waterfalls in the country. The monstrous 600+ foot Multnomah Falls was truly spectacular and even better at sunrise as we were the only people there for about 20 minutes. This gave me the quick opportunity to capture the falls without anyone else in the frame. We climbed 11 switchbacks to the very top and thoroughly enjoyed the morning temps as they were in the high 40's with minimal humidity. The next stop was Horsetail Falls, just a few miles away and then pressed on to the enchanted forest the locals call Little Zig Zag Falls.

We arrived to the Mt Hood area just after lunch, checked into our hotel at Government Camp and drove to the historic Timberline Lodge which is where The Shinning was filmed. The top of Mt Hood is over 11k feet and captured some really cool angles of the mountain and surrounding areas.

We spent the next few days exploring the area and checked all the hikes off our list. The iconic Trillium Lake was also a bucket list item for us and we got there at sunrise for the ideal location for the postcard shot! All the research said to get there early to capture the shot of the sun hitting the top of the mountain but more importantly to capture the shot while the lake is calm which allowed for a perfect reflection in the water. Only a few minutes after I got what I wanted, a flocks of geese flew onto the water and instantly rippled the reflection. The early bird always get the worm and in this case the early bird gets the photo :)

Erin and I drive to Hood River, Oregon to take a few hour train ride through the area, a pit stop at The Hood River Winery and then back on the road to Moses Lake, Washington in preparation for the multi day festival at The Gorge. We have been avid electronic music fanatics since the late 90's and our favorite group, Above and Beyond, hosted a 3 day music festival to celebrate their 700th episode of their podcast radio show. Thousands of people from all over the globe made the pilgrimage to The Gorge and now I know what the big hoopla is about the venue. The view, the acoustics and the vibe of the show was magical and glad the wife and I could experience that together!

In addition to Above and Beyond being the headline act, they also had over 20+ Dj's on their record label perform and was cool seeing all those big acts back to back throughout each afternoon into late night.

Our final day was spent in the beautiful city of Seattle. We made it to the historic Pike Place Farmers Market which is the country's oldest running market and dates back to the early 1900's. We ate our way through the market, had numerous delicious cups of coffee and wrapped it up with a ferris wheel ride to see the city sky line from over 100 feet up.

Erin and I are thankful we made the time to travel to the Pacific NW and now know why it is such a coveted part of the world. If you have not been, be sure to add it to your bucket list and hope my visual perspective positively influences your decision.

Have a great day and happy travels....

Hood River Railroad

The Gorge Amphitheater

Micciche Photo Travels

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Discovering the Pacific NW : Mountains, The Gorge and Cities

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