PNW Escapes

PNW Escapes Hidden gems. Scenic drives. Local adventures.

Whether you're a lifelong Northwesterner or a welcome visitor, we ask a lot of the places we call home for a few days. 🌲...
07/23/2026

Whether you're a lifelong Northwesterner or a welcome visitor, we ask a lot of the places we call home for a few days. 🌲🏔️

One weekend they're drying ski clothes. 🎿

The next they're rinsing sand off after digging razor clams. 🦪

By summer, they're home after a long hike, with muddy boots by the door, camera batteries on the charger, and maybe a wet dog curled up on the rug. 🥾🔋🐕

That's why something interesting happens the moment you walk through the front door.

You start deciding whether you trust the place.

Not consciously.

You just do.

It isn't the granite countertops or expensive furniture.

It's the tiny decisions.

Someone cared enough to put all the forks in the same slot. 🍴

Someone checked the flashlight before you needed it. 🔦

Someone stood in the kitchen and wondered, "If I were making pancakes tomorrow morning, what would I need?" 🥞

Those little acts are almost invisible...until they're missing.

One little oversight? No big deal.

A second? Now you're paying attention.

A third? You're opening drawers you didn't even need to open looking for things you don't want to use. 😄

The best vacation rentals aren't memorable because they're luxurious.

They're memorable because, somewhere along the way, somebody stopped thinking like an owner...and started thinking like a guest. ❤️

That's the kind of quiet care that never makes the website...but somehow makes the whole vacation better.

What's the first little thing that tells you a place was prepared with care? 😊

🌲🏡✨



PNW Escapes Kim Roberts Visit Oregon State of Washington Tourism Visit Idaho

🔥 The Pacific Northwest is putting on one of its greatest shows right now...and one of its toughest.Smoke fills the sky....
07/23/2026

🔥 The Pacific Northwest is putting on one of its greatest shows right now...and one of its toughest.

Smoke fills the sky. High winds are in the forecast. Farmers may pause harvest because one spark in dry fields can change everything.

It's a good reminder for the rest of us, too.

If you're heading out to hike, camp, or explore this weekend:

🌲 Check for fire restrictions before you go.
🚗 Keep your gas tank at least half full.
📱 Keep your phone charged.
🥾 Tell someone where you're headed.
🚫 No campfires.
🚬 Never toss cigarette butts from a vehicle.
🌾 Pull over only where it's safe. Hot exhaust systems and dry grass don't mix.

🐻 Smokey the Bear has been reminding us for generations that people prevent wildfires. That's still true.

The Pacific Northwest is an incredible place to explore. Let's help keep it that way.

What's one wildfire safety habit you've adopted over the years? 🔥🌲



PNW Escapes Kim Roberts Visit Oregon Visit Idaho State of Washington Tourism

Some trailheads tell you where to hike. This one tells you why. 🌲Cross the beautiful bridge into the Pulaski Trailhead a...
07/21/2026

Some trailheads tell you where to hike. This one tells you why. 🌲

Cross the beautiful bridge into the Pulaski Trailhead and you've already started the journey.

💺 The first several hundred feet are paved, making the interpretive exhibits easy to enjoy in almost any weather and accessible for visitors of all ages and many mobility levels.

As you wander through the displays, you'll discover why the trail bears Ranger Ed Pulaski's name, how a simple firefighting tool became his legacy, and how the town of Wallace chose to remember both the tragedy and the triumph of the Great Fire of 1910. 🔥

If you're up for more, continue the two-mile climb to the overlook, where you can see the abandoned mine tunnel that became a place of refuge for Pulaski and many of his firefighters during the fire.

Some hikes are remembered for the views.

This one is remembered for the people. ❤️

🥾 About 2 miles to the overlook
🌉 Beautiful bridge and accessible interpretive trailhead
🐕 Leashed dogs welcome
🚗 Limited parking
📍 Wallace, Idaho

Have you hiked a trail where the story stayed with you long after the scenery?



PNW Escapes Kim Roberts Visit Idaho

🏕 Basecamp matters.The best trips aren't always the ones with the most miles. They're the ones where you unpack once an...
07/20/2026

🏕 Basecamp matters.

The best trips aren't always the ones with the most miles. They're the ones where you unpack once and spend your days exploring in every direction.

That's why Seaside makes such a great Pacific Northwest basecamp. 🏄 Catch the surfers at The Cove in the morning, wander Cannon Beach by lunch, explore Astoria in the afternoon, hike Ecola State Park when you're craving a trail, and still make it back in time for a Pacific sunset. 🌊

Less time checking in and out. Less windshield time. More discovering. ❤️

What's your favorite Pacific Northwest basecamp? 🌲



PNW Escapes Kim Roberts Visit Seaside, Oregon Visit Oregon Oregon My Oregon

Exploring the PNW often means crossing paths with interesting creatures...and not just the other hikers. 🥾🌿If you hope t...
07/19/2026

Exploring the PNW often means crossing paths with interesting creatures...and not just the other hikers. 🥾🌿

If you hope to spot a praying mantis, you'll need to keep your eyes peeled. (Which sounds painful, so maybe just keep your eyes open. 😂) 👀🐜

Mantis facts:

👀 Turns its head 180°.

🙏 "Praying" is just the pose.

⚡ Lightning-fast strike.

🦗 Eats flies, crickets, moths & spiders.

❤️ Mate-eating? Sometimes.

🥚 One egg case: 100–300 babies.

🌿 Camouflage expert.

🌍 Most PNW mantises are European imports.

👁️ Five eyes.

Have you ever spotted one in the wild? 🤔🌿

🐜

PNW Escapes Kim Roberts

🌎 The best tourist attraction in Wallace isn't a building.It's a joke.In 2004, Wallace was frustrated by the EPA's expan...
07/17/2026

🌎 The best tourist attraction in Wallace isn't a building.

It's a joke.

In 2004, Wallace was frustrated by the EPA's expansion of the local Superfund site. So the town decided to settle an entirely different argument instead.

They declared themselves the Center of the Universe.

After all...

Who was going to prove them wrong?

🕳️ They even installed a manhole cover to mark the exact spot. Twenty years later, visitors are still standing in the middle of the street to have their picture taken.

The funny part?

The joke outlived the argument.

Wallace has a habit of turning yesterday's headlines into today's attractions.

🔥 The Great Fire became a trail.

💃 The bordellos became a museum.

🚋 Silver mining became a trolley tour.

It didn't just preserve its history. It gave it a sense of humor.

📍If you're driving I-90 through northern Idaho, don't just pass through. Wallace proves that sometimes the best travel stories start with a town refusing to take itself too seriously.

❓What's the strangest thing you've ever stopped to photograph on a road trip?



PNW Escapes Kim Roberts Visit Idaho

07/16/2026

"Blain! Don't crinkle the water bottle... I'm filming butterflies!"🦋😂

Peaceful nature videos don't just happen.

They involve shooing perfectly nice people out of the frame.

"Hide behind that tree!"

"You're in my 360!"

If you've ever wondered why my PNW Escapes photos and videos never have people in them, it's not because I travel alone.

It's because I want you to imagine yourself standing on that beach, beside that waterfall, or quietly watching butterflies instead of watching me.

The funny part?

The people I keep chasing out of my photos and videos are often the very reason I remember the trip.

The scenery is for you.

The memories are for me.

💚 Who do you love to travel, explore, and escape with?



Kim Roberts Blain Roberts Visit Idaho

🎶 Before there were playlists, there were road songs.I think my first was Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg. Somewhere in ...
07/15/2026

🎶 Before there were playlists, there were road songs.

I think my first was Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg. Somewhere in college, "Tell Me to My Face" became more than a song. It became road music. 🏎

Today's road music is different.

It's Bob Seger's "Turn the Page."

🏍 I never wanted a motorcycle, but the minute that song comes on, I'm Peter Fonda in "Easy Rider"... right up until I glance down and realize I'm driving a Dodge Caravan.

Apparently, I have vehicular dysmorphia.

That's the magic of road music. It doesn't just fill the silence. It quietly transforms the journey—and sometimes the driver.

🎶 So now I'm curious...

What was your first road song?

And what song changes who you become behind the wheel today? 🚗



Kim Roberts PNW Escapes Bob Seger

🍔 I stopped for what sounded like a clown burger and instead learned Boardman, Oregon, was no joke.How many towns—or eve...
07/13/2026

🍔 I stopped for what sounded like a clown burger and instead learned Boardman, Oregon, was no joke.

How many towns—or even businesses—get moved and live to tell about it?

The famous Bozo Burger at C & D Drive-In caught my attention because of its name. I assumed it had something to do with a certain red-haired clown.

It doesn't.

"Bozo" was the nickname of longtime owner Jack Bozarth, and the name has been making travelers smile ever since.

But the burger wasn't the biggest surprise.

Boardman has actually been relocated twice. Once to make way for the highway, and again when construction of the John Day Dam meant the original town would be flooded beneath what is now Lake Umatilla.

Even more remarkable, C & D Drive-In moved with the town.

I came for a burger with a funny name.

I left wondering how many businesses get picked up, moved to a new town, and spend the next sixty years pretending nothing ever happened.

Turns out, the Bozo Burger wasn't the unbelievable part of the story.

Have you ever stopped somewhere for one reason and discovered a story you never saw coming? 📍



PNW Escapes Kim Roberts Visit Oregon Oregon My Oregon

🌲🥾 We all hike the same trails, but we rarely see the same forest.I have a habit of bringing my favorite authors along.N...
07/10/2026

🌲🥾 We all hike the same trails, but we rarely see the same forest.

I have a habit of bringing my favorite authors along.

Not as audiobooks.

As literary companions whose voices have taken up permanent residence in my imagination.

Imagine hiking the same Pacific Northwest trail with each of them.

Patrick McManus would introduce you to a cast of wonderfully named characters, lead you into a beleaguered adventure born of one questionable decision, and somehow turn the whole fiasco into the best story you'll tell for the next thirty years.

Tessa Bailey would have an impossibly attractive stranger appear around the next bend. You'd immediately get off on the wrong foot, exchange enough witty banter to make everyone else uncomfortable, and somehow arrive at the trailhead convinced fate had been involved all along.

Temple Grandin would have you thinking in pictures instead of words. Suddenly you'd notice patterns in the ferns, the geometry of a spider's web, the rhythm of hikers passing, and details your brain usually edits out.

The trail never changes.

The story does.

🥾📚 If you could borrow one author's imagination for your next hike, whose would you choose?

🌲✨📖



Kim Roberts PNW Escapes Visit Oregon Visit Idaho Share Your Washington

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