CANNON BEACH, Ore. The evening sky is gunmetal gray, while lemony clouds soak up the last rays of the sun before it slips down below the Pacific horizon. Basalt rock formations jut up out of the churning water, all awkward and jagged. The most prominent is Haystack Rock, at 235 feet high the third-largest coastal monolith in the world.
November 6, 2003
We had Tom Sawyer summers. My brother, cousins and I would run wild around Lilliwaup, population 600, some 15 minutes north of Shelton on Hood Canal. We'd spook ourselves silly at the tiny ancient graveyard tucked away in the wooded hills, swearing we felt the presence of ancestral spirits. We'd splash around Lilliwaup Creek while our dads, decked in hip-waders, fished for trout and kept telling us either to be quiet or go away.
May 15, 2003
MCKENZIE RIVER VALLEY, Ore. -- It's early and the sun is peeking out in slivers from behind craggy edges of the Cascades. I've just driven 3 1/2 miles up a frosty, winding road in anticipation of taking the first dip of the day in Terwilliger Hot Springs, which trickles down to Cougar Lake and eventually, the McKenzie River.
January 2, 2003
JETTY ISLAND -- A toddler in a rainbow bathing suit, toting a plastic pail almost as big as she is, searches for the perfect spot, sits, and begins to dig in the fine sand.
Nearby, two boys run screeching along an expanse of squishy tideland into the warm, waiting water, their feet sinking delightfully with each step. A grandmother picks up a driftwood walking stick and begins to meander down a beach-grass-lined trail.
August 1, 2002
SANDPOINT, Idaho -- Nearly 100 years ago an old Swiss hermit lived on a hulking mountain smack in the center of Idaho's panhandle. It's no wonder he chose to stake out space there: He looked down to see the peaks of the Cabinet, Bitterroot and Selkirk mountains, which serve as the snow-capped backdrop to sparkling, glassy Lake Pend Oreille. He looked up to see 2,500 acres of open bowls and gladed slopes for his playground.
January 31, 2002
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