The easily accessible part of America that's 'wild and cinematic'

FARM TO FORK

This is where my West Coast adventure starts, walking in the fields, where crops are grown for nine-bedroom hotel Inn the Ground and its acclaimed restaurant, Humble Spirit.

“It’s meditative to sit out at the end of the night, take the fallen apples and feed the cows. Just being out in nature really relaxes you,” says chef Brett Uniss as he prepares a salad of local walnuts, cheese, farm-grown carrots and salad leaves.

Having trained in some of the world’s top kitchens, including three Michelin-starred The French Laundry in Napa Valley, he wanted to get closer to the land – and ingredients. “You’ll notice our honey has a really deep flavour to it,” adds Brett. He’s not wrong, and I slip into a happy food coma after sampling his creations.

Heading next to the coast, I walk off indulgences with a stroll down Lincoln City’s colossal seven-mile sandy beach. My eyes are peeled because there’s treasure to be found. Finders Keepers – where local artists hide handblown glass floats among the dunes and rock pools – began as a way of boosting out-of-season visits, but now sees 3,000 floats hidden year round for visitors to keep.

Under the stars I toast a marshmallow in dancing flames. At the Headlands Coastal Lodge, Pacific City, my room feels like a rustic beach cabin, with stylised rough timber walls and hues of beachgrass. The 33-room hotel includes ocean-to-table restaurant Meridian, a spa and indoor and outdoor wellness programme.

WILD DUNES

Early the next day, after watching fog drift past the towering coastal monolith out to sea and across the sands, I join a yoga session in Headlands’ studio. Buoyed by my new-found muscles, I’m ready to climb Cape Kiwanda. Forming part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, which extends 40 miles along the coast – the largest coastal system in North America – the colossal dune system just along the beach is fierce. So steep, in fact, I begin climbing it like a ladder, pressing my whole body against it and trying not to look down. The wind whips my hair as I summit the windswept bluff and spot a passing whale just off the coast. It’s breathtaking.

And even before reaching Astoria, where The Goonies was filmed, I realise Oregon feels more than a little cinematic. After a short drive through Ecola State Park’s spruce forest, Indian Beach opens up, ringed by pines and dotted with boulders. A sign tells me this is where the final scene of Keanu Reeve’s Point Break was filmed.

Clamouring barnacle-covered boulders as the rollers crash in, I join Alana Kieffer with Shifting Tides, a marine biologist turned seaweed farmer and tour operator, who leads me foraging the beach, before we cook dulse seaweed, kelp and mussels. She’s also working with local chefs to educate on what an untapped resource it is and get seaweed on local menus. “Every town claims to be where the forest meets the sea,” she laughs, “but my point is the forest continues, way out into the sea.”

Passing a parade of waterfalls, the road to Hood River makes its way through the Columbia River Gorge. It’s time to get active. Kite-surfing was invented on the river of this small town in the shadow of Mount Hood’s snow-capped peak. It’s also home to six ski areas and the longest ski season in the US.

I jump on an e-bike with Sol Rides to ride the Historic Highway. Built in 1922 for the first wave of tourism, when the Ford Model T opened up the wilderness, this was America’s first scenic highway. Today, cars are banned. High above the gorge, the wildflowers are out, dancing yellow, purple and blue in the breeze. Two bald eagles circle the river, landing on a branch together. And down the path, we spot a bear heading into the forest. With Portland only an hour away, it’s easy to see why people have been long drawn here, where the wild is within easy reach.

Book it: A 10-night self-drive tour with two nights each in Portland, Willamette Valley, Pacific City, Astoria and Hood River with Purely Travel costs from £1,499 per person, based on two sharing. Including direct return flights from Heathrow to Portland with British Airways and car hire; purelytravel.co.uk/oregon.

For more information, see traveloregon.com