Look straight ahead and you might miss Munson Creek Falls.

Along the Oregon Coast Highway south of Tillamook, over the Trask River and beyond the block letters “air museum” on the rooftop of a blimp hangar turned roadside attraction, is a small sign that points east down a narrow road leading to the 319-foot waterfall, said to be the tallest in the Coast Range Mountains.

Or Haystack Hill State Park, an often-missed network of public trails that cut through ferns and salal bushes under a forested canopy overlooking Cannon Beach’s iconic 235-foot sea stack.

Both are relatively short hikes, as are many of the other places mentioned in this edition. (There are longer options, too. Sections of the Oregon Coast Trail around Tillamook Head, for example, or the Fort to Sea Trail.) Both are also relatively unknown, even to people who live here.

What is well-known is that the coast and mountains near the Columbia River are home to an abundance of options for exploring the outdoors, from trails modeled after the 19th-century explorations of Lewis and Clark to activities like kayaking, fishing, mountain biking, golfing, kite flying and zip lining.

There is also plenty of camping. State parks at Cape Disappointment and Fort Stevens offer rows of campsites within walking distance from the ocean. Nearby are vintage airstream trailers, RV parks, cabins and yurts.

And there is the newer addition of Snow Peak Campfield Long Beach, a 25-acre campground with a communal ethos imagined by a Japanese outdoor brand.

If you look, there is always somewhere new to explore.