While planning my road trip across the beautiful United States this summer, I handpicked several destinations based solely on their picturesqueness (yes, that’s a word. I looked it up).

In other words, I had seen great photographers on Instagram take amazing photos at these places, and I wanted to be cool like them.

One of the more notable locations was the Rowena Crest Viewpoint, a sweeping overlook situated above the Columbia River Gorge. Below, the Historic Columbia River Highway calmly wound up the side of the gorge into the tree-spotted golden hills of the serene Oregonian countryside.

Upon arriving at the top of the gorgeous plateau, my brother Johnny and I gathered our things and exited my small, black, and slightly abused Hyundai Accent. As usual, I grabbed my camera bag and locked the door behind me. Immediately, I realized I had left a few important things in the car: my keys and my phone.

Despite quickly realizing our predicament, Johnny and I headed to the edge of the small cliff to get what we came for: pictures of the winding highway in the quiet Oregon landscape. After a few minutes of shooting my brother in the dreamy scenery, we decided to face our fate and attempt to break into my car.

We gathered our resources: tree branches, my camera strap, the car antenna, and a shoe lace. We carved the branches into several small wedges and a hook to tie onto the end of the antenna. After twenty minutes of fiddling with the driver side door, we were triumphant. It took some very concentrated effort, but was absolutely worth it — if only to avoid spending the night on the ground with nothing but our clothes and my camera.

We drove back down into the gorge feeling like we had conquered the world and spent the night comfortably in a campsite nestled among the Ponderosa pine trees of Northern Oregon.

Be well, Auburn.