There’s something magical about those unplanned moments that happen when you veer off your carefully plotted travel route. The restaurant you stumble upon that serves the best meal of your trip. The roadside attraction that becomes your new favorite place. Or, in the case of Peak Northwest podcast host Jamie Hale, an impromptu sheep parade taking over the highway.

Generative AI was used to summarize a recent episode of the Peak Northwest podcast. This story was reviewed and edited by The Oregonian/OregonLive.

During an episode exploring Oregon’s least-visited state parks, Hale recounted an unexpected highlight that had nothing to do with state parks at all. While driving along Oregon 244 through rural eastern Oregon, Hale had an unusual experience.

“I came upon an enormous flock of sheep on the highway,” Hale recalled. “I had first had seen this truck driving the other way and it had this like orange flag it was waving out window as it drove and I was like, ‘Oh that’s that’s weird, but I guess I’ll keep an eye out for something.’”

What followed was a scene straight out of a movie — hundreds of sheep filling the entire roadway, forcing Hale to stop and wait as they streamed around his vehicle. Rather than feeling inconvenienced, Hale embraced the moment.

“It was the most charming experience,” he recalled with delight. “Rolled down my window and just listen to all the sheep do their little bleating and stuff, it was super weird and cool and I loved it.”

The sheep encounter happened precisely because Hale had chosen to take a less-traveled route specifically to visit some of Oregon’s most overlooked state parks, he said. Had he stuck to the interstate, he would have missed this unique slice of rural life that became, in his words, “a cool lifelong memory.”

Catherine Creek State Park is one of Oregon’s least-visited park sites, found in rural Oregon. Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

Finding those unexpected attractions might involve deliberately choosing less-traveled routes, building buffer time into your schedule, or simply cultivating an openness to detours when opportunities arise, Hale said.

“I think it’s fun to go see some spots that like you’re not going to see otherwise,” he said. “I mean I would have never seen that big flock of sheep had I not done this.”

Listen to the full Peak Northwest episode, where he shares more unexpected discoveries and travel insights from his journey through the state’s least-visited parks: