Well, I've got to say that I am completely exhausted, I'm about ready to collapse. I'm going to spend the rest of the night in the hotel just resting up so I'm ready to make it to California tomorrow. Today was my day to explore every part of Astoria (And Cannon Beach) that I could and see if I could find all the Goonies movie scenes. It was so cool actually finding the places, I felt like I was in the movie, which if you're going to feel that way about any movie, it should be one of the greatest adventures of all time. Anyway, onto the pictures!
I started out walking west towards the bridge, as it looked like it was going to rain, and there were more scenes I wanted to photo to the west than the east. I made it all the way to Astoria's HS Football field when the camera battery died, so I had to walk half a mile to a gas station to get some more. I made it back, and found the field! This is quite possibly the best matchup I've had the whole time. Remember (you can tell by quality, but just in case) the top picture(s) is from the movie, bottom are mine.
If anything was going to be exactly the same 20 years later, it was going to be something owned by the school department. I was so psyched that every little thing, the shack, the stands, everything was in the same place. The met the guy who maintains the field, he says that people come every couple of weeks to photograph it, though he wasn't quite sure why the movie was so popular. He did know all the other movies they had filmed in Astoria (TMNT 3, Short Circuit, Free Willy, Ring 2, Kindergarten Cop). In an effort to get a financial "in" in Astoria, I asked if the school's director of technology was leaving any time soon (His name is Scott, it turns out, btw). His assistant said that Scott may be retiring in a few years, so perhaps I have my ticket to Astoria after all!
Anyway, I said thanks to the two people and continued on, my next stop was to find the museum where Mikey's dad worked (the scene where they zip by him on bikes).
The "museum" is really the flavel house, but its actually a houses the historical society! The awesome part is, right across the street is the county jail where Jake Fratelli escapes after Francis lights a ring of fire and mama drives them both away to safety. I was thinking of doing the whole fire thing for the effect, but I dunno if it would have been a good idea.
Also - when I was walking around I happened to come across this:
Astoria is just THE place for movies and movie stars it seems. Also, just to give you an idea of how awesome the view is from just about everywhere, I found the most rundown backstreet parking lot I could, and it still looked like this.
I hiked back another 3 miles to the other side of town to find the last treasure of Astoria, the Holy of Holies of the Goonies world, Mikey's house.
And then I realized later that you can actually see the thing right from my hotel, I didn't realize it the entire time.
At this point I headed over to the store, picked up some eats, and went back to my hotel to eat some lunch and just relax, I had done a bit of walking (about 5 miles or so total). Couldn't rest too long though, I wanted to shoot down to Cannon Beach and Ecola Park to see the rest of the locations. Ecola Park is about a 40 minute drive south of Astoria on the coast.
The kids ride their bikes here, but in the movie they make Cannon Beach look like its a part of Astoria, its just the MAGIC of movies I guess. Anyway, the forest scene on bikes.
I'm slight down the road a bit more, but I managed to find the spot. The drive itself to Ecola Park is _awesome_, you're basically travelling through thick woods down this windy road for a few miles, its fantastic. When I finally made it, I paid the guy 3 dollars to park, stepped out, and immediately saw something I recognized.
If you take a look, they're the same rocks, the three in the foreground and then the pointed (this one Haystack rock, a major landmark) in the background. The funny part is, in the movie, Mikey is standing in front of these 4 rocks looking through Chester Copperpots key, and sees the restaurant and the Haystack rock, that was just shown behind him. When you see the restaurant location, you find out they added in the rocks and did some more movie magic.
I have to say though, this area is just magnificent, the rocks, the ocean, the cliffs and everything, I stayed here for a while and just sat and watched the waves. It was all just very surreal with Haystack rock being so clear in my mind from the movie. Also the first time I had see the Pacific ocean from land, I was excited!
The last one was the toughest to place, as they constructed the restaurant that the fratellis shoot the FBI guy in, and the Haystack rock is not in the back, and no debris is around in the area. But, here it is.
I have my camera at a bit of a different angle, but this is the place. This was the only section of land that lined up, plus if you look behind the "ORV" (as they call it in the movie), you see an old stump (in this picture you can't really see it, the ORV is way too far away on the right in the background, but if you watch the movie you'll see it). I read about another guy on the net who had found this location and found this stump as well - when I looked, the stump was gone TOO, but luckily they had recently unearthed it and a huge gaping hole in the ground was left over, so I knew I had made it to the right place. So when the hole fills in there will be absolutely no clues except for the tree and ocean line that will indicate the scene. I guess this isn't such a big deal, but from the looks of the net there are quite a few people out there still doing what I am.
Anyway, I headed back to the car and drove back up to Astoria, made it back to the hotel, and that's where I am now. Off to Fresno, CA (my birthplace!) tomorrow to hang with the family for a day.