Explore The Dalles Brings the Sunny Trail to Driftscape
- Driftscape
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
The Sunny Trail is now live in The Dalles, giving residents and visitors a new way to discover local businesses, landmarks, parks and community organizations.
The campaign runs from August 17 to September 18, 2026. Explore The Dalles has paired its paper passport with digital missions, local trivia, photo challenges and prize entries through Driftscape. Participants can use either version or take part in both.
This is the first of Explore The Dalles’ seasonal trails to gain a digital experience, with plans to bring more of its year-round programming onto the platform.
A Familiar Program Gets a Digital Passport
Seasonal trails are a regular part of how Explore The Dalles encourages people to spend time in the community. The organization has already created experiences such as the Cherry Trail and Frosty Trail.
For the Sunny Trail, the team wanted to add digital participation while keeping the paper passport that local residents already know.
People using the printed passport receive a stamp for every $10 they spend at a participating business. Once completed, passports can be placed in campaign drop boxes for a chance to win one of two prize baskets filled with donations from local businesses.
The Driftscape experience offers a different way to participate. Visitors can browse activities on an interactive map, complete missions, answer trivia and submit photos or receipts using their phones.
Participating businesses display Sunny Trail window clings, making it easy to recognize stops while exploring The Dalles.
Inside the Digital Sunny Trail
The digital Sunny Trail currently includes 16 individual missions and four levels of local trivia.
Several missions bring participants into local businesses. They can enjoy coffee and a pastry at The Coffee Shop, grab a lemonade at Burgerville or find a featured painting at Artisan Market. Other stops ask visitors to choose their favourite candle at Adventurous Aromas or purchase some chocolate from Sigman’s Flowers and Gifts.
The trail reaches beyond shops and restaurants. Participants can take a photo at the Discovery Center, visit the Original Wasco County Courthouse, enjoy a picnic at Lewis & Clark Festival Park or cool off at the Northern Wasco County Aquatic Center.
Community support is also part of the experience. One mission asks participants to donate food to St. Vincent de Paul. Another invites them to bring school supplies to The Dalles Area Chamber of Commerce for delivery to local schools.
Each activity gives someone a reason to visit a specific place and do something once they arrive. That could mean making a purchase, learning about a landmark, enjoying a public space or contributing to a local cause.
Sharing the Stories of The Dalles
The four trivia tours introduce participants to the history, landmarks and stories of The Dalles.
Each correct answer earns an entry into the Sunny Trail prize draw. Participants can attempt the questions they know without completing the entire tour.
The trivia can be played from home, giving people a chance to learn about the destination before visiting or revisit its stories after they leave. Someone who discovers a landmark through a trivia question may decide to add it to a future trip.
Connecting Participation With Local Spending
Explore The Dalles wanted the digital campaign to provide a clearer view of how people participate.
Some Sunny Trail missions require a photo or receipt upload. These submissions help the team review contest entries and connect digital participation with visits and purchases at local businesses.
Driftscape can also pair receipt uploads with custom spending fields. Explore The Dalles is interested in using those tools to better understand visitor spending, including the economic contribution of cruise passengers arriving in the Columbia River Gorge.
The Sunny Trail has only recently launched, so spending results are not yet available. The campaign gives the team a starting point for gathering information it can use when planning future programs and reporting back to local partners.
Launching in 20 Days
Explore The Dalles and Driftscape began working on the digital Sunny Trail on July 28. The experience launched publicly on August 17, 20 days later.
Kristin Wilkins, Jessica Blackburn, Lynn Cox and Bobby Oswalt brought the local knowledge, campaign ideas and most of the content needed to begin building. The Driftscape customer success team helped organize that material into missions, trivia tours and contest entries.
Because Explore The Dalles had already developed the Sunny Trail concept, the team could focus on adapting it for digital participation instead of rebuilding the campaign.
Preparing for Four Seasons of Exploration
Explore The Dalles had previously used a platform focused mainly on scavenger hunts. As its seasonal programming grew, the team needed one place to manage more types of visitor experiences.
With Driftscape, the organization can build scavenger hunts and self-guided tours, maintain business information, offer coupons and manage contests and analytics within the same platform.
The Sunny Trail is the first step in that work. Explore The Dalles plans to bring more seasonal programming online and explore ideas that fit the character of the destination.
These future experiences can build on the same content, business relationships and visitor tools established for the Sunny Trail.
Follow the Sunny Trail
The Sunny Trail runs through September 18 and is open to residents and visitors of all ages. Participants under 18 should have permission from a parent or guardian.
Look for Sunny Trail window clings at participating locations, pick up a paper passport or open the digital experience to start exploring.
Tourism professionals in the Columbia River Gorge can also try the experience firsthand. Browse the missions, test your knowledge of The Dalles and see how a digital layer could work with a trail, passport or campaign in your community.
Comments