Mt Rainier or Mt St Helen

This is a new tread as suggested by half-Brit. My husband and I are planning a 2 week trip in mid-June to celebrate my 60th birthday ( we are young at heart) and want to spend 6-7 days on the road between Seattle and San Francisco.We live on a Caribbean island and want to explore the NW as much as possible without killing ourselves, we love nature, the arts, good food and wine and non-touristy places. I%26#39;ve read that Crater Lake is beautiful but iffy at this time, what do you think? If this is out we need help deciding between Mt.Rainier %26amp; Mt St Helen. We plan going down the coast on 101.We want to stay overnight in the Florence, Yachats area but realize this is too much driving for 1 day. What would be a good place for 1st overnight?On our way down we%26#39;re looking for a great place to spend the night and see the redwoods .We are on a $100-150 budget for hotels, can we do it this time of year without reservations? Car rentals with drop off charges are expensive, AAA is the best I have found.Anybody out there know about any deals? All suggestions for a super trip are very welcome!

Mt Rainier or Mt St Helen

Happy 60th!

I provided information on your WA post.

I%26#39;d skip Mt. Rainier in favor of Mt. St. Helens as it is, to my mind, more interesting and more accessible.

You ask about overnight in Florence, Yachats, but say it%26#39;s too much driving in one day. Can you provide your itinerary in WA State so we know what one day means? If you see Mt. St. Helens as you depart WA State, you might want to lodge in, say, Seaside so the motel costs are within reason and that will be the end of a long enough day.

From there, either that evening (days are long here) or en route south, you can visit Cannon Beach (it%26#39;s close to Seaside) and stay next in, for example, Newport - again, possibly holding costs down, though it isn%26#39;t that far. Newport offers much to see and do - the drive, with stops south, and the Newport visit can take a day. You certainly want to see the places I noted on the WA website (e.g., Yachats/Cape Perpetua), and that location will use time for which you will be pleased.

You will find plenty of nature but for the arts, there are lots of galleries/studios along the coast -here are some that deal with finer art. You%26#39;ll want to check the websites provided for exact locations.

Some finer galleries along the Oregon Coast. I%26#39;m sure others can add to this list.

Freed (www.freedgallery.com/), Lincoln City

Triad (Seal Rock/Windermere Office)

Lawrence (http://www.lawrencegallery.net/), Salishan)

Earthworks (www.coastvisitor.com/home.cfm?dir_cat=70112), Yachats)

Hawk Creek, (http://hawkcreekgallery.com/) (Neskowin)

Mt Rainier or Mt St Helen

So as voyaging mentioned, have you formed a rough itinerary yet as to where you are thinking about overnighting?

Do look at this motel in Yachats as it has a wonderful location and is in your price range:

http://www.firesidemotel.com/

If you spend much of a day in Mt St Helens, perhaps Seaside would be okay for that night. There is another poster here who will make suggestions, but do keep in mind that Seaside is *very* congested and crowded in the summer.

Here is a motel in Seaside which is *away* from much of the congestion:

http://seasidelanai.com/our_hotel.php

Or you might stay in Manzanita, a quiet little town. They have a very good pub and a mid-range motel on the beach:

http://www.sunsetsurfocean.com/

Farther south, Crescent City has this motel right on the beach:

http://www.crescentbeachmotel.com/

Do you want to stop in-between Yachats and Crescent City? It is about a 5 hour drive, not counting stops.

I would suggest booking ahead for all of these motels, as summer is busy here!

From Crescent City to SF, it is a very very long day, so would strongly suggest an overnight, perhaps around the town of Myers Flat or Garberville in the redwoods. You might want to opt to take CA Highway 1 south from Leggett, but keep in mind it is a fairly slow road. If you did that, stay overnight around Ft Bragg.

Did I give you this website?

shannontech.com/ParkVision/鈥edwood.html

You also might enjoy this:

http://redwoods.info/showrecord.asp?id=2464

Oh, as far as Mt St Helens v. Ranier, Mt St Helens is very unique and has a great visitors center that gives much information about the eruption. Well worth a visit!

Here is a car rental broker. I know nothing about them, just found them on the internet! They have great prices so would be worth lokking into.

http://www.americacarrental.com/

Mt. St. Helens and Mt. Rainier are both great, but very different from each other. Mt. St. Helens in mid June will be accessible, but you would want to be sure that it isn%26#39;t socked in the day you plan on going. The visitor centers are excellent, and Johnston Ridge is a must see! Mt. Rainier will still have a lot of snow in mid June, which would limit activity. If you are thinking of hiking trails, that is best done July and onward.

Just to repeat what everyone else said, I too will put in my vote for Mt. St. Helen%26#39;s. Just a lot more to see and do on the way up there. As Mtngrl said, if it is socked in by fog the drive all the way up to Johnston Ridge might not be worth it.

Hello,

I will cast another vote for Mt. St. Helens. I have not visited Rainier yet, but I am still amazed at what I saw at the many visitor%26#39;s centers at Mt. St. Helens. There are four total, but Johnston Ridge is really the best one. There%26#39;s a nice trail that begins at the center that loops you down into the parking lot. It%26#39;s only about 1 mile and provides some nice views of the crater and surrounding mountains.

As the others have said, be watchful of the weather. If you have an overcast or foggy day, it might not be worth it. If you have any doubts, stop at the first visitor%26#39;s center, Silver Lake, and ask the employees about the view of the mountain before continuing up 504 to Johnston Ridge.

As a side note, we visited Crater Lake on a trip to the area last year, and although I really enjoyed seeing the lake, I have to say I was much more impressed with Mt. St. Helens. The visitors centers really provide tourists with an excellent view on what happened before, during, and after the eruption. All 4 centers are very well done.

Have a great time!

Well, first with two weeks out here I would not spend half in SEA and SFO specially with your stated interest of nature and scenery. I would think of more like 8-9 days of 14 traveling. 2 days in SEA and 3 in SFO enough, and really more than I would spend for first timer to west coast.

We spent 2 nights in San Juan before moving on to USVI and felt it was enough.

I agree with phirl, 2 days in Seattle and 3 in San Francisco and spend the other 9 days on the road seeing our beautiful Pacific Northwest.

I live less than an hour away from Mt. St. Helens and about 1/1/2 hrs from Mt. Rainier and have been to both many times. Unless the weather is just totally awful, you will see Mt. Rainier often while in Seattle and traveling south along I-5.

Mt. St. Helens is something unique. Plan to stop at the Visitor Center at Silver Lake, just 5 minutes from I-5, even if the weather seems bad. There are actually now just 3 Visitor Centers at Mt. St. Helens. Mt. St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake, the Weyerhaeuser Forest Learning Center, and the Johnston Ridge Observatory. (Coldwater Creek Visitor Center was permanently closed last November.)

You can make the drive up to Mt. St. Helens as you head south toward the Oregon Coast. Allow at least three hours to drive from the I-5 exit at Castle Rock to Johnston Ridge and return. Daylight is long in June, so you could spend the night around the Longview/Kelso area, or take highway 30 to Astoria (less than an hour drive from Longview).

The following day you could easily drive to Yachats or Florence. But you will probably want to make some other stops on the way there.

Kitters,

I didn%26#39;t realize Mt. St. Helens is currently down to 3 visitors centers. Thanks so much for the info. Coldwater was closed when we were there in August %26#39;08, but now it looks like Hoffstadt Bluffs is closed for renovations. This was the one that had the very large gift shop and helicopter rides if I remember correctly.

Thanks to all for the great advice,half-Brit the car rental is not yet working in the US, will keep checking.

OK, here I go, 2 more questions;

1 - carsickness and 101, is there some part to avoid if you get like really car sick?

2 - Redwoods- best place to experience, Oregon or North Ca ?

channel