San Diego to Seattle Road Trip

I%26#39;ve posted on the California forum and realise I should now post here and in the Washington forum about our proposed itinerary as we move out of California.

We%26#39;ll be flying into LA from Sydney on July 29 and are planning to hire a car with a one way rental and drive to San Diego and then up the coast to Seattle, arriving around August 13 to 15. We%26#39;re in the early stage of planning our itinerary and would appreciate some comments and suggestions.

After we arrive in LA on Wed July 29 we plan to drive to San Diego and spend the Thursday and Friday there before heading back to LA and then on to San Francisco. We%26#39;ve been to LA numerous times so we won%26#39;t be spending any time there. We could take 3 days to travel from San Diego to San Francisco, arriving on Monday evening August 3. We would then spend two days in San Francisco before heading north on Thursday 6th.

If we can fit it in we%26#39;d like to travel via Yosemite and perhaps then on to Lake Tahoe when we leave San Francisco before heading north.

We%26#39;re mainly travelling for photography and I love mountain as well as coastal scenery so I%26#39;m sure we%26#39;d enjoy travelling on either route. As we travel from California to Oregon and Washington there will be coastal as well as inland places worth seeing so I would appreciate any suggestions on an ideal route, with 7 to 10 days to travel to Seattle after we leave San Francisco.

At this stage I%26#39;m looking at:

Thu 6 San Francisco to Yosemite

Fri 7 Yosemite to Lake Tahoe via Mono lake

Sat 8 Lake Tahoe to Lassen Volcanic NP

Sun 9 Lassen to Redwood NP (possibly stay at Crescent City)

Mon 10 Crescent City - Crater Lake - Portland

I had a reply on the California forum telling me driving times from Lassen and I see that I%26#39;m not going to fit in the drive from Crescent City to Portland via Crater Lake in one day. Maybe Bend would be a good place to stop for that night. After arriving in Portland I would then like to visit Astoria and then travel through to Seattle via Mount St Helens National Monument, Mt Rainier National Park and Olympic National Park.

Will I be able to fit in all this and arrive in Seattle by Thursday evening Aug 13? We may be able to have one more day, arriving in Seattle on Fri 14th but we%26#39;ll need to fly out of Seattle on Sat 15th. I may have to leave going in to Mt Rainier NP and spend more time in the other two.

Thanks for any advice you can offer. There%26#39;s so much to see and I know we can%26#39;t see it all. I do like to stop often for photos and would like to allow time for this.

Early in the trip I%26#39;m allowing three days to travel from San Diego to San Francisco. We%26#39;ll have two and a half days in SD as my son wants to go to both the Zoo and the Wildlife Park. Maybe we can do that trip in two days rather than three, and then allow an extra day in Oregon or Washington.

San Diego to Seattle Road Trip

Hi again, Ken. I continue to be concerned that you are trying to cover far too much ground on your trip! I know you want to see ';everything';, expecially since you are from such a long way away, but I don%26#39;t see really any time to do anything other than -- ';quick, stop the car, gotta get that shot, click, okay let%26#39;s go';!

In CA I would skip Lassen and Lake Tahoe, to be honest. I%26#39;ve been to both places and in my opinion, Oregon%26#39;s Crater Lake and Newberry Volcanic Monument (Bend) are more interesting and unique. A lava tube, cinder cones, mountain lakes, waterfalls are all part of Newberry.

I have never been to Yosemite, but do know from reading the forums that the waterfalls will most likely be *dry* in August! Multnomah Falls and the many others in the Gorge are not dry, ever.

Coastal scenery for photography is of course, prime, but you%26#39;ll miss the entire Oregon coast :-(

I%26#39;d also skip Mt Ranier in WA, but include Mt St Helens, although it takes about a half-day to see it.

San Diego to Seattle Road Trip

Oh, hopefully others will chime in . . . I think many locals are off for the long Thanksgiving Day weekend. We stayed home because it%26#39;s *sunny* - a rarity here on the coast in late November ;-)

Ken, see my detailed reply on the WA Forum.

AS you will see, I agree with half-Brit, re: your itinerary. But will go further and support her comments about skipping Lassen, Tahoe... like her, been there, done that, several times. Duplicates, sort of, what you will see elsewhere.

Mt. Rainier might be worth it if you create more time, but this is a full day there, touring, and back to lodging.

I%26#39;d emphasize Olympic National Park, because it is sea level to Hurricane Ridge, a mile high; Rain Forests, and much more. And the town of Port Townsend is worth a visit if inclined.

http://www.olympicpeninsula.org/

For Seattle visit, I created a sample itinerary on the Inside Pages:

tripadvisor.com/Travel-g28968-c93928/Washing鈥?/a>

I agree with half-Brit and voyaging. Lassen Peak and Lake Tahoe are vastly over-rated and Mono Lake is just plain boring. Yosemite in the summertime is unbelievably crowded. If you feel you must see Yosemite, just make the trip from San Franciso to Yosemite Village via El Portal, then loop around and head north through Groveland back to I-5.

You can then head over to the California coast to Crescent City, or continue north on I-5 to Medford and drive to Crater Lake from the south. Loop around Crater Lake--You now have two options: Go north to Bend, stopping at Newberry Crater and then head back to I-5 via one of several mountain passes to Salem/Portland.

2nd option: Continue around Crater Lake and take Hwy 138 west all the way to Reedsport on the Oregon Coast. Then travel up to Oregon Coast to Astoria. This would be my recommendation--The Oregon Coast IMO is the most beautiful in the entire USA, including Alaska and Hawaii.

Mt. St. Helens is an absolute %26#39;must see%26#39;. Much more interesting that Lassen. Mt. Lassen has not erupted since sometime in the 1930s, St. Helen%26#39;s big eruption was less than 30 years ago in 1980, and she is still steaming.

Voyaging%26#39;s suggestion of Olympic National Park is great too, if you can work it in. I prefer it to Yosemite.

My first thought was ackk! that is way too much to do. To give you an idea of distances, it takes one full day driving on I-5 from San Fransisco to Portland. THere is no possible way to drive from Cresent City/Crater Lake/Portland in one day without missing all of the scenery you want to see. Glad to see others have steered you away from this.

I like Kitters option 2- go to Crater Lake and take Hwy 138 west to the Oregon Coast and follow Hwy 101 up to Astoria. Explore that area and then follow Hwy 30 over the Longview Bridge to Washington and you would be right near Mt St Helens. And on to your Washington sites. I would definetly stop at Mt St Helens over Rainer, if you have to choose between the two.

Agree that Lassen/Mono lake interesting, but given the short time frame, there are more scenic things to see in the west. If you want to see volcanic landscapes you can easily see this in the Bend area-which would be more direct on your route. You would have to take Hwy 20(or scenic Hwy 242?) instead of Hwy 138 from Crater Lake over to the Coast.

In my opinion, Crater Lake is much more beautiful that Lake Tahoe, but I supposed Im biased. In California, Yosemite worth the trip, but I%26#39;d skip Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake.

Yosemite is one of the world%26#39;s wonders. However, if you think you%26#39;ll want to spend any time there, you%26#39;ll have to make reservationas as soon as possible (even for camping in the valley).

nationalparkreservations.com/yosemite.htm鈥?/a>

www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/camping.htm

Yosemite is not a drive-thru experience. If you go, you should allow enough time to explore and appreciate it%26#39;s treasures.

Thanks again to everyone for your advice. I can see I need to make major changes as I don%26#39;t want it to be as HB said it could be -- ';quick, stop the car, gotta get that shot, click, okay let%26#39;s go';!

I realise it would be better if we were doing a round trip as we could then travel one way up the coast and return on inland roads. This trip started as a trip to Alaska, with us flying in to LA on Wed 12 August and then flying straight to Anchorage and hiring a car for 12 days before joining a southbound cruise to Vancouver on Mon 24 August. We%26#39;re lucky to be using Frequent Flyer miles for our flights between Australia and the U.S. and can change the dates so long as seats are still available. Since it%26#39;s a 14 hour flight from Sydney to LA I had been wanting to extend the trip to see somewhere else while we%26#39;re in the U.S. but my wife didn%26#39;t want to be away for so long. Our 21 year old son has now decided to come with us and he%26#39;ll fly in to LA with me on July 29, two weeks earlier than originally planned, and my wife will now fly into San Francisco a week later, on August 5, so we have to plan the itinerary so we pick her up then. Our son wants to go to San Diego to see the zoo and the wildlife park so we want to have two full days there before heading north. I%26#39;ll talk to him about whether we can leave visiting San Diego for this trip but he is keen to see it, after we visited the zoo here in Sydney a couple of weeks ago and he took some wonderful photos with his new DSLR camera.

I went to Yosemite in December 2004 on a day trip from Vegas and had lovely weather and took some great photos so I can see it would be best to leave Yosemite from our plans for this trip. We can always do a future trip concentrating on the southwestern area and spend more time in Yosemite then. I think it would be better to concentrate on seeing places further north that we may not get back to in the future. Since we have to pick up my wife on Wed Aug 5 we may as well still do San Diego for our son and then drive to SF along the coast.

If we then head north from SF we could take the coast road or take the 101 then travelling through Eureka and Redwood NP to Crescent City. Kitters option 2 sounds good from there - going to Crater Lake and then taking Hwy 138 west to the Oregon Coast and following Hwy 101 up to Astoria.

This should make it easier than fitting in Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Lassen Volcanic NP. I would appreciate some comments on how long to allow for the trip from SF to Crescent City and then on to Crater Lake and back to the Oregon coast on up to Astoria. We would leave SF on Thu Aug 6.

Thanks again.

Ken

San Francisco to Astoria-- Here%26#39;s my suggestions:

Day One: San Francisco to Crescent City on Hwy 101

Driving time - 6 1/2 hrs.

Day Two: Crescent City to Crater Lake - Driving time about 3 1/2 hours. This will give you the rest of the day to sightsee around Crater Lake.

Day Three: Crater Lake to Reedsport - Driving time about 3 1/2 hrs. Spend a little more time at Crater Lake or you might might want to continue north on Hwy 101 from Reedsport to Florence and take a dune buggy ride on the Oregon Dunes.

Day Four: Travel along the Oregon Coast to Astoria. About 6 hours driving time.

Day Five: Astoria to Mt. St. Helens and return to I-5. Days are long in early August so you could probably drive on into Seattle.

Kit, Kit, Mono Lake plain boring, how can you say that? And Bodie also%26#39;s close and Tioga Pass...but as OP already has been to Yosemite (did you really did that on a daytrip from Las Vegas?) he may follow another route....

While in Astoria, don%26#39;t miss the Maritime Museum there! www.oldoregon.com is a nice website for this area. Enjoy your travels! :)