joy1941

Seniors from Minneapolis, MN taking a drive from Sacremento, CA to the Redwood Forest and beyond into Oregon and then back to Sacremento Middle of June 2011. Suggestions on places of interest on the way to and from. We enjoy art museums, specific places of interest, ideas of where to get good food, clean reasonable places for overnight stays.
Love being by water, art communties, local folks. Wine vinyards, Mostly want to acquaint self with the western coast of the USA.
I appreciate any imformation anyone is willing to share.

Joyce

Bobmrg

Joyce, it might be a good idea to post this in the Oregon forum as well. I have some ideas for you, but there are conflicts. If you go up I-5 from Sacramento into Southern Oregon you will drive through the Lake Shasta area and could stop in the little village of Mount Shasta to get your arts fix. Turn west on highway 199 at Grant's Pass, OR, after a stop in artsy Ashland, and drive southwest to the ocean at Crescent City, where you would pick up US-101 for the drive south through the redwoods. Just before reaching Crescent City you will pass through Jedediah Smith Redwoods state park. When 101 heads inland you will pass through the Humboldt Redwoods state park, the Richardson Grove SP, and the Smith State Redwoods Preserve. Leave 101 where CA-20 intersects south of Willits and drive east through beautiful Clear Lake to the freeway and back to Sacramento.

Driving north on I-5, just south of Dunsmuir, you will see the Castle Crags; well worth a photography stop.

Does that cover the area you are interested in? You will miss the glorious views of the ocean in Oregon north of Crescent City...by going further north than Grants Pass and taking highway 42 from exit 120 you will pick that area up but, unless you take a small detour, will miss Jedediah Smith Redwood SP.

tomfuller

Plan for arriving in Sacramento? Budget? Time you plan to be away from Minneapolis?
http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/Conten...mtrak/HomePage
Consider riding the Amtrak Empire Builder from MIN to Portland, Oregon. Either rent the car in Portland or take the Coast Starlight to Sacramento.
The Coast Redwoods are in the Coastal Mountains including Redwood National Park in northern CA and Muir Woods.
The Sequoias (different Redwood species) you want to see are in Yosemite and Kings Canyon/Sequoia NP.
If you choose to fly to Sacramento, rent your car there and try to see At least Yosemite before heading for the coast south of SF. Try to make it at least as far north as Crater Lake National Park in Oregon.
If you have loads of time, Amtrak has 15, 30 and 45 day USA Railpasses which are a true bargain.

janisj

We really need to know how many days you have in total. (discussions of Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and the coast south of SF, which no matter how fabulous they are, are definitely not on the route from Sacramento to OR, seem totally counter productive IMO)

Let's get back on track here . . .

How many days? Are you flying in/out of Sacramento or are you visiting some other parts of CA while out here?

Shanti

Joy, how much time do you have? Yosemite is stunning, but it's very crowded in June and it's a four hour drive each way from Sacramento. So it's an entire day just to get there and back plus the time you'd spend there. It takes even more time to go down to Kings Canyon/Sequoia. I don't see how you'd have time to go there during this trip.

I like Mendocino which isn't that far from Redwoods National Park. It's beautiful and relaxing. It's on the ocean, there's lots of good food and art galleries. It does not, however, have reasonably priced places to stay. There's wineries nearby in Anderson Valley.

bbqboy

http://www.ashlandchamber.com/Sectio...?SectionID=103