2 week CA, OR, WA Road trip
 

My wife, adult daughter and I are thinking about spending ~2 weeks in mid-June driving between San Francisco to Seattle (or maybe to Vancouver), and we are looking for suggestions on where to go and what to see.

Questions

1. Is that a reasonable scope for a 12-14 day trip?

2. We'd probably prefer to spend a couple of nights in an area than necessarily "covering distance" every day, so what are a few good places to use as a base for local trips.

3. Is it better to start in the South and drive North, or vice versa?

Parameters

A. We are all experienced drivers and two have previously driven in variety of conditions in the US, but we'd probably prefer to not to go on any "scary" routes in terms of driving conditions, as our reflexes are conditioned for driving "on the other side of the road".

B. We need to fly out to Australia at the end of the trip, so need to end up somewhere with good airline connections to SFO or LAX.

So, all suggestions are welcome.

Cheers,

Bill
Sydney, Australia

Hello Bill, I hope NeilofOz sees this thread of yours as he and his lovely wife drove from the SF Bay Area through to Vancouver. If he doesn't see this thread I will email it to him tomorrow as a gentle nag to respond to your question as he too of course is use to driving on the left side of the road.

A few years ago my mother and I did a similar trip. We flew into SFO and spent a week driving to Seattle. We visited Sonoma, the Avenue of the Giants (fabulous!!!), Eureka, Bandon (great 4th of July fireworks and lighthouse), Florence and Tillamook (Sea Lion Caves, dune buggy ride, cheese factory - fun touristy things) Cannon Beach, Mt St Helens, Mt Ranier, Seattle, Anacortes (orca whale watching). It was a wonderful trip. If you are a little uncomfortable with driving on right side of road, you might want to go South to North so you are on the "inside" along the coastal sections and not on the edge of the road?

Also consider the Columbia River Gorge and Crater Lake in Oregon. It sounds like you have plenty of time and you should have a great trip!

That's definitely a good length of time--I did a pretty leisurely RT Seattle/SF road trip last spring in 10 days, although I know Oregon well so didn't spend as much time there on this trip as you will probably want to.

North to south usually works better to be able to pull off easily to the scenic areas to the west of 101, but I can see luvtravl's point as well (although that would really only apply to Hwy 1 not to 101, IMO).

Your time frame is good for a trip like that. I suspect you might get a better rate on one-way car rental heading south to north; otherwise it doesn't really matter. Drop-off charge for the car in Canada could be fairly high.

There are really two+ major routes for driving N-S; you will may want to avoid too much switching from inland to coast. The inland route will be roughly along highway I-5, the coast along US-101.

Highlights inland starting from South... Yosemite NP is very nice in June, though a few hours SE from your route. The California gold country is somewhat interesting with the little towns along CA-49. Several places for good whitewater rafting in that area (American River probably best). Lake Tahoe is a popular winter/summer resort area. Crater Lake in southern OR is very nice. Portland makes a good small city stop, though there's not as much going on as SF or Seattle. Mt St Helens (still very interesting to see volcanic explosion site), and Mt Rainier are also good spots.

On the coast, you start with SF. There are some very nice coastal daytrips from SF (Pt Reyes, Big Sur); if you drive the very scenic OR coast, you might skip these, but if you go inland you might want to do one. The wine country N of SF is enjoyable. In coastal N CA, you have the redwood forests. Gold Beach OR has interesting boat trips up the Rogue river. Olympic NP up in WA has a number of very scenic sections; don't miss Hurricane Ridge if you are there.

Scenic places tend to have mountain roads :( Of the points I've mentioned, Big Sur, parts of Yosemite, S OR coast, and parts of Crater Lake probably have the most challenging roads (dropoffs and turns), but all are paved and of adequate width.

One thought would be 2 days SF, 2 days Yosemite, 2 days, wine country, 2 days S OR coast, 2 days Portland/ Mt St Helens, 3 days Seattle and vicinity (allow for some substantial drive times between some of these; try setting a route SFO-SEA in google maps and then dragging the line to your other stops).

Thanks everyone for the responses so far. I will start looking at how they might work for us!

Any further suggestions would also be welcome!

Cheers,

Bill

Bill,
I agree with the stops that others have suggested, but I think you should especially not miss The San Juan Islands in the NW corner of the state. Go to Anacortes, WA (1 1/2 hours N of Seattle) to catch a ferry to a number of the islands. Ferries travel entirely on "inside passage" waterways, so there's no ocean roll, just a calm graceful tour through an island paradise. Friday Harbor on San Juan Island is the biggest town in the islands, and there are great B&B's there. The scenery is world class, and there's lots to do, including whale watching. Or consider stopping at Lopez Island or Orcas Island, both of which have quaint little towns with great accomodations and restaurants. There's just something special about exploring an island in the middle of one of the most beautiful regions in the world. Do a little exploring on the web and you'll agree.
Type "Anacortes Ferry" on the web for a schedule. Then type "San Juan Islands" for a guide to the islands.