rojak

I'm planning a road trip from Palo Alto to Seattle and back, within 7-8 days in May. I'd really appreciate any input on the suggested must-sees and validations if my below draft itinerary is realistic:

day 1 - Drive to Yosemite
day 2 - Yosemite
day 3 - Leave Yosemite, drive towards oregon
day 4 - visit crater lake state park, oregon caves,
day 5 - go up to washington, visit Olympic national park, seattle
day 6 - driving back down, visit oregon dunes national recreation area
day 7 - drive home.

(I've been to muir woods, napa valley, SF, so would just skip all those)

I look forward to all your feedback. Thanks!

happytrailstoyou

You are trying to squeeze too much into too little time.

In May, the road around Crater Lake is likely to be mostly buried in snow.

Your holiday would be less frantic if you concentrated on Yosemite, the redwoods, and the Oregon coast.

Returning home, you might consider driving the stretch of Highway 1 north of San Francisco.

HTTY

nytraveler

Do you have a helicopter?

If not - don't see how this begins to be doable.

You have left no time anywhere to actually see anything - except on Day 2. Just driving from Yosemite to Seattle is about 16 hours - without even any stops for fuel or food - so 2 full days in the car sitting and seeing nothing.)

janisj

That is simply impossible. Have you looked at a map? Yosemite to Crater Lake to Olympic NP is over 1,000 miles.

You are talking well over 2,000 miles and probably 40+ hours behind-the-wheel time w/o a single stop. That would be a rush trip in two weeks.

janisj

meant to add - when I saw your title I assumed you meant CA > Seattle which is doable. But not round trip, not Yosemite, not <i>both</i> Crater Lake AND the OR coast, . . .

tomfuller

Another foot of snow fell in Crater Lake National park in the last 4 days. The north entrance will not open until the first week of July.
Drive north on I-880 and I-5 to Weed, CA. take US 97 north to Bend, Oregon. This should take 9 hours. Spend a night in Bend. Spend a few hours in the Bend area and then head north on 97 to Madras and take US 26 to Rt. 35 to Hood River - about 3 hours.
Make day trips from Hood River to Mt. St. Helens, Seattle and Portland.
Head to the coast from Hood River and spend a night near Newport. See the Oregon Coast Aquarium.
From Newport you can make it to Crescent City seeing Redwood NP on the way back to Palo Alto.
Don't try to add Yosemite or Crater Lake to this May trip.

suze

As above, no it's not realistic. Are you in your own car? (that you need to do a round-trip). It might work if you only drove it one-way then flew home.

tenthumbs

Unless you have the helicoptor to which nytraveler refers, you are not going to be seeing anything but the interior of your car. You need to google the distances between those sites. It's about an 8-10 hour trip from Yosemite to Crater Lake~you will not be able to see the lake, let alone the caves.