My 18 year old son and group of friends are planning a road trip from LA up to Seattle and perhaps to Vancouver, Canada, in August. They have 10 to 14 days to do this. They know that they want to stop in Santa Cruz, the San Francisco Bay Area, probably Portland, definitely Seattle. They will probably just do Vancouver as a one-day trip out of Seattle. They will all have passports. They want to do a lot of camping along the way to cut costs.

My son is pretty savvy about California, less so about Oregon and Washington, although we have driven from Seattle to LA with him, and he's seen us plan lots of trips. Some of the group are hikers, while others are more city kids who want to hang out and see what the cities have to offer. They plan to stick to Highway 101 and Highway 5, which I feel is better than a bunch of narrow, windy mountain roads or Highway 1 along the coast.

Does anyone have any thoughts on good campgrounds for a group of recent high school graduates? Good places to stop and cool things to do? Things to absolutely avoid? Do they need to reserve camp grounds ahead of time?

Any thoughts from those of you have experience with this part of the country, or who have done a similar trip in the past would be appreciated.

please clarify - do they have 10-14 days for LA to Seattle -- or for a round trip LA > Seattle > LA? That info would make a HUGE difference re how much they could see and which routes to take.

For the most popular campgrounds in most of the West Coast you will need reservations. However, some campgrounds are first-come first-serve and do not take reservations.

Also USFS campsites are much more primitive and may be more apt to need no reservation. Finally you can also look at private options like KOAs or independent RV parks but I don't know as much about those.

The other issue is that campgrounds aren't always on the main road so probably wise to get some maps printed out from different websites of all the possible campgrounds you may want to stay at.

Round trip. They will take their time getting there and then drive straight back in a couple of days. There will be at least two drivers so that they can share the driving.

Seattle to Vancouver is at least 2 1/2 hours, without taking into consideration the border crossing which can add a lot of time. Also, the drinking age in Canada is 19, if any of the boys in the group are 19 that could cause some problems. If they do want to venture farther North than Seattle they could add Bellingham. It's just south of the border and is the home of Western Washington University. It has a pretty cool, young vibe and leans a bit to the granola.

Thanks for the drinking info. I don't think any of them will be 19, but I wouldn't want any of them trying to pass for 19 either and getting into trouble! I'm concerned about the amount of time at the border crossing, and it seems like there is so much to do in Seattle that they don't need to go much further, although I think my son wants to say that he's been to Canada.

Many hotels and campgrounds won't rent to 18-year-olds.

Wow! I hadn't even considered that. I'll warn them that they need to do their research ahead of time for places that will rent to them.