We're looking at spending a few days North of San Francisco. Departing from SFO and ending in Lafayette to meet up with family to head to a wedding.

We have been to SF before, so focus this time is northern coast region.

My thoughts -
D1 Arrive SFO PM, overnight near airport
D2 Head out of SFO, pick up food et al, head to Pt Reyes National Seashore. 2 nights near Pt Reyes.
D4 Head up the coast to Mendocino. Stops at Ft Ross for interesting historical stuff and Van Damme SP for Pigmy Forest walk. That walk can be done the next day if we don't have time. Stay in Mendocino 2 nights.
D5 Medocino Coastal Botanical gardens. We'll be "slow tourists" through this one.
D6 head up the coast to Trinidad. Maybe go through the Avenue of Giants on the way.
2 night Trinidad. Full day for Redwoods NP and maybe Jediah Redwoods SP

We are seniors. One uses a walker. He can walk a mile or two with the walker but it won't be "fast". We're looking forward to visiting the parks, but likely will be limited to the "accessible" trails and visitor centers.

Your thougths? Does this sound reasonable? And suggestions?

A couple of questions before we can give the best advice . . .What day of the week/time do you arrive and what how long is the flight? Those detail could make a huge difference re whether to stay near SFO or head out and especially traffic issues.

But a couple of quick comments. "Maybe Definitely go through the Avenue of Giants on the way."

BIG yes to the Botanic Gardens.

On your drive north between Mendocino and Garberville If you are in to wines maybe stop at Pacific Star Winery -- decent/not 'outstanding' wines in an absolutely glorious location. https://www.pacificstarwinery.com

Don't skip the Newton B. Drury Scenic Byway. I was more impressed by that than Avenue of the Giants. Hikes off the main road are level and easy, especially the one to Big Tree. The Byway is closed the first Saturday of the month October through May for bicycle events.

Don't miss the Larrupin Cafe in Trinidad for dinner. Also, the Lighthouse Grill is great for breakfast. We enjoyed a nice lunch at Trinidad Bay Eatery and Gallery. Speaking of galleries, there are a few nice ones there. Also great galleries in Mendocino. The Mendocino Market has a good selection of ready-made foods and a good selection of wines.

Austin Traveler, thanks for your great suggestions! Using the Prairie Creek Visitor Center as a destination looks like a good way to force GPS onto the Drury Scenic Parkway.

RE arrival time. We have not booked flight yet, but arrival to SFO will be evening. It could be around 7:30pm, 9pm, or midnight. If our flight arrives 7:30pm flight, it may make sense to pick up a rental car and get north of the city that evening? Midnight arrival - It will be an airport area hotel for the night. 9pm? Pick up baggage. Pick up a rental car. It will be 10 - 11 before we hit the road. We're coming in from east coast, so it won't feel that late. It might make sense to go north across the bridge that night? Plan is to head north over the Golden Gate Bridge towards Pt Reyes National Seashore. How bad is the bridge traffic going north in the morning? Good thing to know before we buy those plane tickets!

The 7:30 arrival would be nice, but the later flights are likely to be a better price.

OK -- with those flight times . . . IF you do land 7:30-ish I'd get a car and you wouldn't need to drive far -- just as long as you got north of the Bay. Sausaulito, Tiburon, Mill Valley etc. At that time of night it would be less than an hour's drive. Then it would only be an hour-ish drive the next morning to Inverness/Dillon Beach/Pt Reyes. If you stay at SFO you'll be dealing with the morning commute.

Even with a 9PM arrival I'd probably still drive to Marin County. Midnight - not so much. Maybe then I'd stay at an airport hotel but get a really early start in the morning. If you couldn't be on the road before 7AM-ish at the latest I'd relax with a good breakfast and wait until around 10:00 to drive.

janisj,
Thanks! I'll plan to nab one of those earlier flights.

We also live on the east coast, that time zone difference really confuses our metabolism for the first day or so. Landing at 7:30p will feel like 10:30p to you, so you might feel really tired. And we're up by 4am feeling like we overslept. But I agree, best to get north of SF as soon as possible so as to miss that morning inbound commute. The earlier your arrival, the better.

oops! I got the time zone thing backwards. Yes a 9 pm arrival will feel like midnight. By the time we pick up luggage and a rental car it will be 10 - 1am to our east coast bodies. We may need to grab an airport hotel for the night and leave the driving for the next morning. We will be jet lagged for a day or two. A half day of sight seeing our first day will be plenty.

Even the mid afternoon flight that arrives at 7:30pm is pushing the limit - It will be 8:30 or later by the time we get luggage and a car. Which will feel like 11:30pm. Unfortunately, 1 morning flight doesn't work well because we are several hours north of Boston. We would need to leave home before 5AM.

Thanks for catching my mistake!

If possible -- what I'd do is travel to Boston the evening before and take the first flight of the day

I recall the hike to the main grove as being too steep for a walker. There is a one way drive through redwoods though.

The Founders Grove right off 101 and the Avenue of the Giants is level for walking, very easy access.

Flights: Since you are closer to Portland or Manchester, have you priced a connecting flight from one of those airports to Santa Rosa? It may save you some time and money. Don’t forget to price out the car with different airport pickups.

Also could fly back from Oakland and do a one way rental, if that’s not too complicated.

Checking: There are no 2 flight options to Santa Rosa, so nothing to explore there.

Flying into SMF is also an option -- SMF is about the same distance from Trinidad and Mendocino as is SFO but less traffic headed north. Probably not better flight times but landing late, staying over in a nearby hotel and heading out first thing in the morning would be easier than fighting Bay Area traffic. You could do something like SMF > Trinidad > Mendocino > Pt Reyes > SFO or OAK or STS or SMF. This is a trip where open jaw would work well but not necessary.

tom_mn, Thanks for the warning about the main trail at Jedodiah Redwoods. A little more info please. Is the surface baby stroller friendly? Is it so steep you wouldn't want to use a baby stroller on it? Fortunately my husband uses the walker because of balance problems, not because he is weak. He regularly walks our 1.5 mile hilly street. It's not major hills, but the postman decided he wouldn't drive it last winter. (it seems they send out the mail truck without AWD or 4 wheel drive...)

I'm using the "baby stroller" question because he has pneumatic wheeled walker. If a path is jogging stroller friendly, it likely will be ok. The occasional stair is ok - it's like a curb. Larger flights of stairs would need to have a railing to grab. And the able bodied spouse will think twice about carrying that walker up and down a whole lot of stairs.

Thanks for all the alternative flight suggestions!

We have a strong preference for non-stop flights. Navigating connections with a walker and airport wheelchair is not easy, especially if the inbound flight is delayed. Husband can only hold whatever will fit on his lap, I have to maneuver the walker and any other carryon luggage. And a connection doubles the chance the airline will damage the walker. One bent wheel would ruin days of the trip. The walkers you can buy at your local CVS are not built for hiking...

I put the other airports mentioned for a non-stop or connecting flight into ITA-Matrix to see if what is available. BOS-SFO was the clear winner.

A BOS-PDX (Portland, OR) would work well, but one way car rentals from Portland are currently outrageously expensive. If the car rental prices drop $500 we'll consider PDX.

RE end of "Redwoods" part of our trip. We are not headed directly back to an airport. We will end the Redwoods trip near Walnut Creek on the east side of SF to meet up with family, head out for a family wedding in the Sierras, then south to San Diego. We have an open jaw flight planned. Arrive SFO, depart San Diego. To our delight, the one way car rental was priced the same as a SFO-SFO rental.

The J Smith SP trails are in Google Streetview so you can “walk” the trail on a computer. I was thinking of the Stout Grove as the main grove but there are others. I don’t think there is any special reason to drive all the way up to see these redwoods, they all more or less look the same. Maybe you are on a dare to drive all the way from Crescent City to San Diego in the same trip, if so it’s a very long way.

Just a heads up that almost all of the various CA State Parks are better than Redwood National Park. No need to focus on the NP. Reason being the Sate Parks were established before the NP and they got the very 'prime-est' old growth groves. The NP is fine but is really mostly the 'left overs'.

Where in the Sierra is the wedding? Depending on where it is there might be better options re routes -- If say at Tahoe or in Plumas County you could drive straight there w/o transiting through Walnut Creek.

Re stopping near Walnut Creek on our way to Sierras. This isn't a random stop. We're meeting a family member and giving her a ride to the wedding. We are headed to one of the towns near Mammoth. Flights don't run in early October, and drive is about the same from SF or from San Diego (or Vegas). We're taking advantage of the chance to do a bit of sight seeing north of SF before heading to the wedding.

After the wedding we'll head to San Diego for several weeks with kids and grandkids before flying home. Again, no good flight options. Drive to LAX to fly to San Diego? Crazy. Plus we'll need a rental car in San Diego.

I suppose we could charter a plane to get to Bishop or Mammoth, but that's definitely not in the budget.

I did start out looking at state parks instead of heading up to Redwoods NP. I may go back to that idea.

Not sure the month of the wedding but if the snow is gone could take Hwy 4 through the mountains and see sequoias at Big Trees Calaveras State Park. This would be an easy detour and allow you to see both giant tree species in the same trip. Sequoias are similar in height to redwoods but have substantially more girth.

If you can do the family meet up on arrival instead of after the redwoods, there’s pretty country heading east from Eureka that you will miss doubling back to the Bay Area. Heading south from Bishop to SD will mostly miss the LA traffic, although the “Inland Empire” traffic can be slow also.

Those new details would have changed several of the responses. As you know the drive from Walnut Creek to Mammoth is looooooong. Driving in from Las Vegas would save about 90 minutes car time -- but then there is the flight from the Bay Area or SMF to Vegas. It is unlikely in early October but there is the possibility of early snow which would limit your routes to Mammouth.

Just an option to consider to make your trek easier. While the north coast redwoods and Mendocino are wonderful . . . so are the Santa Cruz redwoods and Carmel/Monterey. If you visited Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, Carmel/Monterey, Point Lobos, the northern half of Big Sur (with even more redwood parks and glorious scenery) and then back to Walnut Creek to pick up your relative you'd get a lot of the same things with a LOT less driving/hassle

The drive from Walnut Creek to Bishop will during the end of September first days of October week. Thanks for pointing out Calaveras State Park. We're hoping to take route 4. It will be a long day, but it sounds like it should be a pretty drive. Should we plan on 6-7 hours driving plus time for a stop or two? Of course, it could turn into 8-10 hours if we run into delays. We have a bit of flexibility in our schedule, so we'll watch the weather and change the drive day if weather looks bad. There are alternative routes if there is early snow. If there are problems with wildfires et al, we could drop down and go over the mountains through Yosemite.

Re heading down to Carmel and Monterey. I'll take a look at that. We are looking forward to seeing the Coastal Botanical Gardens near Mendocino, so heading to one of the state parks in that area is also an option.

Fly to Vegas to save 90 minutes? Dealing with rental cars and airports and the TSA will add hours. My guideline is to consider flying only if I save 4 hours or more. This trip, the plan is to enjoy the drive over the mountains.