deafteacher

I am trying to plan a trip from MD to Oregon and Washington for Aug. I can tell you some places I'd like to go but really need help trying to figure out where to go 1st and in what order without spending too many hours driving in 1 day. In Oregon I'd like to go to Crater Lake, Columbia River Gorge, Cascade Lake, Mt. Hood, Cannon Beach, Mount St. Helens and Wine Country. In Washington, I'd like to go to Mt Rainer, Olympic National park, Seattle, San Juan Islands, Mount St. Helens, Lake Chelan, Snoquaimie Falls, Puget Sound, Wineries. What should we leave out and what should we see. Should we fly into 1 state and leave from another? Any help you can give us would be great. Thanks so much.

voyager61

I'll dive in on this one with some questions. You have a large number of things you want to see, spread out over many miles and across mountains and large bodies of water. So, first, how many days can you devote to this trip? And what do you like to do in the way of activities? Are you highly energetic and like to be on the go all the time? Or would you rather have some relaxation time sprinkled in with the sightseeing? If you could fly into either Seattle or Portland and out of the other, that would make things easier, but you want to see so much that if you have a lot of time for the vacation, you could do a huge loop.

happytrailstoyou

Wow! You are talking about the whole enchilada.

How many weeks (months) do you have for this sightseeing.

The only destination that isn't on most lists is Cascade Lake, OR.

Crater Lake is the most out-of-the-way destination on your wish list.

Mt. Saint Helens is in WA, not OR, but it is often visited from Portland.

It would be a good idea to fly into one city and out of another.

suze

Yes usually flying into one city and out of the other is a good idea, but with so much driving overall, it wouldn't really matter for this particular itinerary (Portland and Seattle are only 3 hours apart).

I think you'd need at least 30-days to do what you describe (going to 15 separate places).

You'll have to spend "too many hours driving in 1 day" at least a few days, because what you want to see is spread out ALL over two very large states.

Do you have a good map yet? I'd start with that & put markers on the places then use the internet to map mileage and distances.

A guidebook or two might also be useful for you at this point. No need to reinvent the wheel
;-)

NWWanderer

I see you've posted this question several times. I responded on one of the other threads you started.

suze

^^^