I would appreciate some guidance on my itinerary for a 2 week trip to the northwest.

fly into PDX and drive to Hood River - 2 nights lodging

travel to Ashford, WA for visit to Mt. Rainier NP - 2 nights lodging

travel to Tacoma - 1 night lodging

travel to Vancouver - 3 nights lodging

travel to Anacortes for ferry to Orcas Island - 3 nights lodging

return ferry to Anacortes

travel to Seattle - 2 nights lodging

overnight in PDX before flying home

What month? It might make more sense to fly into SEATAC to rent your car.
How much time do you want to spend in Portland?
Make sure you can take the rental car into Canada and on the ferries.
There is good light rail service from the SEATAC airport into Seattle. Amtrak has train and bus service between Seattle and Vancouver.

A couple of questions - why Tacoma? It's only about an hour's drive. You can drive to Vancouver in about 4 hours from there. What time of year are you planning to make your trip?

And then, if you have special interests, let us know so we can be helpful in recommendations. Thanks.

I'm with sludick--it's not possible to give you useful advice until we know the answers to the questions he has posed. I am curious, too, why you are skipping the Olympic NP in favor of three nights on Orcas Island. This loop might work for you: Hood River, Mt. Rainier, Olympic NP, Victoria, Vancouver, San Juan Islands, Seattle, Portland.

HTtY

Yes, I should have included some additional information. We are planning a mid-July trip and enjoy a mix of the outdoors and city life (e.g. fine dining and museums). We can no longer day hike 4-6 hours, but do enjoy 2-3 easy hikes. I prefer to spend less time in the car and more time observing nature which is why I limited our time moving point A to B to under 3 hours and/or 200 miles. We visited Victoria and Olympic NP in the past and found little of interest to warrant a return trip - might have been there weather. Our visit to Orcas Island will include a whale watch. Here is my revised itinerary:

Arrive PDX and travel to Hood River for 2 nights
Ashford, WA 2 nights to visit Mount Rainier NP
Tacoma on route to Anacortes - visit Dale Chihuly museum
Ferry to Orcas Island for 2 nights - whale watch
Vancouver 3 nights
Seattle 3 nights
PDX 1 night

Make one of your hikes up the paved path/steps at Multnomah Falls (along I-84 east of PDX).
Can you spend a night in downtown Portland instead of an airport hotel?
Can you confirm that you can take the rental car into Canada and on the ferries?
Packwood is your other choice for visiting Mt. Rainier.

tomfuller - we have Multnomah Falls on our itinerary. I was thinking that on our last full day we would drive to Portland from Seattle and spend the day before lodging near PDX.

At this point I do not know what time our return flight will be because SWA has not opened its schedule into July.

I have not looked into the rental car situation, but is that typically a problem? I know in the past I have flown into Seattle and not had an issue.

The reason I have chose to fly into/out of PDX rather SeaTac is car rental costs are lower.

westie, we typically use Budget when flying into Seattle, and taking the car into Canada is not a problem. You do need to tell them, so they can include the insurance verification you may need.

As to the car rental pick-up - depending on how recently you have been to Seattle, you will find that it has been moved off site. While it used to be very convenient, now you have to catch a shuttle that needs to negotiate some city streets. With the Light Rail completed, you can easily take it downtown and get your car there much cheaper.

The same goes for PDX, price-wise - rates are generally much more favorable if you rent downtown and take TriMet from the airport. Dropping off, you can take TriMet to PDX and the airport hotel shuttle, very convenient.

Yes, the end of the TriMet red line is right outside baggage claim at PDX. Depending on what time you get into PDX , you could take the light rail into the city to rent your car downtown.

You will probably be too early for wildflowers etc. at Mt. Rainier, so you might give some consideration to reducing the stay there to one night. What I would suggest in that case would be to stop at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, but plan on spending the night on Whidbey Island (ferry from Mukilteo) before heading to Anacortes for the ferry to Orcas.

...And a note that while the Bridge of Glass at the MoG is all Chihuly, there's far more Chihuly work on view in Seattle at the Chihuly Ego Garden (...oops, editorial) than at the MoG. So if the side trip to Tacoma is just about Chihuly, you could maybe save a couple of hours there, too. Not to say the MoG isn't a worthy visit, it is, but... well, you get it.

In my mind, subbing Deception Pass on Whidbey for a couple of hours at Rainier would be a very fair exchange.

Thanks everyone - your input is much appreciated. I am now considering dropping Orcas Island in favor of doing the whale watch out of Anacortes. This would free up a couple of nights - do you think it would make sense to drive to Mount Rainier and then connect to the Cascade Loop? If so, how many nights would it involve without rushing and how best should I divide them up? Lastly, what would consider to be the highlights?

In case you don't know, there is a ferry between Anacortes, Friday Harbor (San Juan Island), and Sidney BC (near Victoria) that is sometimes incorporated into itineraries such as yours.

HTtY

Here's the deal with the Cascades (loops and all) in June/July.

First, Rainier. Both the Paradise and Sunrise visitor centers (the ones at significant altitude on the mountainside) are covered so deeply in snow that it usually takes until August for things to melt off enough for all the (amazing)wildflowers etc. to show. Prior to that, while the roads and parking areas are clear (as are, of course, all the lower areas of the park) you'll have roadside snow, and many of the trails around the upper visitor centers will either be snow-covered, or muddy. In addition, prior to mid-July one runs the risk of clouds obscuring everything. If you can see the mountain from the lowlands, e.g. Seattle or Tacoma, you're going to have a grand time. If you can't see it, watch out, things might be socked in big time.

Farther south, Mt. St. Helens is lower and less likely to have snowpack on the ground, but clouds can hamper things there, too, so a visit to MSH also needs to be a bit situational.

The thing is, both are fabulous destinations, but it comes at a price - time spent getting there and back.

Farther north, US Hwy 2 (through Leavenworth and over Stevens Pass) has reliable scenery and usually good weather on the east side of the mountains (the Leavenworth side) as well as interesting close-by stopping places, such as Cashmere (cute apple-orchard town) or Lake Wenatchee near Leavenworth.

Farther yet, SR 20 over the North Cascades is also very scenic, but while the road will be open, it's quite a long drive.

So (and again, not trying to hijack, just suggesting) here's a different approach to suggest.

Start with Hood River and the Gorge, including a day up to Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood, which will be accessible and easily reached via the gorgeous Hood River Valley.

Then head east to Maryhill (visit the Maryhill Museum) then north on US 97 through great "old west" scenery and the Yakama reservation. Continue on US 97 past Ellensburg and over Blewett Pass to US 2. Visit Leavenworth (faux Bavarian village with a surplus of yodel-ay-hee-hoo) but then over scenic US 2 to Everett.

North on I-5 to SR 20 to Anacortes. You might consider taking the ferry as foot passengers to Friday Harbor on San Juan Island for your whale watching, or assuming there are operators out of Anacortes, do your whale chasing there. PLEASE be sure your whale viewing operator is highly rated - there's a lot of news hereabouts about the Puget Sound resident orcas being highly stressed, so be conservative.

Anyway, after Anacortes, stay on SR 20 south to Deception Pass (the amazing gap between Fidalgo Island (on which Anacortes sits) and Whidbey Island, and visit both the upper and lower levels of the state park.

Then continue south the length of Whidbey, stopping at the cute towns of Coupeville and Langley, before taking the ferry back to Mukileto on the mainland. From Mukilteo, follow SR 526 (the "Boeing Freeway") back to I-5 and Seattle, past the Boeing Everett plant, the biggest building in the world.

Do Mount Rainier as a day trip from Seattle, preferably a weekday, but ONLY if you can see the mountain from the city.

Visit Mount St. Helens on your way back to Portland - around a 4 hour detour, thus making for a long but definitely doable day's drive.

In this scenario, Mt. Hood plays a "fail safe" high mountain visit, and frankly, IMO the views of Mt. Hood are comparable to those of Rainier, except Mt. Hood is way more convenient. Plus, if Mt. Hood is also socked in, no big deal, the Gorge has more than enough variety and beauty to soak up the "extra" hours.

Map - http://tinyurl.com/lj9yft8

You are getting an amazing amount of information in Gardyloo's and happytrailstoyou and tomfuller's posts. I am a local Seattleite and I am learning quite a bit about summer excursions.

My 2 cents is that your itinerary is so ambitious that you will be exhausted and will not enjoy the trip as much. It is doable, but it is a lot to take in. If you are too overscheduled, you will not be able to join spontaneous discoveries along the way.

Thanks to one and all for the invaluable information. I will need to digest all the information you have given me and consider alternative, but now I am considering making it an August trip as I remember enjoying the wildflowers on Mount Rainier on a previous trip.