We are planning on a 7 day trip in early August. We will be arriving into Seattle but want to head out of the city. We would like to visit Mt. Rainer, Columbia Gorge, Wine Country, and the coast. We love to hike and want to do that multiple days. Can someone suggest a good route and number of days per location so that we end up back in Seattle the day prior to our morning flight. Thanks for any input.

We are planning a similar trip, only we have 9 days in late August (the week before Labor Day), so I was intending to send out a similar request . . . I feel overwhelmed by the choices, which include all of the ones mentioned in the previous message plus Olympic National Park, Mt. Hood, and the cities of Portland and Seattle. We are also flying in & out of Seattle. Thanks for any help.

Very rushed but doable.

Leave Seattle, hit Paradise Lodge on Mt. Rainier. Continue east over US 12 to Yakima, visit wineries in the Yakima Valley - see http://www.winesnw.com/ or http://www.wineyakimavalley.org/ for guides to wineries, lodging, etc.

Next head south on US 97 to the Columbia River, then west on the Washington side to Hood River, then on the Oregon side (use the "historic" Gorge Highway - not the freeway - for the rest of your passage through the Gorge. Spend the second night in Troutdale (try for McMenamin's Edgefield) or in Portland (McMenamin's Kennedy School or any number of nice downtown hotels - Priceline is a good strategy for Portland.)

Then continue down the Columbia (Washington side) to the mouth of the river then north on US 101 as far as Ocean Shores (more accommodation) or Quinault (less but good) for the third night. Next day, visit the Quinault and Hoh rainforest valleys, Ruby or Rialto Beaches, then continue around the north side of the Olympic Peninsula to Sol Duc Hotsprings (lodge), Crescent Lake (couple of places) or Port Angeles for the 4th night. Next day, visit Hurricane Ridge, Dungeness, then continue on to Port Townsend (numerous B & Bs) for the fifth night.

Finally take the Port Townsend ferry to Whidbey Island, drive south to Langley, then across on the Mukilteo ferry, past the Boeing factory on SR 526, and into Seattle for the 6th night.

For the nine-day version of this, just add additional nights in Oregon (for Mt. Hood and more Portland) and/or Seattle.

Like I said, it's pretty rush-rush stuff, but you'll see a lot of variety and none of the day drives are especially grueling - no more than 4 or 5 wheels-rolling hours max.

There are numerous highlights on this route - great Indian country south from Yakima, Maryhill Museum near Goldendale on the Columbia, Multnomah Falls in the Gorge, the awesome mouth of the Columbia at Astoria, biggest cedar tree in the world at Quinault, likely biggish beasts at the Hoh or Hurricane Ridge visitors centers, ferries, waterfront villages, big airplane factories - plus Seattle and Portland. Not too shabby.

Great input. Thank you so much.

Gardyloo's advice (as usual) is excellent. We've done that exact route except for the Mt Rainier & Yakima portion.

To add a few things...if staying in Port Angeles & Lake Quinault, you may want to make your reservations now. We've been out a couple of times in August and all but the most expensive accomodations can be sold out. You won't have a lot of choice at Quinault. We've stayed twice at the Lake Quinault Lodge and have had an excellent time. However, if you're not staying there for a couple of days, you will probably want to stop at Ocean Shores or continue on to Forks as LQL is quite pricey.

The Hoh rain forest is almost spiritual. There are quite a few short hikes that take you through different areas of the rain forest. Take your bug spray though!!

Some other places you might like: Beach 6 south of Kalaloch Lodge, Marymere Falls between Forks & Port Angeles, Mt. St. Helens & Long Beach. If staying in Port Angeles, you might want to take the ferry over to Victoria for the day. Don't take your car, there's plenty to do & see in Vic without it.

Our favorite things on this trip were the Historic Gorge Highway, Portland (wish we had spent more time there, McMenamins Pubs make good beer!) and watching the flora & fauna change as we ascended to the top of Hurricane Ridge. The Boeing Tour in Everett was awesome if that sort of thing interests you.

Disappointments included Sol Duc Hot Springs (tiny, overcrowded and a long time to get there) and the wicked traffic in the Port Townsend area. In all fairness, there was major road construction & a couple of grass fires that had roads closed but it took us the better part of a day to get through there.

You're going to have a great time and see one of the better parts of our country. Have a great trip!

To Garlyloo, Thank you for the itinerary. However my husband and i are planning to have a few more days. 13 in all. I was hoping to include Mr. St. Helens and Olympic national Park. How would you suggest including these. We like to hike and would want a couple of days at each park. Help!

I just want to add a note to this. I think Gardyloo's advise is excellent (infact I think he could write a book on the Pacific NW), but there's one place I want to mention that doesn't ssem to get much attention (which is actually good, yes) but is very worthwhile. We've lived here (Seattle) over 14 years and in Sept. made our first trip to Mt. Baker (Glacier, WA) and it was fabulous!!! It's closer then some other destinations, and well worth going to.

Also, since you have more time for your trip now, I'd suggest thinking about going to the San Quan Islands as well. They're very magical.

heyjude, the bits on the Olympic Peninsula that I mentioned above (Hoh, Beaches, Lakes, Hurricane Ridge...) are the accessible parts of Olympic NP.

Mt. St. Helens is currently basically a day trip, or even less, as travel to the Johnston Ridge visitor center is curtailed because of the mountain's current rumbling and burping. By next year's visitor season, who knows what the status will be.

FWIW, Mt. Rainier started having the shakes earlier this week, but nobody's talking like it's about to go active. Now that would be a tourist attraction, not to mention a real estate buying opportunity in Tacoma.

Artlover, I agree - Mt. Baker is smashing, and the drive to it is gorgeous, especially late in the summer or early fall.

Thanks for the help. How does this itinerary sound.
Day1 fly into Seattle early and head for Mt. Rainier. Overnight
Day2 Mt. r overnight again
Day3 head to Mt. St. Helens for part of the day and then on to the Columbia River Gorge. Overnight there.
Day4 head to Crater Lake via Portland. Overnight at Crater Lake
Day5 Crater Lake hiking. Overnight
Day6 Head to ore. coast. Spend night
Day7 Ore Coastheading north. overnight
Day8 Olympic NP night
Day9 ONP night
Day 10 ONP night on other side
Day11- San Juan Islands
Day12- Islands and drive back to Seattle
Day13 Seattle and fly out late.
Any thoughts??? Thanks

This looks good to me, but just have one suggestion to keep in mind--try to go to the San Juans during the week--weekends the ferries can be horribly crowded that time of year. Also, get reservations in Nat. parks early--they fill up fast. I recommend Paridise Lodge at Mt. Rainer park--it's very reasonably priced and what a location!

Hey Jude,
Great Itinerary...My only sugesstion is to possibly drop on night in the Olympic Pennsula and add a second night in the San Juans. San Juan Island has some nice B & B's and restaurants. You could Island hop on the ferries to Orcas, great hiking on Mt Constitution or go biking on Lopez. Also, make sure you do a whale watching excursion with Maya's Charter on San Juan Island.
There is so much to do in the San Juans...
Art lover is right about the weekends & ferries.

There are no direct ferries from the OP to the San Juans. As they say in Maine, "Ya can't get thar from here!" The only car ferries are from Sidney BC and Anacortes WA (north of Seattle). Ferry hours are limited and you will need to plan on them. Also, you will likely have to wait in line a couple of hours. Check out the ferry websites (search for San Juan Islands and find a transportation link).
Assuming you aren't going to take a small plane and leave your car for a couple of days, I would suggest you take the ferry from Port Angeles to Victoria and spend a day in Victoria. Then, take the ferry from Sidney BC (which is just a bit north of Victoria) to the islands. This means:
1 night Victoria
1 night Friday Harbor, San Juan Islands
Return to Seattle via Anacortes next day. So, you would need to remove a night somewhere else to go to the San Juan Islands, and also may be cutting short a day to take care of ferry waiting times. You can leave the car for awhile and go do other things, so the wait isn't a major problem, but you do have to plan on it.
Also, you can head to Crater Lake via the east side of the Cascades instead of via Portland. This is beautiful country. Via Portland you may get caught in traffic and I-5 is not real scenic.
Take a good look at a map, with distances, and also some websites, especially re the ferries. You will be covering a lot of territory, and it is beautiful country. You may kick yourself for giving Mt. Rainier only one night. Crater Lake is picture pretty, but it is a geographic outlier and the area around it doesn't compare in majesty to Mt. Rainier or Hurricane Ridge. (You can see Victoria from Hurricane Ridge on a clear day, by the way, and it's neat to look at it and realize you'll be taking the ferry to it the next day.)

Interesting info! We're thinking of spending a week next October in the area. My husband will run the Portland Marathon, and then we'll head to the Seattle area for a few days. I had forgotten about the possibility of wine country, though!

flsd:
Thanks for bringing this up again. We were just talking today about the west coast as a possible trip next year and this is great information.