We are planning to spend the night in Kelso and going to Mt St Helens the next day. After looking at the map, it is reasonable to also visit Mt Ranier?

We have the entire day. We are driving to Porland to spend the night. This will be in late August so the days will still be long. Would like to get to hotel by dark.

Thanks for any advice anyone can offer.

No, I would not even attempt doing both mountains in one. If you are going to be staying in Kelso, just do Mt St Helens as it can fill most of a day. Definitely stop at the visitors centers, with Johnston Ridge a must stop, including the short film.

Oh, gosh, no, that's not going to work. Maybe if you were ending up in Seattle rather than Portland, but not if you have to drive all the way to Portland from Mt Rainier--that's at least a 3.5-4 hour drive. Add at least an hour to get from I-5 up to the Johnston Ridge visitors center and 2.5 hours (probably longer) from the Johnston Ridge visitors center to Paradise at Mt Rainier, and you've done a ton of driving. Then add time for looking/walking/hiking in each place and you can see how long and exhausting a day you'd be looking at.

Where are you driving to Kelso from? If from the Seattle area, maybe visit Mt Rainier that day?

If you feel you must add something after visiting Mt St Helens before heading to Portland, perhaps a drive out along the Columbia River Gorge?

It can be done if you have great fortitude for driving and don't plan to hike. We started from Monroe, WA and made a stop to drop people off at Seatac, then drove east to Maple Valley, south through Enumclaw and around the east side of Mt. Rainier to the Stevens Canyon road (missed the turn to Sunrise, darn) and west on that to Paradise. After looking around Paradise and deciding not to hike, we made our way down to the town of Elbe for lunch. From there we went to Morton and east to Randle to take the road up to Windy Ridge (closed at bear Meadow overlook due to half the highway missing from a snowslide). We returned to Randle and went east to the Stevens Canyon entrance to Mt. Rainier to see the visitor center for a few minutes, then back out to highway 12 and over White Pass to finally set up a tent at a national forest campground on Rimrock Lake, 45 miles west of Yakima.

This isn't something I would recommend, but if it is your only chance, why not?

Thanks so much for your replies. We are spending the day in Astoria and then driving to Kelso to spend the night. Wasn't sure Mt Helens would require a day, but I'm sure we can find lots to do when we get to Portland. We are driving back to Portland on the last leg of our trip and will spend the rest of our time visiting the city, Mt Hood & Columbia River Gorge.

Hopefully this isn't our only chance. We plan to visit Seattle in the future and it seems that Mt Ranier would be a good day trip from there.