Jean

Oh, Help! We are packing in so much in 8 days - I know we are crazy but it's the way we do things! Anywho.....

If you've done this trip and can offer some tips, I would greatly appreciate it. Should be get on the coast highway at Crescent City or join it further south? We are interested in seeing whales & sea lions, have two teenagers with us, if that helps. Don't plan to tour a lot of towns, just want the drive by scenery stuff mostly. We need a place to stay once we arrive in CA from OR - let me know if you have a suggestion. Anyplace in Crescent City? Something directly on the coast?

A thousand thanks to all who can help!
Jean

Marion

Right near the border of CA/Or I would recommend the Ship Ashore motel. It's on the Smith river as it empties into the ocean. And far enough off the highway to have no road noise. We've stayed there many times and I would recommmend it to others. Its address is probably listed as Smith River but it's not in any town. It's far better than the places we have stayed at in Crescent City.

John

Short answer, no.

Longer answer, maybe, but using SR1 from Leggett you'd probably need 10+ driving hours to make it to SF via the coast. You'd be pretty pooped, and with two teenagers in the car you might also be ready to stop at San Quentin and turn yourself in.

There are a couple of places where you could cut across from US101 to SR1 or vice versa, but the parts of SR1 you'd cut out would be a loss, plus the roads through the coast hills are uniformly slow and aggravating, albeit beautiful for the most part.

US101 from Crescent City to SF is around 6-7 hours via the redwoods, and divided highway much of the way. SR1 is two lane and very twisty, tiring to drive. If you could somehow squeeze in another night, it's a brilliant ride taken over a day and a half.

Kelly

The highway numbers are a little confusing, Oregon Coast is 101 . However, In Calif. it is still 101 and is pretty much on the coast until you get to Eureka. 101 then goes inland a bit. the only way to get back to the coast is to turn off of 101 at Leggitt. This is a two lane twisty road and takes at least an hour to get to the coast.--which is highway "one". Driving down highway 0ne
while beautiful is very slow. Plus this is not the whale migration season
I agree that Crescent City doesnot have any great places to stay. Ship Ashore is really nice. Also Best Western in Brookings is down on the harbor.--good views.
Good Luck...