Our Pacific Northwest Adventure Washington, Oregon, & California in 10 Days
 

Hello all! Here is a very belated review of our trip last July to Washington, Oregon, and a tiny piece of California. Best trip we've been on in awhile. I highly recommend it. We PACKED a lot into a little time but mind you, we ate in the car a lot, walk really fast, and were always on the move. You really need more days to make this trip but we somehow made it happen!! Here is our itinerary if anyone is interested in everything we squeezed in.

Our itinerary:
Day 1: Arrive at Seattle Airport late, check into Sheraton Seattle- 1400 6th Avenue, dinner at Post Restaurant & Lounge
Day 2: Sight see around Seattle. We did all this by foot, with excpetion of the Space Needle, which we hopped on a bus to get there
- Victory Park Water Tower
- Pike Place Market
- The Gum Wall on Pike Street
- Olympic Sculpture Park 2901 Western Avenue
- The Space Needle
- EMP Museum ($20)
- Shopping in Capitol Hill
- drink lots of coffee! (obviously)
- walk waterfront along Elliot Bay

Day 3:Get rental car
- take the Bainbridge Ferry across Puget Sound
- from Bainbridge, head towards Sequims, WA. - Hwy 305, 3, 104 (Hood Canal) 101
- Stop in Sequims, WA. Visit the Dungess.
- Drive towards Port Angeles
. Olympic National Park ($15) via Port Angeles entrance.
- Hurricane Ridge – short hike up to the top of Hurriacane ridge. great views. Got back to car right as sun was setting.
- Drive to Lake Crescent Stay the Night at Lake Crescent Lodge

Day 4: -work up to the sun rising at Lake Crescent and walked out to the waterfall.
- Hoh Rain Forest easy hike.
- Sol duc Hot Springs. took another short hike
- Ruby beach OR La Push Beach (further NW)
- lunch in Forks
- Lake Quinault/ Quinault Valley scenic loop drive
- ate dinner and stay the night Monday on Quinault Rain Forest Village

Day 5: Leaving Lake Quinault, take the 101 for 2.5 hours over into Astoria, Oregon.
- drove past the Hoquiam Castle, WA (not worth it, we didnt even get out of the car)
- Astoria: the Astoria Column.
- Seaside: spend 15 minutes walk along the Seaside Promenade
- Cannon Beach: take pictures at Haystack Rock
- Rockaway Beach
- Tillamook: County Cheese Factory. this was really neat!!
-Three Capes Scenic Loop: take Hwy 131. this loop was closed so we took another
route which put us a bit off schedule but still got to see Cape Mears Lighthouse
-The Otter Crest Loop: 3 mile scenic detour.- Devils Pounchbowl, Cape Foulweather
- spend the night at Comfort Inn in Florence: 2475 Hwy 101

Day 6: Leave the comfort inn in Florence-
- back tracked to Yachats: Cape Perpetua Scenic Area
Sea Lion Caves, Heceta Head Light house
- Reedsport: Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area,
- Umpqua Light House- this was closed but we saw the outside and took a picture
- Bandon – Face Rock- really neat
- Gold beach
- Brookings-
- drove on to CA, This was the ONE thing I regretted. we missed a nice bit of the lower coast of OR because we were driving in the dark. but it was rainy and nasty out so we decided to move on to CA. Stay overnight in Crescent City, CA at a Motel 6.

Day 7:
- Drove through Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. (one of Will's favorite part of the trip)
- then drove 3 hour through Grants Pass (where there was a huge forest fire!) onwards to Crater Lake
- Crater Lake- Drive through Rim Drive loop
- Cloud Cap Overlook
- Mt Scott Trail- hiked to the very top!!
- Phantom Ship Overlook
- left Crater lake and drove up to Bend, OR. stayed the night there. We would of stayed at Crater Lake but they were all booked up MONTHS in advance :(

Day 8:
- left Bend and headed up to Mt Hood. Spent some time at the Timberline Lodge and ate the best meal ever at their buffet in the Cascades Dining room. What a treat! Oh yeah we also road the ski lift!
- headed west towards Portland, Driving along the Columbia River Hwy. Beautiful drive.
- Women's Forum Park-
- Crown Point State Scenic Corridor/Vista House
- Latourell Falls
- Multnomah Falls
- Oneonta falls/Gorge
- Bonneville Dam
- Cascades Locks. Near the Bridge of the Gods
- arrived in Portland around dinner time and checked into the Hotel Manaco in the city. Best hotel on the entire trip.

Day 9: Toured Portland.
- Powell’s City of Books Bookstore
- Washington Park
Rose Test Garden, Japanese Garden.
- Lan Su Chinese Garden in china town
- farmers market

Day 10: Leave for airport early, return rental car to Enterprise

Sounds like a marathon, but if you enjoy being on the move a great look at lots of sites. What were your impressions of the areas, which ones do you want to go back to, which ones would you avoid/or been there/seen that/it was nice/won't do again?

Did you mostly plan where you would stay ahead of times or did you wing it for lodging?

You did pack it in. Oregon and Washington are two of our favorite trips.

Bend is much more than a place to spend the night.
There is a fairly nice Best Western in LaPine.
You can easily spend 10 days in Washington or Oregon and still not see the top sights.

hi emalloy! sorry i just now saw your reply. It was a marathon looking back but at the time we were in heaven and it was just the two of us and we are very go-go-go people so we enjoyed it. we needed a vacation after our vacation when we got home to rest but totally worth it!

I would definitely go back to Crater Lake and Olympic National Park!! Two of our favorites.

Crater Lake- the lake and the Mt Hood hike were both amazing experiences. Loved every part of this.

Olympic National Park- hurricane ridge is the best. Sol duc Hot springs- not as impressed

Portland- much more fun than Seattle, in my opinion BUT had a blast in both cities.

the waterfalls along the Columbia river were great but I wouldn't need to go back and see them again. But if you live nearby its definitely worth a road trip to see at least once.

re the hotels: we booked in advance because my husband is a bedbug freak and wants to check trip advisor to see the cleanliness of each hotel. and it worked out well that we arrived at our destination at a good time every time except for the crater Lake day. Crater Lake lodging books up MONTHS in advance so we couldn't get a room there. we spent so much time there that we ended up leaving at sunset and driving two hours in the dark to Bend.

and tomfuller- we did spend a little time exploring Bend before we headed to Mt Hood and I agree. We loved Bend! what a great city. reminds me of Asheville NC!

note- i meant Mt Scott (at Crater Lake National Park.)

How did you do in Olympia Nat'l Park. What hikes were you recommending?

I'm glad you got to see the original Tillamook cheese factory visitor center. A new visitor center will be finished in the summer of 2018. There will be a temporary visitor center where you can buy the cheese and ice cream.
I hope you got the chance to see the High Desert Museum south of Bend.
The Best Western in La Pine is a good place to stay if you didn't want to drive all the way to Bend.

Ummm....this trip report from almost 3 years ago.

SusanHermann Please start a new thread to ask your questions.

planning a half similar trip.. wondering cost of rental car ???? we are planning Seattle to San Francisco for 12 days.. sticking to the coast and wondering if it is worth the time to side trek to Columbia river gorge ???