seattle, oregon coast and redwoods
 

My husband and I will be visiting my daughter in seattle in june. We wanted to take a side trip and see the coast of oregon and the red woods. We will be flying out of seattle so I know we will backtracking some. I was planing on a week for this side trip but can make it longer. For those of you who have made this trip is there a certain way to go thats better then another way. Good places to stay on the way or must see things. There is so much info and I'm a little overwhelmed. My husband and I love history and scenery.
Thank-you for any ideas you can offer me.

Under these constraints, I would drive to Cannon Beach for the first night via I-5, 411, 30, and 101. Other towns we like to stay on the Oregon Coast include Newport, Yachats (especiallly), Bandon, and Brookings.

Eureka makes a logical headquarters for visiting the Redwoods.

The fast drive from Eureka to Seattle is on 101, 199, and I-5. It is about 590 miles and it takes 10-11 hours. (Portland, 411 miles from Eureka, is the most interesting place to spend a night on this route.)

Just curious, but have you done any travel in Washington state on previous trips? There is so much to do in Washington and Vancouver, B.C., both urban and natural. I guess I would save the redwoods for a California trip because that's a long way from Seattle. What about the San Juan Islands, Olympic Peninsula, Mt. Rainier, Vancouver, Victoria, etc.?

The Oregon Coast, at least, is a reasonable side trip from Seattle and I, too, would recommend Cannon Beach, which is a spectacular area. Keep in mind that Oregon beaches are cool and breezy all year round, so bring jackets always.

I'll agree that Yachats and Bandon are great places to overnight, especially if you can find something right along the beach.

Newport always seemed to be a bit too "big" for our tastes and I personally have never cared for Brookings. Just personal preferences.

HTTY's suggestion to go along the shore on your way down and then come back inland over Interstate-5 is a good one.

As for the redwoods, don't miss Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt State Park

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenue_of_the_Giants

http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=425

Otherwise, there are wonderful hikes in several of the redwood parks.

Apart from Eureka along the coast, you can also find lodging inland all around the several parks.

On the way back, take a side drive to Crater Lake:

http://www.nps.gov/crla/index.htm

You may want to stay near Crater Lake one night.

Have a great trip!

It's totally doable in a week.

My recommended route would get the hard/boring drive out of the way first, then stroll on return.

If you don't mind a long initial day, I'd recommend an early start from Seattle, straight down I-5 to Grants Pass or Ashland in southern Oregon, about 7-8 hours drive, so a longish but easy day. As you say you're history buffs, you might want to linger a day in the Rogue Valley area, maybe take in a play at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland (http://orshakes.org/) and visit the historic town of Jacksonville - http://www.jacksonvilleoregon.org/.

From there it's a short backtrack to Grants Pass and over US 199 to Crescent City. You'll pass through some good redwood groves just before the junction with US 101, then head south on 101 through Eureka (a slow but very scenic route) and make your second or third night in Ferndale - http://www.victorianferndale.com/ - a very cute Victorian town with easy access both to the redwood groves around Eureka, but also to the "lost coast" area - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Coast - a very scenic and under-visited area.

From there you can take the rest of the week (or longer) to visit the redwoods and the Oregon coast, staying in one or more of the towns mentioned above. You might also think about flying out of Portland instead of Seattle (if you can arrange it) and use the extra day to see the Columbia Gorge, just east of the Portland airport.

It depends on what you want to do. We spent 12 days this past summer in Oregon and feel like we still want to go back and do some things we missed.

Have you been to Oregon or Washington before?

I think it would be a shame not to Crater Lake, Oregon Caves, Mt Hood, Columbia River Gorge, Mt St Helens, 2 Days in Portland, Grants Pass.


If you have never been to Washington/Seattle, I would be temtped to just stay there and do Rainier and North Cascades, Maybe go into Canada, San Juan Islands, Olympic, Seattle itself

Do it right would require about 2 weeks in each state, in my opinion.

http://www.photoworks.com/slideshow/...6?source=pw980
Click on above for our Oregon Photos


http://www.photoworks.com/slideshow/...F?source=pw980
Click above for our Serious Waterfall hiking photos
We took a day out to do this. Fantastic!!

Is there a particular reason you suggest traveling the coast south-to-north, Gardyloo? North-to-south puts you one traffic lane closer to the coastline (which does make a difference in some spots), and avoids having to cross traffic pulling into and out of roadside parks and viewpoints.

Other considerations.... Cannon Beach and nearby Ecola State Park are well worth a stop, but in June, many of the better lodgings there will have two-night minimum stay requirements. Astoria might be a good alternative for you, if for no other reason than that there are some good Lewis & Clark exhibits in the area, my favorite being the Interpretive Center at Cape Disappointment State Park, just outside of Ilwaco, WA.

Besides what's been mentioned, there are activities like dune buggy rides and jetboat trips that can eat time chunks out of an itinerary. So, while the Oregon coast and redwoods are certainly doable in a week, you <b><i>will</b></i> need to prioritize.

<i>Is there a particular reason you suggest traveling the coast south-to-north, Gardyloo? North-to-south puts you one traffic lane closer to the coastline (which does make a difference in some spots), and avoids having to cross traffic pulling into and out of roadside parks and viewpoints.</i>

Three reasons - First, I firmly believe in the "quick yank" approach to band-aid removal, and the straight shot south on the freeway at the beginning of the trip gets it out of the way.

Second, while you're right about being closer to the water, I've never found that crossing traffic has been an issue; virtually every turn-out on the water side has a left turn lane, or if they don't, the sight lines are more than adequate. On the other hand, one of the glories of driving the coast is the sunset; going north the sun is more often behind you in the afternoon, which makes it easier to see things. Granted in June it's not as big a deal as at other times of the year, but I find it noticeable; YMMV.

Finally, IMO there are some key sights that are more visible - earlier - when driving north than south on 101. In particular, it's easy while driving south to miss the stunning view of Heceta Head Lighthouse - the road bends away from the viewpoint very quickly, while if you're driving northbound, you get plenty of warning and time to pull out. There are a couple of other points along the highway where this is also the case; the road alignment favors northbound for "previews of coming attractions" that you can blow by quickly if headed south.

But these are quibbles for sure.

Did Irish3 ever come back????
I would recommend staying in Crescent City on the beach (motels..not too great a choice but beach is nice and flat and sandy...) but the Jedadiah Smith Park barely a mile up the road is fabulous for Redwoods, amazing redowwd chp trails and it is where some of the Star Wars films were shot. One of my favorite places in the world.

Also Astoria is another favorite place. The waterfront museum is great for understanding salmon fishing, the Columbia (sand) Bar, great Coast Guard Lighthouse ship...and if you want there is a hotel on piling right out over teh water from which you can see teh Astoria bridge one of teh longest bridges in teh US 5 miles long..hard to believe teh Columbia river is so big...

I thought that Stout Grove and the drive through was fantastic in Jedediah Smith area of the Redwoods. It is easy to get confused about the Redwoods as certain groves are within certain state parks within the national park itself.

Oh my gosh you people are wonderful, thank-you so much. I'm going to give all this wonderful info to hubby to look at so he can choose the route. Yes I have been to washington and seattle many times my daughter has lived there for 4 years now so we have done a lot of trips there and canada. I can't thank-you enough for giving me a good start. I'm sure I will be back when we get closer to june.

I also favor the north-to-south way of going down the coast. You don't have the view of the ocean periodically interrupted by some big RV on the other side of the road.