September trip Portland/Seattle
 

Would love some input on a doable itinerary including Portland, Columbia River Gorge, Timberline Lodge, Astoria, Whidbey Island,and Seattle.

We will be in Portland 3 days for a conference. We will have 8 full days of site seeing after that and will fly out of Seattle. After looking at many postings on this forum, I'd love some input as to what our best route would be and how much we can realistically do in this time period. We love nature, hiking, history, food, wine, and breweries.

These are the places we'd love to include:

Columbia River Gorge for waterfalls, hikes, fruit loop trail, and quirky museum
Timberline Lodge ... hiking, wine tasting in area
Cannon Beach/Astoria
Whidbey Island for hiking/cute towns/mussels/nature
Whale watch around San Juan Islands
Seattle
We will be meeting a friend in Seattle the last day and so that has to be the last stop on our trip. We will fly out the next morning.
I'd love to include Olympic National Park as well, but it doesn't seem like I have enough time. Should I delete the coast area of Oregon and add ONP? Your input is so appreciated!

The main problem with Olympic NP is that there are no "through" roads. it depends on how much time you want to spend on boats (Whidbey Island etc.) how much time you have to drive in on one of the roads into ONP.
Do you have 8 days after the close of the conference?
The route in Oregon that I would follow would be I-84 east and the Old Columbia Gorge Highway to Multnomah Falls (Oregon's highest). There is a good trail up to the top of the falls. There are several other falls with trails east of Multnomah Falls with parking lots off the Old Columbia Gorge highway.
After you get to Hood River, take Rt. 35 south up to US 26 and then take the road into Timberline.
There are many places for wine tasting in the northern Willamette valley.
Take US 26 west to US 101 to get to Cannon Beach and Seaside.
If you rent a car in Oregon (downtown Portland?) return it where you rented it and take an Amtrak Cascades train to Seattle and then rent another car for the Washington part of your trip.

Here's how I'd budget the time. Map - https://goo.gl/maps/7ir2FdLx5362

Granted this is a fairly high-speed route, but I wouldn't give up a chance to visit Olympic NP, even if you have to hurry things a bit. You could do your whale chasing from Port Townsend, thus saving considerable time; they're the same whales that you'd see from the San Juans.

Day 1 Timberline to the eastern Gorge, overnight Hood River
2 To Astoria via Ecola State Park
3 To Lake Quinault via Cape Disappointment
4 To Forks via Ruby Beach, Hoh rain forest
5 To Port Townsend via Hurricane Ridge
6 Whale watching, then to Whidbey
7 Day on Whidbey, then to Seattle
8 Day in Seattle

I would spend Day 1 heading to Timberline, then hustle out to Maryhill if you want to see the museum, or else just enjoy the Hood River Valley; overnight in Hood River.

Drive the historic Gorge Highway past all the waterfalls on the way back west on Day 2, then head to the coast with a visit to Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach, overnight in Astoria or Ilwaco WA.

Then visit Cape Disappointment before heading north to Lake Quinault and the Quinault rain forest, then the next day head to Ruby Beach (near Kalaloch) and on to the Hoh rain forest; overnight in Forks. If you want a fab sunset picnic, head out to La Push.

Then it's around the top of the peninsula to Hurricane Ridge just south of Port Angeles, and finally to Port Townsend. The next day do a whale watching trip out of Port Townsend, then take an afternoon ferry over to Whidbey. Maybe head up to Deception Pass that evening.

The next day visit Coupeville, Fort Casey and Langley on Whidbey, then take a ferry to Mukilteo and spend the evening in Seattle or even in Mukilteo itself - cheaper than Seattle and quite cute - maybe another sunset picnic on the beach next to the wee Mukilteo lighthouse.

Then Seattle, link up with your friend, done.

Like I say, sort of high speed, but not crazy.

Wow - Gardyloo has crammed in as much of your wishlist as possible! He has done a great job. It's too fast for me, but given how much you wanted to cram in, it might be just perfect for you.

<i>Should I delete the coast area of Oregon and add ONP?</i>

Were I to delete something, it would be Timberline Lodge.

I would do the Columbia River Gorge as a day trip out of Portland and not skip the Oregon coast. In a day, you could see the beautiful stretch between Ecola State Park to ten miles south of Cannon Beach.

The Olympic Peninsula can be visited using the counterclockwise routing described by Gordyloo. If you spend two nights in ONP it will be longer than most folks spend there: https://www.nps.gov/olym/planyourvisit/timelimits.htm

I believe you will come back to that me if you take my advice and go to Orcas Island for your hiking and your whale watching experience. Take the ferry from Port Townsend to Coupevdlle and then drive through Deception Pass to Anacortes for the ferry to Orcas. Orcas Island is a very special place, accurately described in this brochure: http://orcasislandchamber.com/images...de-for-Web.pdf

If you use this plan, reserve ferry rides soon: http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/ferries/

Thank you so much for your prompt responses! We really appreciate your input and are investigating your suggestions. We are so excited to visit this beautiful part of the country.