Where to stay from Crescent City to Carmel.
 

Last minute trip for a friend’s wedding tomorrow night near Medford. Traveling without kids.
We have no experience with Smokey air from fires and I’ve been glued to AirNow website for 3 weeks. Decided to go ahead and book. We will be arriving in Medford and leaving from San Francisco. Had debated switching that and leaving from Portland but really want to see the redwoods, maybe fort Bragg beach, the sea Ranch and skip on down to Carmel. Considered a night in crescent city but with only 7 nights, I want to make good choices.
I was interested in seeing crater lake before leaving that area but air quality isn’t promising so may head on to coast. Would consider a short stay in Napa but same concerns.
I welcome any advice. Trying to book accommodations tonight.
Saw a nice place in Trinidad but know nothing about that location. Also, curious how you pronounce Gualala. Thanks in advance!

Most people mispronounce GWA-la-la. But I think the correct pronunciation is to drop the G. Wa-la-la.

Can't help you where to stay. Air is getting better today along the coast, but not inland yet. Purple air map gives more detailed and more recent readings that Air Now. Best of luck.

Trinidad is a great location - much better than Crescent City IMO.

Sea Ranch isn't really much to 'see' - nice place to stay but is mostly a residential development.

Places I'd look at for stopovers would include Trinidad, Ferndale, Possibly Garberville if you can get into the Benbow Inn, somewhere in the Ft Bragg/Mendocino/Little River area, Timber Cove/Jenner-ish area, Sonoma or Napa Valley, Carmel.

See if you can get into any of these

https://benbowinn.com
https://www.littleriverinn.com
https://www.timbercoveresort.com

. . . and https://gingerbread-mansion.com

I have stayed at the Trinidad Inn- nice, clean, hostess helpful in recommending restaurants etc.. Great for an overnight stop-

FYI, Mendocino is suffering from an EXTREME water shortage, and Ft. Bragg isn't in much better shape. Many hotels are not taking one-night/short-stay reservations because of the water consumption involved in laundry and cleaning. Water is being trucked in, restaurants are using paper plates, plastic cups, etc.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/...g-16343175.php

I found accommodations in Crescent City to be ridiculously expensive, like $250 a night for a room with two Queen beds at a basic, yet clean, motel.

Thank you!
 

Thank you all so much for the responses! We ended up staying in Jacksonville, OR for a couple of nights. Incredibly cute spot. Made it to Jebediah Smith State Park and saw their cute river beach and had lunch. We were planning to do a little hike around the highly recommended Stout Grove but luckily checked in at visitors center and found out that due to a landslide many weeks back, a section of 101 is closed 3pm-7pm around Crescent City on certain days, including yesterday. We hurried out to make it on down and made it with 20min to spare. Sharing now for any others planning this trip. Check those closed 101 hours!

We stayed in Eureka last night and heading on.

We will prob make it farther than garberville tonight so still looking for where to stay tonight. Next 3 nights are booked in Carmel.

Thanks again!

in terms of staying in the carmel area, we have enjoyed Deer Haven Inn in Pacific Grove as a economical and nice place to stay. If you want to be in Carmel, the Cypress Inn is an historic hotel in town.