My family and I (wife and 2 teenage girls)are planning a 2 week road trip in July from SF to Vancouver. We are from Brazil and its our first visit to the region. We enjoy scenic drives, hikes in parks,beach and lakes and nice places to stay. As we prefer spending around 2 and 3 days put in one place enjoying the surrounding areas, could anyone suggest their favorite spots?
thanks, Eduardo.

Eduardo,

I noticed that you posted this in the Washington forum. Is it Vancouver, Washington that's your ultimate destination or Vancouver, BC ?

Robert

Hi, It´s Vancouver B.C.

The entire upper California Coast is a must see. So is much of the Oregon Coast. I've never been to the SW Washington Coast but will be doing so next week: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=moclips,+wa&ie=UTF8&ll=47.103784,-123.824158&spn=0.62535,1.752319&t=p&z=10&iwloc=addr

Robert

I recommend Crater Lake in Southern Oregon. It might be too late to get a room at the lodge, but there are motels nearby.

The Oregon coast is great. I recommend the Shamrock Lodgettes in Yachats.

Portland is one of the nicest cities in the US. There's lots of eccentricity and good food, if you want to visit a city.

You might want to drive up the Olympic Peninsula in Washington and enjoy the rain forest - http://www.nps.gov/olym/ - Sequim is a nice place to stay. You can take the car ferry over to Seattle when you're done there and keep driving up to Vancouver. Or you can take the car ferry to Victoria and another to Vancouver.

When you leave SF be sure to follow hwy 1 and 101 for lovely coastal views. Since you enjoy hiking in parks, you should check out Redwoods National Park, which is located in northern California and will be on your route. The park is noted for its coastal redwood trees. These coastal redwoods are the tallest living trees on our planet, some standing as tall as 367 feet. There are a number of wonderful hiking trails here, and besides the forests you will find other environments to explore. Look for the elk that frequent wooded and grassland areas of the park.

Continue following Highway 101 through Oregon. If you appreciate seeing wildlife in their natural habitats, then Sea Lion Cave is a MUST! This is the only place on the North American continent where Steller Sea Lions breed and live year round. This is located about 11 miles north of Florence, Oregon. For more information about this visit their web page at www.sealioncaves.com You will see the Heceta Head Lighthouse from a view point at the Sea Lion Caves. If you enjoy lighthouses, you can also stop to visit this. Heceta Head is only about 1 mile north of the Sea Lion Cave.

Continuing up the coast of Oregon, there are a number of wonderful State Parks. We have visited Cape Lookout State Beach twice, and really enjoyed it. Besides a nice beach, there is a hiking trail that will carry you to a wonderful high lookout point. If you enjoyed Heceta Head Lighthouse, there is another lighthouse nearby Cape Lookout, called Cape Meares lighthouse.

If you want to swing inwards a bit, Portland, Oregon is a lovely city with beautiful gardens and museums.

Heading back to the coast if you would enjoy a bit of history, Fort Stevens State Park in Oregon has the remains of an 1898-1900 battery, and the skeleton of the Pweter Iredal 1906 shipwreck on the beach. For more information on this historic area visit their web page at: http://www.oregonstateparks.org/park_179.php This park is located 10 miles west of Astoria off of US 101. If you decide to visit Seattle, however, this is somewhat out of your way, so it would depend on your time frame.

When you reach Washington state, if you would like to visit another wonderful city, head for Seattle, where there are a number of fun things to do. Visit the aquarium, and take the Underground tour for a bit of really interesting history.

If time you might want to head over to the Olympic National Park for some hiking.

For more information on these places, I have pages on Redwoods National Park, and then do a VT place search for the Olympic National Park, Seattle,Washington; and Portland, Oregon. I am sure that there are many pages about these two cities on VT that will give you lots of ideas, as well as the Olympic Park.

Thanks KimberleyAnne for all the information. I´ll start putting it all on a calendar and see how it fits our 2 week time frame. Any specific towns up the Oregon/WA coast which you would suggest to spend a a little more time ? Have a good weekend.
Eduardo

I think that all of Hwy 101 that touches the coast is amazing. Cannon Beach is one of my favourites. By next weekend I'll have photos from Seaside, OR all the way up to Moclips, WA. You can judge for yourself what part(s) you like.

When will you be here in Vancouver, BC and how long will you be staying?

Robert

If you stayed in Florence, Oregon, which is a small town that sits along the Pacific Ocean for a couple of days you could explore both Sea Lion Caves and Heceta Head Lighthouse, which are not too far north of Florence, plus you could go south to Jesse M. Honeyman State Park, which is also near the north end of Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. The Chamber of Commerce in Florence has lots of information on things to see in the area. Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area stretches 47 miles from Coos Bay to Florence. This recreation area offers both wonderful beachs and sand dunes. Here you can hike, stroll along a beach, or depending on the season of the year, drive dune buggies or off road vehicles on the dunes. If you are like me, and just want a quite place to stroll there are areas of the dunes that are protected, even during times when off road vehicles are allowed to drive on the dunes. The Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area Visitors center is in Reedsport, so stop there on your way to Florence to pick up more information about the recreation area. This is a good web page which will tell you more about Oregon Dunes national Recreation Area: http://www.fs.fed.us/r6/siuslaw/recreation/tripplanning/oregondunes/
I am not sure what town would be best for visiting Cape Lookout and Cape Meares lighthouse. We camped in the Cape Lookout State park when we were in the area. My guess is that the towns of Tillamook, which is slightly inland; and Oceanside, which is on the coast, would have places to stay. Of the two, Tillamook would be the larger, although it is also a small town. If you spent a few days in this area, besides the two places that I mentioned, there are a number of other state parks in the area that would offer beaches and hiking. Check out Tillamook’s web page for information on what to do, and where to stay in the area, at http://www.tillamookchamber.org
If you wanted to take the detour over to see Fort Steven’s State Park, you would probably want to stay in Astoria, or possibly Warrenton. Check this site out for information on this area, Fort Stevens, and other things to visit in that area. http://www.oldoregon.com/ If you are headed from Portland to Seattle, however, I would guess that this detour to Fort Stevens is probably somewhere between a 50 to 60 mile run one way off your route.
I hope you have a great trip, you will be seeing some beautiful and interesting places.

Does your 2 weeks include the time you'd spend in Vancouver, or is the whole 2 weeks allocated just to the drive *to* Vancouver? That would make a huge difference on the time available and a reasonable itinerarie.

I would definitely recommend Hwy 1 and 101 through northern California ... the coastline and the redwoods are fantastic. Continue up 101 through Oregon to Lincoln City - more spectacular coastline. I suspect that by that time you may have seen enough of the coast ... the coast north of there, although very nice, is more if the same ... and the road along much of the Washington coast is not in view of the ocean.

At Lincoln City I'd recommend taking Hwy. 18 inland to Portland. Portland is a nice city to spend 1 or 2 days in. Give at least 3 days to get from SF to Portland on this route PLUS the additional days yo may want to spend at various locations.

One of those days in Portland take a fantastic circle trip through the Columbia Gorge and around Mount Hood. Its easily possible in 1 day – total length about 100 miles. A website:
http://www.hoodriver.org/HRCCC_ArticleTemplate.asp?ArticleINDX=238&CategoryINDX

Be sure to stop at Timberline Lodge for a few hours, one of the grandest old stone and heavy timber lodges, mostly hand crafted, located high on perpetually snow covered Mt Hood. Websites:
http://www.timberlinelodge.com/index.php
and
http://www.friendsoftimberline.org/about_lodge.htm

Going through the Columbia Gorge, rather than taking the I-84 freeway, take the Old Columbia River Highway dating from the 1920’s, which winds up and down the sides of the Gorge – some wonderful viewpoints. Website:
http://www.columbiariverhighway.com/

In the Columbia Gorge be sure to stop at Multnomah Falls:
http://www.multnomahfallslodge.com/

Then take I-5 north to Seattle. The drive from Portland to Seattle is a bit boring ... mostly nondescript farmland and some forests ... takes about 3 to 4 hours. To add interest, you could take side trips to Mt St Helens, the volcanoe that erupted in the 80's, and by adding a day you could take a side trip to Mt. Rainier.

Seattle easily has enough for 2 days. You can drive from Seattle to Vancouver in about 3 hours ... alternatively, you can take anywhere from 1 full day to a whole week exploring the coast of Puget Sound and its islands between the two cities.

Robert,
We plan to be in Vacouver sometime around July 10th with the idea of spending 2 oe 3 days.