Driving from Seattle to Los Angeles

[bigrash]

The wife and I are taking a trip to the west coast in June. We'll be flying to Seattle and driving down to LA. We've decided to take a total of 5 days to do the drive and stop at many places as possible along the way. What are your recommendations for scenic places to check out?

So far, on my list I have the following:

Olympic Park
Cannon Beach
Crater Lake Park
Big Sur


EDIT:

So I just got back from the trip, and I have to say, what an amazing experience that was!

Instead of driving all the way down, we decided to check out Mount Rainier, Palouse Falls (all the way in East Washington) and the Columbia River Gorge. So instead of the 1300 mile drive, I ended up driving over 2400 miles in 7 days.

We were disappointed that Big Sur was closed since we wanted to check out Julia Pfeiffer Burns Park. I also wanted to check out Crater Lake Park, but we didn't have the time to go there.

And I really wanted to see Shi Shi Beach, but after walking in the muddy trail for an hour, the wife and I gave up as it was getting dark and we'd have a hard time getting back. Had I known we could camp at the beach, I would have planned to stay there overnight instead

I also found a cool website called Roadtrippers where you can plan trips. You can check out my trip using this link (places with the green mountain icon I didn't have time to visit): https://roadtrippers.com/map?a2=t!1...ign=trip&utm_medium=share&utm_source=copy&z=4

 

[Viper GTS]

Multnomah Falls
Mt St Helens + Hood

Viper GTS

 

[Fardringle]

Sequoia National Park is definitely worth visiting, especially if you haven't been there before.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

No room, STAY OUT.

 

[pete6032]

Multnomah Falls & Colombia River Vista House
Haystack Rock edit - Haystack Rock is at Cannon Beach, as recommended by other posters.

No room, STAY OUT.

 

[Riverhound777]

Lots of good places to visit along the CA coast. If you're going to Big Sur you'll probably see them anyway, but for cities Santa Cruz, Monterrey, Pismo, Santa Barbara, Malibu, Santa Monica. For sights, maybe check out Big Basin, Monterrey Bay Aquarium, Hearst Castle.

If you're in Santa Barbara, go to the Courthouse and climb up to the top of the tower, best view of SB. If you want to take a fun tour look up the Land Shark.

 

[IronWing]

I really enjoyed Cannon Beach.

Table Bluff south of Eureka, CA offers a beach worthy of the Atlantic coast (except for the icebergs bobbing in the waves).

Lassen NP has mudpots that are pretty cool, bubbling up through the snow.

 

[Ns1]

hwy 1 @ big sur is closed halfway through; the only bridge needs to be demolished due to damage as a result of excess rain. you won't be able to continue all the way down the coast that way.

hearst castle is also a good stop.

http://www.ksbw.com/article/big-sur-will-remain-cutoff-for-at-least-6-months/9163824

 

[Drako]

Reading, Stockton and Bakersfield are must visit places in CA.

 

[BoomerD]

Olympic Nat'l Park is nice, (and almost in my backyard) especially around Kalaloch, and the rain forest is pretty nice...but...wet. (usually) I LOVE the Oregon coast. Perhaps the nicest coastline on the Left coast...maybe in the nation. (just beware...the water is frigid.) Redwoods National/State Parks are worth a visit as well. VERY nice part of NorCal.

 

[bigrash]

Awesome recommendations guys! I'm definitely taking notes of all of the them. Definitely adding Mount St Helens, Sequoia, Multnomah Falls to my list.

 

[bigrash]

hwy 1 @ big sur is closed halfway through; the only bridge needs to be demolished due to damage as a result of excess rain. you won't be able to continue all the way down the coast that way.

hearst castle is also a good stop.

http://www.ksbw.com/article/big-sur-will-remain-cutoff-for-at-least-6-months/9163824

DAMN That really sucks!!! Thanks for letting me know!

 

[SKORPI0]

hwy 1 @ big sur is closed halfway through; the only bridge needs to be demolished due to damage as a result of excess rain. you won't be able to continue all the way down the coast that way.

hearst castle is also a good stop.

Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge

 

[IronWing]

DAMN That really sucks!!! Thanks for letting me know!

Jump it! You'd do it for David Hasselhoff, wouldn't you?

 

[IronWing]

Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge

Roh, roh. That's farther north than I thought. We were thinking about heading back to Monterrey in the fall. I guess we'll have to keep an eye on bridge replacement work to see if the road will be open by then.

 

[Paperdoc]

Sequoia National Park was suggested, and that is the place to see giant Sequoia trees. But a lot of that is by hiking in forests. My wife and I preferred easier access last October and toured several places between Eureka and San Francisco. The routes there run through coastal Redwood forests and you can drive through them or stop at many places to walk on easier paths. Impressive and beautiful. Loads of small wineries through there, too, but we did not stop at those.

 

[blackangst1]

Ive made this drive many times...seriously just get on the 101 and stay there the whole coast down. Also, Tilimook, OR is an awesome place

 

[zerocool84]

To me, 5 days doesn't seem like enough time to drive from Seattle to LA and see all the stops along the way.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

I would skip Crater Lake and take Coastal 101 down from Seattle and enjoy the Oregon Coast south to Arcata and then crossover on 299 East to Redding and further East to Lassen NP. With the amount of snow we've had, Lassen may very well be closed until July 1. They try and get it open by June 15th most years.

Stop off and see the Coastal Redwoods in/around Crescent City CA - tallest trees in the world.

Lassen NP is a favorite as it has all the beauty of Yosemite and none of the Chinese tour buses.

If you decided to do Crater lake, have a look at the Lava Beds National Monument in NE California.

From Lassen, you can head south on I-5 to Hwy 99 and then cut through Fresno to see Sequoia NP. It's about 90-minutes east from Fresno and you can see the fattest trees in the world. You can hike 2-3 quick trails and get your fill of massive trees.

From Lassen, you can continue to head east into Reno and then head down the back of California on Hwy 395. Remote and beautiful with direct views of the snowy Sierra Nevada mountains the entire way. Stop by Mono Lake, lunch in Mammoth Lakes, check out Owens Lake and witness how LA has drained our water supply - abandoned town of Keeler is a cant miss.

So much to see on your trip - all depends if you want to do the coastal side, the I-5 Central valley area, or the East side on Hwy 395.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

To me, 5 days doesn't seem like enough time to drive from Seattle to LA and see all the stops along the way.

3-different routes you can take. Coast, Central Valley, or East side on the back of the mountains. Each will be a solid 5-day trip and give the OP a very different trip.

 

[Ns1]

For the love of god don't do Central Valley through CA.

 

[Azuma Hazuki]

This is less about sightseeing than health, but important: do not drive/sit for more than a couple of hours at a time. This is to prevent DVT (deep-vein thrombosis), which is another lovely misfeature of the human body that kills you slowly enough to be painful but much too quickly to save you from it.

If, and only if, you can tolerate it and your doctor gives the okay, have a regular 325mg aspirin about half an hour before the drive begins. If you're on another NSAID, warfarin, or certain other meds don't do it because this can cause internal bleeding, but if s/he says you're good to take it, take it. Stay hydrated, too.

 

[BoomerD]

To me, 5 days doesn't seem like enough time to drive from Seattle to LA and see all the stops along the way.

Agreed. It's...1150 miles straight down I-5...that's 2 days of driving. Most of the scenic places aren't along 1-5 though...which will make for a longer trip. With only 5 days, the OP will have time to hit a few places...but not for long at any of them. Some of the places mentioned are worthy of at least a couple of days by themselves.

We spent a week just in Crescent City and the Redwoods 2 years ago. BEAUTIFUL place.

 

[x26]

The wife and I are taking a trip to the west coast in June. We'll be flying to Seattle and driving down to LA. We've decided to take a total of 5 days to do the drive and stop at many places as possible along the way. What are your recommendations for scenic places to check out?

So far, on my list I have the following:

Olympic Park
Cannon Beach
Crater Lake Park
Big Sur

Wow!! That's one of the World's Most Beautiful Drives. Five Days?? We took two weeks and only went down as far as San Francisco. We could have easily Taken 2 Months!!

If you only have 5 days why not spend 1 night in Seattle and then drive to Port Angelos and Take the Ferry to Victoria, BC-stay there for a night then drive up to Sydney and take ferry to Tsewasah, BC and drive into Vancouver for 2 days??

If you do the Seattle to LA in 5 days it will be extremely difficult to pick the small amount of beautiful sites to visit out of the Hundreds worth seeing.

Well Good Luck--June should be gorgeous!!

 

[zerocool84]

Agreed. It's...1150 miles straight down I-5...that's 2 days of driving. Most of the scenic places aren't along 1-5 though...which will make for a longer trip. With only 5 days, the OP will have time to hit a few places...but not for long at any of them. Some of the places mentioned are worthy of at least a couple of days by themselves.

We spent a week just in Crescent City and the Redwoods 2 years ago. BEAUTIFUL place.

Yea exactly, five days isn't much time at all. I do the drive fairly regularly to LA and San Francisco and that's basically a day drive in itself, especially if you're taking the scenic route.