Hello experts,
I am seeking advice about the routes to take and places to visit as I relocate from San Francisco to Seattle. I am moving up to Bellevue, WA soon in my 1998 Honda Civic that will be fully-loaded with personal posessions in the trunk and backseat. I want to take this opportunity to see the interesting and beautiful sights and cities/towns along the way.
Details for this relocation trip:
- The trip will happen in first week of April 2012
- I have ~10 days to make the one-way driving journey northwards.
- I dont need information on interesting sites in San Francisco or Seattle on this trip, since I have visited the former before (including Muir Woods and Point Reyes National Seashore), and will be setting up residence near the latter in the near future.
- My interests include nature, landscape, national/state parks, towns/cities, monuments, culture, people etc.
Additional information about myself:
- I have done the famous Highway 1 (or Pacific Coastal Highway) journey before from San Francisco all the way to San Diego and yes, am extremely impressed by that especially the Big Sur and Malibu portions. With that being said, I am not sure how the Highway 1/Highway 101 (northwards of Point Reyes till OR and WA state) will match up to that? or are the coastal sights completely different and worth exploring? Please advice.
- I am at preliminary stage of research and still quite clueless on what are the interesting sites at CA areas northwards of Point Reyes and also within Oregon state at this stage, except knowing that I will likely want to visit Eugene and Portland because they are supposed to be beautiful towns. Crater Lake NP was originally on my list, but I read that the Rim Drive is still close in April so I will sadly have to cut this off from my plan this time.
In general, I am aware that there are 3 routes to get up there, Highway 1 (Coastal road), Highway 101, and Interstate 5, which are presented in decreasing amount of journey time to reach destination. I doubt I will want to take Highway 1 throughout, nor do I want to take Interstate 5 all the way too, which may be too boring?! However, unfortunately, I noticed they are for the most parts quite far from each other (ie. may be quite time-consuming and windy road journey to cut from one route to another), so I would want to know the best routes match/combo from people who have done it before.
I welcome all sorts of information (routes to take, points to stop, places to stay etc.), many thanks in advance!
Regards,
Jo