Edmonton to Seattle-August 2013

[edmchiefs]

We want to take 2 weeks and drive from Edmonton to Seattle. We have 2 teenage boys, 14 and 17. We were thinking of going Edmonton-Montana-Idaho-Washington route. We have been to British Columbia lots so we want to explore the US. Can you suggest points of interest for teenage boys along this route? We ideally want to spend the bulk of the time, 3-4 days in Seattle. Thanks

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

What are your interests, and that of your family? I could give a lot of suggestions, but they may or may not interest you. Sit down with a good map of the USA/Canada and see if anything jumps out at you.

Offhand -- Jasper, Banff, Lake Louise, Columbia Icefields -- all in your backyard, so to speak. Waterton Lakes (Can) and Glacier NP (USA) in Montana. Craters of the Moon NM. Yellowstone NP. Grand Teton NP. Coeur d'Alene ID. Sun Valley ID. The Columbia River. Grand Coulee Dam, WA. Olympic NP, WA. North Cascades NP. That's mostly natural sites, except for the Dam.

We may have other suggestions if you can let us know your interests. Or poke around the RTA Mapping Center.


Donna

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Two weeks should work quite well for such a trip. Taking the sort of round-about route you've indicated would take two solid days of driving at best, but even if you take a much more relaxed pace both to Seattle and back, you could still have several days in Seattle. Your basic route would look something like AB-2 all the way south through Calgary to the US border, then continue on US-89 to the eastern entrance to Glacier National Park. Cross through the park on Going to the Sun Road and come out the other side onto US-2 which will take you into northern Idaho where there are a number of scenic byways as well as great natural sights such as Moyie Falls and the Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge. Then cutting southwest across Idaho and Washington through Spokane to around Kennewick and the Channeled Scablands of the Columbia Basalts. From there, heading west would bring you to Mount Rainier National Park. Obviously, my recommendations tend to the biologic and geologic, but if your boys have other interests, just let us know and we can more than likely come up with sites and/or activities to meet those interests.

AZBuck

[edmchiefs]

Thank you, good place to start. My boys aren't the scenic type of kids or hiking type. They want to see I guess more tourist things like the Space Needle types of things. I know what we can see in Seattle so you both have given some good suggestions for the other states. We will have a look and I will get back if anything further needed!