Leaving Myrtle Beach SC and taking Northern Route to Oregon, down 101 with Camper

[bgibson586]

We are in the planning stages of a long life dream of taking the camper for about 3 to 4 months and traveling the northern route of the Us. We are looking at sites to see, routes to take along the way. Once we get to Oregon, will take the 101 down to Los Angeles. Has anyone taken such a trip with a RV, and if so please tell me your experience and places you seen.

[DonnaR57]

Welcome to RTA!

We may not have taken exactly the same trip you have. That's the beauty of the road trip; it can be personalized just for you. But most of the regulars on here have taken both short one-day trips all the way up to extended trips. Some of us have or have had RV's, while others prefer to car-motel it. Once again, that's the great thing about road trips! Many of us have been along some of the same routes you'll use, or can recommend others, though maybe not all on the same trip.

What I'd recommend is what many people, including myself, do when planning a trip: take out a good map (paper or electronic) and start looking at it. A road atlas is a great purchase if you don't already have one, such as a Rand McNally. You can poke around the Map Center here on this site to see what looks interesting to you. When you get some ideas, a route will start to form itself just by connecting the dots.

Recommendation: To actually come down the coast, you'll want to find CA-1. Coming south on that, you're in a perfect position to pull over at the scenic views. In Northern California, Redwoods National Park, Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Muir Woods, Napa and Sonoma Valley (wine country), all come to mind north of San Francisco.


Donna

[Lifemagician]

As already suggested, this is your trip, and as such, it needs to be your choice as to where you go and what you see. So far we do not know much about you, other than that you want to take your camper and do the coast road in the West.

Like Donna, I suggest that you start with choosing the sights you wish to see, rather than the route you wish to travel. For example, if you are interested in spending some time in Yellowstone NP, then you could take the I-90 if you also wanted to see Badlands. On the other hand, you'd be more inclined to take I-80 if northern CO or Salt Lake City were of more interest to you.

Once you have some dots on the map, be sure to come and ask more questions, and the experts here will help you fine tune your trip and make further suggestions along the way.

Enjoy the planning.

Lifey

[AZBuck]

As the others have noted, it's hard to give you specific advice this early in your planning when you have enough time and a destination far enough away that you basically have the entire country within range of your trip. So let's instead look at what might be a good (We don't believe in 'best'.) route from Myrtle Beach to Portland. Your explorations can start out close to home with the Congaree Swamp National Monument, a visit to Cowpens and Kings Mountain, and a tour of the Great Smoky Mountains. Then from Nashville head up through the Land Between the Lakes to St.Louis, take in some of the Great River Road, and soak up the Americana of Hannibal. Next head out across the Great Plains to St. Joseph and its Pony Express history, and up the Missouri into South Dakota and its many sites including the Badlands, Wind and Jewel Caves, Mount Rushmore and nearby Devils Tower. From there a drive westward through Wyoming and Montana will bring you to the Little Bighorn and the incredible Beartooth Highway into Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. You'd finish up your run to Portland by following two great scenic American rivers, the Snake in southern Idaho and the Columbia on the Washington/Oregon state line. Anyway, that's what I'd start with as a basic plan.

AZBuck