Sacramento to Seattle (and possibly on to Vancouver) in a week in September

Hi Folks,

My husband and I are visiting the states for 3 weeks in September. Two of those weeks will be taken up visiting family in LA and Sacramento, and the drive from LA to Sacramento (which will probably be a direct route as we did HWY 1 via San Fran (and Yosemite / I-5 on the return leg) last year. Was amazing....

Anyway, we've booked our flights home to Ireland from Seattle and we hope to have a week between leaving Sacramento and flying home to see some of the sights. Personally, I'd love to do HWY 1 all the way from San Fran, but I don't know if this is realistic or not? Plus maybe there are great things to see along the way if we took I-5? We'd also love to get as far as Vancouver, and if possible Vancouver Island - but we'd have to get back to Seattle again in the time.

We are completely free of all plans at this stage, nothing is booked except the flights - so I am hoping that some of you can provide some good advice on what to take in or suggest some itinereries. Tips on affordable accommodation and good food to be had would also be greatly appreciated

This is a great site btw!

Céad Míle Fáilte! Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

There is no need to choose between taking the coast road (CA-1/US-101) or I-5. You can easily do a bit of both switching back and forth as the scenery and sites demand. For instance (Warning: I tend to use "B" roads. Get a good map!) one possible routing might go something like this. Head out of Sacramento on I-80 west to Davis and then go north on CA-113 for a couple of miles to W. Covell Blvd, county road E-6. Take that west to Winters where it turns into CA-128 at I-505. Follow CA-128 to the coast at Albion and follow the Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1/US-101) north past Eureka to Orick. Besides the coastal scenery, your objective here is the giant redwoods in both Redwood National Park and nearby Prairie Creek Redwoods and Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Parks.

Next up, I'd head inland for a bit. From US-101, take US-199 north from Crescent City up to Grants Pass, OR and there take I-5 (south!) to Gold Hill and head north on OR-234 to OR-62 north to Crater Lake National Park. Take the Rim Drive either way around the lake (The rangers should be able to tell you which way will offer the best scenery and photos) and then head out of the park northbound on Crater Lake North Highway to OR-138 east to US-97 north to begin your drive back to the coast for a while.

Pick up OR-58 northwest through Willamette National Forest to Eugene and from there OR-99 north to Corvallis. These are two university towns if you're looking for a little night life. From Corvallis, US-20 will take you west to the coast at Newport and US-101 north along the coast. This section of the Oregon coast is strewn with a number of great state parks with wonderful hiking trails and scenic vistas, I'd recommend them all, but you will have to pick and choose, unfortunately. Your ultimate goal is Astoria where Fort Clatsop National Memorial offers a bit of American history if you're of a mind.

Time to head inland again through Portland on US-30 and then along one of the truly scenic roads in this part of the world, the old Historic Columbia River Highway. Strung all along this route are waterfalls within very easy hiking distance of the road. Hit as many as you can, and where you must use I-84. Finally, take US-97 north, enjoying the views of Mount Adams off to your left, to Yakima and US-12 west to Mt. Rainier National Park Again, check at the visitors center for which way around suits you best and then finish up your journey by either taking WA-123/WA-410/WA-164 or WA-706/WA-7 into the Seattle area.

I make all of that around three and a half days of driving, plus however much time you want to spend hiking and sight seeing. Enough that I think I'd skip trying to get to Vancouver or Victoria in this trip, as wonderful as those cities are.

AZBuck

Thank you AZBuck,
I'm gonna have a closer look at your suggestions and I might get back to you if that's ok :-)