Washington State to California July 2012

Hello from the UK,

Next July (for my 40th birthday) we are planning on road tripping from Seattle to San Fran (or the other way round).

A few years ago we did Vegas -canyon/death valley - San Diego - San Fran over 3 -4 weeks and had the best holiday ever, especiallyfrom LA to SF up the 101, we always promised ourselves to drive from SF all the way to Canada.

Anyway were going next July but I was looking for some advice on July 4th traffic etc. Originally we were thinking of flying into SF
early July and starting our holiday from there. Alternatively I am thinking of flying into Seattle-Tacoma early July having a few days in
Vancouver then crossing into the USA on the 6th, 7th, or 8th July and starting our drive from there. Is the July 4th traffic really bad?
does the holiday encompass the whole week and both weekends? We don't go to the USA in July our normal Months are either May or
September as we don't like crowds. We've done several USA road trips before so were aware of distances, hotels. etc.

Not really worked out the itinerary yet but something along the lines of Mount Raineir, Mount St Helens, Portland, Columbia River valley, McMinnville (to see the spruce goose), onto the pacific coast highway, spend a week in a cabin around california/oregon border for some hiking and maybe camping then onto SF for a couple of days to do the sights we missed last time, any other suggestions would
be most welcome.

Thanks, Paul N

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Normally. holidays in America get moved to the nearest Monday or Friday and are made into a long weekend. But next year, July 4th falls on a Wednesday, so to be honest, I don't know whether the 'holiday' observance will go to the 2nd or the 6th. A few general notes about the Fourth of July may help in your planning, however, It is typically not a major holiday in terms of families taking a lot of time (a week or more) and traveling great distances by road. Rather it is more of a long weekend type of celebration where people generally stick pretty close to home and do things like go to the beach, have picnics, watch fireworks, that sort of thing. There are certainly places and times when the roads will be very busy, especially the opening and closing days of the weekend, and those are times when you as a visitor would want to be in place and enjoying the celebrations rather than trying to travel.

Going to Canada over the Fourth is one option, but I would actually urge you to find a small American town that has some homespun celebrations such as a local parade, a fireman's breakfast, and/or some fireworks, and just enjoy an American tradition. For some more general recommendations for the Pacific Northwest can be found here.

AZBuck

Hi AZ,

Thanks for the reply very helpful, the links you attached are great certainly a few must-do's in there. I think as suggested maybe we'll
spend the 4th somewhere on the CA/OR coast and enjoy the day and not worry about traffic, here in the UK we are obsessed with
holiday traffic as there's rather allot of us living on a tiny island.

One other question, do you know when most schools break for their summer vacation? & should we be looking out for a
'Firemans breakfast'

Schools in America are widely varied as to when they break for summer vacation. Some are done by the end of May and return in mid-August (my daughter's school does that, where she teaches). Others end at the beginning of June and start the 2nd to last week in August. Still others (like mine) end in mid-June and start closer to Labor Day, or even after Labor Day. But if a district has adopted a year-round school schedule, all of this is a moot point.

June-July-August are considered school vacation months in the USA.



Donna