Phoenix to Seattle in two and half days

Dear Friends,

I am travelling from Phoenix to Seattle in 2012 Nissan Altima starting from 13th March(this Friday) afternoon. I need to reach Seattle by 15th March(Sunday) night. Please suggest me most scenic and safe route and also My rest points to night (Friday and Saturday). I can extend a day(until Monday night) if required if you feel the journey time is too short(I have no knowledge in planning this trip except depending on Google maps). I am basically moving from Phoenix to Seattle(no much luggage) on a job purpose but would like to use this trip to cover scenic beauties on best possible way. So all friendly suggestions as early as possible are welcome to plan this (to make) wonderful trip. I thank you in advance :)

Welcome to RTA!

It's going to take you at least 2.5 days without any sightseeing delays. You will need to get out of Phoenix early enough Friday to drive about 6 hours if you want to get to Seattle Sunday night.

Take I-10 to Redlands CA, then CA-210 to I-15. Take that north to Hesperia and spend the night. Next day, take US-395 north to CA-58, take that west to Bakersfield and take CA-99 north to Stockton, then CA-4 west to I-5. Take that north to Redding and spend the night.

If you can extend till Monday night, I'd recommend you do that, and delay your start till early Saturday morning - Friday rush hours are no fun. That way, you could extend your first night to Bakersfield and the second night to Medford OR.

What time will you be leaving Friday afternoon ? I personally would look at taking US93 to Twin Falls from Vegas and then I88/82/90 towards Seattle. If you are prepared to arrive Monday night you could look at taking in a couple of sights along the way otherwise your time will be filled with driving and resting.

Make sure you have a good paper map and do not rely solely on electronics, it's important to be in charge of where you want to go.

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Originally Posted by glc

Welcome to RTA!

It's going to take you at least 2.5 days without any sightseeing delays. You will need to get out of Phoenix early enough Friday to drive about 6 hours if you want to get to Seattle Sunday night.

Take I-10 to Redlands CA, then CA-210 to I-15. Take that north to Hesperia and spend the night. Next day, take US-395 north to CA-58, take that west to Bakersfield and take CA-99 north to Stockton, then CA-4 west to I-5. Take that north to Redding and spend the night.

If you can extend till Monday night, I'd recommend you do that, and delay your start till early Saturday morning - Friday rush hours are no fun. That way, you could extend your first night to Bakersfield and the second night to Medford OR.

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Thank you RTA. Now my plan is fixed. I will start Friday 11AM and need to reach by Sunday night. Could you please let me know where could be my rest points to book hotel. Also Does the way you told cover scenic beauty? . I am much interested to travel on scenic roads on the way and at least few scenic views.

As I said, look at Hesperia (this includes Victorville and Adelanto) and Redding for overnight stops. Both have a selection of hotels.

As far as scenic views are concerned: Along I-10, near Palm Springs, there is a huge field of those huge windmills. I found that fascinating! Then, CA-58 will take you through Tehachapi - really very pretty. There is a railroad yard there and something like 13 tunnels going through the mountains.

CA-99 takes you past some of the most fertile valleys in the state of California, and our state's "bread basket". This isn't particularly a great time of the year to see that, but there will still be a lot of fields and orchards either being readied for the next crop or similar. Once through Sacramento and Stockton, I-5 is not particularly interesting until you get to Redding. Lake Shasta and Mt Shasta are the start of the scenic drive which, IMHO, goes all the way up I-5 into Seattle. Some of my favorite views are the viewpoints for Mt Shasta (a good place to stretch your legs for a few minutes), and then the Valley of the Rogue State Park in Oregon west of Medford. That's another good place to stretch your legs.

But you have 3 long days of driving, and you won't have a lot of time to fiddle around. Still, you need to stretch your legs, clear your head, take a break. Treat the drive like three very long work days -- get up on the road right after catching the continental breakfast at the motel, take a mid-morning break, a lunch break, and a mid-afternoon break, and arrive at that day's destination safely.

For the record, one time we went from Phoenix to Seattle in a car. We took 4 days -- overnights in Buttonwillow, Redding, Portland, and our first destination of Auburn/Kent WA (near Seattle). (Our final destination was Alaska: we were moving there on military orders.) We almost decided to make it 3 days, and would have stayed in Buttonwillow and Redding but we had small children at the time. I'm glad we made the trip in four days.

Thank you so much glc and DonnaR57. I just did some research based on your posts and few friends suggestions. I now have this plan to this trip Phoenix->Hespiria->Ridgecrest-(1st Night stay)>Reno->Klamath falls(2nd Night stay)->Portland->Seattle. I thought of chosing this route as I heard US-395 has very scenic road. I divided total 24 hrs journey to 7 hrs,10hrs and 7hrs approximately. You can correct me if you think it will not be a good choice in any perspective. Also Please suggest me about on how good are US-395,CA-139, US-97 and OR 58 roads to drive in the above planned way. I can book hotels in Ridgecrest and Klamath Falls if you find this plan is good. Once again Thank you for your kind responses.

You do not have time to take anything except what I suggested, sorry. With only 2.5 days you must stick to the Interstates. Book in Hesperia and Redding.

Your drive times are coming straight from a mapping program and are not relistic. It would 11 to 12 hours of driving from Klamath to Seattle without time for much else other than the basics. Having said that, I think you do have the option of going off Interstate if you are leaving at 11am on Friday as stated and are not to worried about rolling into Seattle late. Adding time to an already long journey wouldn't be for everyone, but is the type of thing I would do. Getting to Ridgecrest is feasible and then I would look at Alturas CA which has limited lodgings, so check it out for availability. [Or you could check Canby for lodgings]

Note that this is going to take at least 2 hours longer than the suggestion I made of US93 to Twin Falls. Although a lot of desert landscape to start, I found it scenic and pleasing on the eye and is why I recommended it when considering scenic and time. Everyone is different though and thats what makes the road trip a unique affair !

Have a great trip !