Los Angeles-Bend Oregon

My boyfriend and I are planning assumed road trip, and need some advice on places to stay at our destinations. It will be one car, one tent, two people. Our journey will begin in low Angeles California, we will be driving directly to the redwoods, I want to know a good spot in the heart of the forest. Then we would like to enjoy a night along the Oregon coast, no where beyond Florence Oregon, I want so,etching close to the water I love the ocean. Then we will be spending 2 nights in bend Oregon. We might be interested in moving so we want the best of the best!!

Welcome to RTA!

A few questions: how long do you have for the trip, and by "redwoods" do you mean the coastal redwoods or the Sierra redwoods? Also, what does "the best of the best" mean to you? It means different things to different people, especially when it comes to campgrounds. Some folks want shower houses, flush toilets, running water and electricity at every site, even with a tent. Other folks are happy with a clean campground and pit toilets, and a faucet either for your site or for several sites to share.

Assuming you mean the coastal redwoods, it's about a 2-day journey from LA. You can't take PCH/CA-1, because of a downed bridge, but you could use either US-101 or shoot up I-5 then move west somewhere north of the Bay area. If you take the 101, you could get a campsite at Fremont Peak State Park. The campground is at the top of a hill (mountain). When we stayed there, we woke in the morning to sunshine, but our site looked out over the valley -- which was cloud-covered. We were above the clouds! Back then, it was a non-reservation campground, not well used. Now it's part of ReserveAmerica, as are most of the campgrounds I'm mentioning here.

One of our favorite northern redwoods campgrounds, albeit years ago, was the one at Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. There are also some beautiful campgrounds at Redwoods National Park, four of them to be exact. Since you may already be a little slow in getting reservations, keep your options open.

There are numerous state park campgrounds between the CA/OR state line and Florence. Do you have a road atlas or map?

Along the route between Florence and Bend OR, more specifically east of Eugene, is McKenzie Bridge Campground, in the Willamette National Forest. It's a tiny little campground - a dozen or so sites - but right next to the river and so pretty! Being a Forest Service campground, it's very primitive even compared to CA state parks and National Park CG's.



Donna

Is this a one way trip or will you be returning to LA ? If its a round trip then I would recommend visiting the coast on your return so that the Ocean is on your side of the road and many of the scenic viewpoints. You can not safely drive from LA to the Redwoods in a single day although with an early start you may get as far as Leggett CA. So before we can help further please tell us how much time you have and whether it's a one way or round trip.