San Francisco, Crater Lake, and the Northern California Coast

I'm starting to work on a trip for this June to a part of the country that I really haven't spent much time: Northern California.

I'm flying into SFO on a Monday evening, and leaving the following Wednesday afternoon, giving me basically 8 days for the trip.

The rough outline is to spend Tuesday in San Francisco, see a Giants game that night, and then hit the road. I'm thinking of spending Wednesday driving up to Crater Lake, Thursday at CL, and then Friday through Tuesday heading back down the coast, arriving back in the Bay area by Tuesday evening.

So here are a few of the things I'm trying to figure out.

For SF, I'm still figuring out where to stay and when to pick up the car. My initial thought was to simply stay out by the airport for 2 nights, just use public transit around SF, and pick up the car on Wednesday morning. However, it also crossed my mind that it might be better to pick up the car on Tuesday, use it to get around SF, and then head out to the east bay suburbs after the game, where I'd be able to find a cheaper room and not deal with traffic on Wednesday morning.

My other issues involve traveling the coast. I will be camping for this portion of the trip (flying Southwest so no bag fees!), and I would prefer not to make reservations and just see where we end up for the night. However, I'm guessing camping spots my be hard to come by, especially in Late June and since much of that will be over a weekend. I'm also looking for places that might be more affordable than the $35 a night that CA state parks are now charging, because of their budget cuts.

For that matter, there are a lot of CA state parks that it looks like are worth visiting, but does anyone know if their park fees are park specific? Meaning that if I visit multiple state parks in one day, do I have to pay the $8 entry fee for each park, or if I pay $8 on a Saturday, it will be good for every park I want to visit on that Saturday? I did look at an annual pass, but it looks like that is more than $100, but if anyone has any suggestions or advice for making state parks more affordable, that would be appreciated.

Ah, it seems you have discovered one of the things that California residents discover in the first years we live here: Most everything is expensive. State parks, AFAIK, are each "park specific", where you pay for entrance to each state park.

You're better off in national forest campgrounds if you are near one, as far as price is concerned. The only problem is, the NF campgrounds aren't close to the beach like the state park CG's. State park CG's have been expensive for years, and $35 isn't surprising at all. We used to carry around a copy of Tom Stienstra's book on California Camping -- he described things perfectly -- you can get one either brand new ($34) or find a used one that's not too old. Just click here.

Grizzly Creek Redwoods SP, at one time, was really pretty. However, we had a site that was right on the hwy -- that wasn't good for us, as there were lumber trucks that ran through there 24/7. Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP also had a lovely CG at one time. The thing we liked is that the sites, while close together, were private. I'd imagine that those two are expensive. Both of those are near 101.


Donna

From what I know, here are a few observations:

1. I would go north rather than try to stay in the East Bay. Head for the Bay Bridge and take I-80 toward Sacto, stay around Fairfield/Vacaville. The next morning, I-505 will get you around Sacto. Don't be tempted to stay in Vallejo or any closer to SF, it's not a good choice (I'm assuming you are going to take I-5 north - if you are going to take 101, Santa Rosa is a very good place to stop).

2. Make a last-minute check before you head to Crater Lake - even in late June it usually isn't fully functional yet.

3. I don't know for sure, but it looks to me like each fee is park-specific. It also looks like most of the fees are for parking, not park admission. Example - I went to Humboldt Redwoods SP a couple years ago to drive the Avenue of the Giants. It's listed as having a $8.00 fee for "Developed Parking". I never encountered a booth anywhere collecting money and I pulled off the road and parked in lots all the way through.

A couple PDF's for you:

Day Use

Camping

4. No bag fees on SWA - for the first 2 bags. They charge for 3 or more.

5. Discuss tolls with the rental agency - I just read that they are closing the cash booths on the Golden Gate, it will be FasTrak transponder or license plate only. I don't know how opportunistic the rental companies are going to be. I-Pass/EZ-Pass doesn't work out there. The other 2 toll bridges you will have to deal with are the Bay Bridge and the Carquinez on I-80, they take cash and there is no discount for a FasTrak.

EDIT: Please clear your PM box.

A couple of suggestions for places that, for a short drive, can save some long green. The first is in the San Francisco area and where to rent your car. Since you have the availability of good public transport you can save yourself about $250(!!!) on a weekly car rental dealing with an off-airport location (I used South San Francisco) rather than one at SFO.

Now that alone would pay for a week's camping even if the state is charging $35/night. But then there are options other than the many state parks along the northern coast. It is unfortunately true that it is usually difficult to impossible to get inland from the northern California coast, but it is not always so. You can use Mountain View Road and CA-235 from near Manchester, or CA-20 from around Fort Bragg, to reach the Lake Mendocino area and the campgrounds of Mendocino National Forest. Farther north CA-299 from Arcata gives access to Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and then near Crater Lake you have two options: Rogue River and Umpqua National Forests.

California does sell an annual parks pass, but at $195 it's probably not worth it for this trip. But for $25 you can join the California State Parks Foundation and get seven day passes.

Sounds like a great trip. My wife and I have something similar on the back burner for this fall, so I'll be interested in what you enjoy, learn, and would like to pass along.

AZBuck

That is seven "day-use" parking passes, not an unlimited pass for 7 days. Better apply now, it says it can take 4 to 5 weeks to get your stuff.

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Includes 7 day-use parking passes, good for admission to more than 200 state parks
5% off camping reservations
Monthly discount coupons for use in and around state parks, worth hundreds of dollars!
California Parklands newsletter
CSPF membership card that can save you money at parks across the state

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Staying near to the airport with a hotel that has a free shuttle service is worth considering, when just having one day visiting the City. We flew in and went to the Hotel dropped our luggage and checked in and then used the free shuttle bus to get back to the airport where there is a BART system to head downtown, Powell street being near to the heart of things.

Another option would be to pick up a car and find a Hotel with free parking and drive towards downtown Mon night and out to the east subarbs Tues night, but you really don't need [or want imo] a car to get around SF. There are a few Hotels around Lombard and Gough that offer free parking where the rates were reasonable, [for SF] and within an easy walk of the Piers and Cable cars to the City. We got a good deal at the 'Buena Vista Motor Inn' which was 'OK' but that was some time ago.

For the SF part, what are you interested in there? You won't need a car if you are primarily interested in the CBD, Chinatown, North Beach, and so on. If you want to go a little more out of the way, it might be nice to have one.

I agree with glc - get out of the East Bay Tuesday night - I concur in his recommendation of Fairfield or Vacaville. There is a big cluster of hotels at Cordelia Junction where I-80 and I-680 meet which might be convenient for you. Also, the traffic is still bad until you get to around Vallejo.

If you had more time (and were into theater), i would recommend a stop in Ashland for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival - it runs Spring to Fall but high time is Memorial Day to Labor Day. Great theater in a nice town in Southern Oregon. However, your interests seem mostly outdoors-y and it is a little out of your way.

Jon

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Originally Posted by DonnaR57

Ah, it seems you have discovered one of the things that California residents discover in the first years we live here: Most everything is expensive.

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Actually, I have lived in California, and I do remember how expensive things were. Although, as I've thought about it, I don't know if I hardly ever visited a CA State Park. I spent lots of time exploring the National Parks and Forests, but those kept me pretty occupied. I also remember voting in a Recall election for the Governor (never thought that would be something I'd get to do twice!) and the last time I was in San Francisco, I drove by City Hall, where the Mayor was creating a national outrage by letting same sex couples get married.

I will probably spend some time looking into the National Forests for camping, like the ones that Buck recommended. I remember when I was exploring the Big Sur area I found a great campsite that was just up in the mountains, that where we found a spot without reservations on a weekend, perhaps I'll have similar luck farther north. Of course, staying right on the beach would be nice too, so I'll certainly look for that book (I've got a similar one from a different author checked out from the library right now.)

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Originally Posted by AZBuck

California does sell an annual parks pass, but at $195 it's probably not worth it for this trip. But for $25 you can join the California State Parks Foundation and get seven day passes.

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Thanks for this, Buck. This is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for, and hadn't seen yet in any of my searching.

More on the SF specific portion of the trip to come...

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It is unfortunately true that it is usually difficult to impossible to get inland from the northern California coast, but it is not always so. You can use Mountain View Road and CA-235 from near Manchester, or CA-20 from around Fort Bragg, to reach the Lake Mendocino area and the campgrounds of Mendocino National Forest. Farther north CA-299 from Arcata gives access to Shasta-Trinity National Forest, and then near Crater Lake you have two options: Rogue River and Umpqua National Forests.

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CA-299 is pretty decent road, or at least it was the last time we were on it. We have also used CA-36. Yipes! That one had some hairy sections on it. You'll share either one of them, and probably CA-20 as well, with the local loggers.

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Actually, I have lived in California, and I do remember how expensive things were. Although, as I've thought about it, I don't know if I hardly ever visited a CA State Park. I spent lots of time exploring the National Parks and Forests, but those kept me pretty occupied.

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We've used a number of CA state parks in the almost 30 years we've lived in this state, though not lately. However, I have quite a number of friends with RV's that regularly use the beach state parks for a weekend "camp out" at any time of the year. They tell me that one must make reservations for a weekend about 6 months in advance -- not quite so much in advance for a weekday, unless it's in the summer. I know that several parks have actually been closed, or if kept open, some of them are without facilities that make it more pleasant to be there, like bathrooms.

Our first tenting experience was at Cuyamaca State Park. After that we started to use national forest campgrounds and actually preferred them since mostly they were less crowded (and usually cheaper).

In Northern California, some of our favorites were in Whiskeytown Shasta-Trinity NF (a CG not far from Trinity Center), one on the north shores of Lake Shasta (though the lake has receded so much that it's possible it isn't even close to the CG any more), and one that is now closed near the town of Peanut.


Donna

I have taken CA-36 from Red Bluff to the coast, and it's 140 miles of constant twisties. It takes 4 hours of concentrated driving. It's regarded as one of the great motorcycle/sports car roads in the country.

The plan is coming together.

I reserved a car this morning from Hertz in South San Francisco. I'll pick it up on Tuesday morning, and drop it off the following Wednesday morning. Going with an Economy Car, using my AAA discount and a AAA coupon code, it's going to cost just $181 for the 8 days.

At that price, the cost of Parking for a day in SF shouldn't seem so bad, and more importantly, we'll also be able to save money by getting a hotel Tuesday night out around Fairfield, which should be quite a bit less than another night out by SFO. From the looks of things, the public transit system isn't all that cheap either, so I think having a car should work out reasonably well for just one day in SF.

So the plan now is to arrive Monday evening, and head to an airport hotel (nothing booked, yet, but will take recommendations if someone has a favorite).

Tuesday, get up, get the rental car, and head into the city itself. Plan right now is to visit Alcatraz, and then maybe enjoy some seafood around the Warf or head up to China Town, and then head to the Giants game. After the game, head across the Bay Bridge and onto a hotel.

Wednesday drive up to Crater Lake, Spend all day Thursday there, and then Friday-Tuesday making our way down the coast. Probably ending up at an airport hotel again on the Tuesday night, although that's not a must, since our flights don't leave until around 2pm on Wednesday.

The trip is getting closer, and I'm finally getting my act together in terms of planning.

Sketching out a rough plan with my latest ideas.

Monday - Arrive at SFO @830pm, airport hotel.
Tuesday - Pick up rental car, Day in SF, finishing with Giants Game, night somewhere near Fairfield.
Wednesday - Head North to Ashland, via Lassen Volcanic NP.
Thursday - Rafting Trip on Upper Klamath River based out of Ashland.
Friday - Crater Lake
Saturday - Drive to Coast, stopping at Oregon Caves NM, night near Crescent City.
Sunday, Monday - Head south down the coast, stopping points to be determined on the road.
Tuesday - Finish trip down coast, arriving back in Bay Area for a baseball game - either Oakland As, or the Stockton Ports.
Wednesday - Flight home @ 130pm.

Definitely check out Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when you're driving back down! It's just north of Orick! Watch out for the elk :)

Looks like all paved roads in Lassen are completely open now, but at Crater Lake the East Rim Drive and Pinnacles Road are still closed.

Lassen is one of the easier peaks to summit and it is one of the "less crowded" CA national parks. And on the topic of expensive state parks, our family liked Patrick's Point State Park. I also have an older edition of Stienstra's California Camping.

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Originally Posted by CAnative

I also have an older edition of Stienstra's California Camping.

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That book was a camping bible to us when we were tent-campers (back in the 80s and early 90s). Great book!


Donna

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Originally Posted by Midwest Michael

Sunday, Monday - Head south down the coast, stopping points to be determined on the road..

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I must have been asleep at the switch, not having noticed this thread before....

A couple of fun places to stop for a bite....

The Seascape Restaurant in Trinidad -- I've not visited since June, 1996 -- but it's in a beautiful location and the current reviews are still positive.

The Samoa Cookhouse on Samoa -- here's a review I wrote years ago -- but it's much the same today.

Other places of note:

Long-term RTA member, roadie, captured this photo of Patrick's Point:
http://atenpo.smugmug.com/photos/42512116-S.jpg

Heading in from the coast -- I think you'd get a kick out of visiting Boonville and grabbing a beer at the Anderson Valley Brewing Company

There are so many cool places to eat and stay in Mendocino... Long-term RTA members know of my favorite -- the Stanford Inn (It's pricey) --

Much more....

One of my favorite drives along the north coast is the Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway No matter what, don't miss the views along Coastal Drive!

Double checking rental car rates comes through again. I had already found what I thought was a very good rate, but I looked again this morning, and found I could save another $20.

I'm now going through Hertz - off airport location in South San Francisco - and will have a compact car for 9 days for $170, including taxes. I actually could cut that down another $10 by reserving and economy car, but $10 is worth it to make sure I don't get stuck in a Kia Rio!

The more I look into Lassen, the more I'm interested. A secluded park with tons of thermal features looks like it would be right up my alley. I am now thinking of spending a night there, so I'll have at least a half day in the park. The problem is figure out where to take the time from....

If this helps:

Fairfield-Lassen: 3.5 hours via I-80/I-5/CA-36
Lassen-Ashland: 3.5 hours via CA-89/I-5
Ashland-Crater Lake: 2 hours via I-5/OR-62
Crater Lake-Crescent City: 4 hours via OR-62/OR-234/I-5/US-199/US-101
Crescent City-SF: Tough to gauge, but it's 400 miles via US-101/CA-1/US-101. I'd guess no more than 10 hours.

Does not include sightseeing stops, just gas/bathroom.

Michael, I definitely would not pass up Lassen if it were me. We enjoyed our time there way back when (17 years ago, I think). We took the hike into Bumpass Hell and a couple of other shorter hikes. My daughters wanted clothespins for their noses in Bumpass Hell (thick odor of sulfuric acid)! We spent two days there because we took the hikes, and also spent a third day driving up towards Burney Falls. We never quite got to the Falls area because we found a couple of other places along the way, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway.

GLC's "10 hours, 400 miles" from Crescent City to SF is about right. We did that one on a different vacation (before children), and even back then it was about that much.

Donna

Well, I'm certainly not going to skip Lassen at this point, and I'm not worried about the travel times/distances. It's more a matter of dividing my time.

I had originally been thinking of doing a quick tour through Lassen, hiking out to Bumpass Hell, and making a quick stop at Burney Falls, as part of a long day on the road to Ashland. However, while all of the roads in the park are open, the Bumpass Hell trail is not yet open, so that might not be possible. There are a few other trails that look interesting, but many of the features that I think I'd want to see aren't right off the main road, so that may force me to spend more time there.

I might trim my time at Crater Lake down to a half day, but I'm not sure yet. I might just play it by ear and decide while I'm actually on the road.

Off topic, but Congratulations on your 10,000th post !!

Dave.

If the East Rim Drive at CL is still closed, half a day should be enough to see the place.

Burlingame hotels south of SFO is good option for staying a night before departure out of SFO. I personally like walking on a Bay Front Park and see 747s take off and land.

The Hampton Inn south of SFO in Burlingame (if you can find rate around $100) free parking and breakfast.

Most other charges $10 nightly parking.

As time was flying leading up to the trip, I remembered yesterday that I hadn't yet booked my tickets to Alcatraz. Of course, they were now listed as sold out, but I kept checking, and at 7am pacific this morning, a couple of tickets opened up (very briefly.) First minor crisis averted.

I am now leaning more strongly toward reversing direction heading north up the coast. I'm leaning more towards seeing a minor league game at the end of the trip, rather than going to Oakland, and it should be quite a bit easier to go from Lassen straight down I-5, rather than going from the Coast, and have to drive all the way back across the bay area. Plus, that should put all of my time on the coast mid-week, and make it easier to find camping there, and will have me up in the mountains on the weekend.

But it's still a work in progress.

Hope to hear that you enjoyed Lassen. We went in late August and were surprised at small number of visitors -- perhaps the mid-day snowfall cleared the campground :)

Jessica

Hopefully I'll have time over the weekend to write up a more detailed report, but I'm still trying to get caught up on all the work I'm behind on.

I will say Lassen did end up being probably the biggest disappointment of the trip. Much of that was weather related, as between the rain, fog, and early season closures, things were very limited on what we could see and do, although some bad information from parks service workers also was a little frustrating...