May-June 3 week roadtrip from Seattle-Portland-Las Vegas- LA (with multiple stops)

[jvwvalmar]

Hello RTA community!

me and a friend are planning on doing a 3 week trip alongside the westcoast of America.

Our route would consist of the following stops (in that order):

• Rialto Beach
• Portland
• Mount Hood (area)
• Crater Lake
• Samuel H Boardman State Park
• Bryce Canyon
• Observation Point Trail
• Zion National Park
• Grand Canyon
• Las Vegas
• L.A.

That'd be most/some stops (still figuring out the to-do's at the end) but that should be about it.

I'm wondering though - we originally planned to fly in via Portland and start there but someone really recommended Rialto beach.
I suppose Seattle would be the best place to fly in then?

Rialto Beach + all the stops up until Las Vegas (so Seattle - Rialto & Vegas - L.A. aren't included) has us at 2500 miles.
Would this + the 2 routes not yet included be do-able in 3 weeks (say 20-22 days)?

Also - any other parks, towns or cities, activities you would definitely recommend doing?
We're mainly going for nature and some hiking when possible and visiting Vegas and L.A. for more city-scape and the grandeur.

We could also start in L.A. and go upward but the route would be the same really.

Any help and other advice would be welcome!

Thanks in advance!

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

Let's answer your most pressing question first. "Would this + the 2 routes not yet included be do-able in 3 weeks (say 20-22 days)?" Absolutely Yes. In fact, since a straight shot between Seattle and Los Angeles could be done easily in three days, and not so easily in two, you can consider doing a complete loop, returning to your original arrival airport. That could potentially save you a fair amount of money on the car rental certainly, and perhaps on the airline tickets as well. And it means that you would get to see both the interior and coastline of the American West, although I'm not quite sure what you mean by "the 2 routes not yet included".

Other than that, the best advice I can give you is to try to include the Columbia River Gorge in your itinerary. The south side of the Columbia River especially, using US-30 the 'Historic Columbia River Highway', gives access to a number of beautiful trails back into stunning waterfalls. Then continuing on US-30/I-84 will take you to the Snake River through southern Idaho, another gorgeous route with many hiking opportunities, to Salt Lake City and the southern Utah National Parks.

There are many, many more great venues available to you than you could possibly have time for, so what I'd suggest before we get too deep into the weeds is that you work out a rough route, based on the major stops that you absolutely want to include, and then we'll work from there.

AZBuck

[glc]

To amplify on what Buck suggested, consider a loop trip, starting and ending in any of the cities along your desired route, traveling in a counter-clockwise direction so you will be traveling south along the coast and north inland. Choose your city for best airfare and car rental rates.

[jvwvalmar]

I didn't know my post got posted so my apologies for the very late reply.

We're thinking of starting from Seattle; Another idea was to skip Seattle and leave from Portland.

This is a rough route that we'd do (with highlights included).

Think this is do-able in those 20 days?

For cities (Portland, SAC, SF, LA, LV) we'd take 2 days (so half of our trip) or would that require us to rush more?

[AZBuck]

...neither of the maps you tried to link to came through in your post, so we really don't know what you're currently considering. Judging by the cities you've listed and their order, this would be an eminently doable trip with three weeks. That would leave you lots of time to poke into some of the 'smaller' parks, monuments, and towns along the route.

AZBuck

[Southwest Dave]

It would really help if you posted an outline of your whole itinerary so we could get a better insight into what you are doing. Have you decided on a loop trip that starts and ends in the same City or a one way trip? As mentioned previously, a loop trip will cost less and potentially let you see more. Also, if you do a loop trip you can research where the best airfares are of the City's you have chosen and I'm pretty sure you will find LA to be a lot cheaper than Seattle or any others.

[jvwvalmar]

Well it's basically the route described in my OP but a little fine-tuned:

• Seattle
• Rialto beach
• Portland
• Mount Hood
• Crater Lake
• Samuel H State Park (Whaleshead Beach)
• Redwood National Park
• Sacramento
• San Francisco
• Yosemite Park
• Los Angeles
• Grand Canyon
• Bryce Canyon
• ZIon National Park
• Las Vegas

In that order.

We're also considering dropping Seattle and Rialto so we can spend more time in the other cities.

This is our rough schedule with our must visits - as you said, we can still include smaller parks and towns here and there.
But for now all we kind of need to know if this is 'crazy' or not. Then we can get to planning more detailled.

We're keeping it a one way trip - we've found good tickets to fly in via Seattle / Portland and good ones to fly back via Vegas too.

Thanks!

[Southwest Dave]

But for now all we kind of need to know if this is 'crazy' or not.

It's doable as an active Road trip. However, everyone is different, as to how long they want to stay in one place and the kind of pace they want to travel at, it makes all the difference. That's why we ask you questions for a better idea of your plans rather than just a list. If you wanted to spend 1 full day at each of your 15 destinations listed the rest of your time would be spent with long days of driving. So there is 3 weeks and it doesn't include flight days. Now to go to LA and make it worthwhile for the extra miles and traffic congestion, you'd really need 2-3 nights there and that's when things can start to look a little crazier. I'd ask myself if it were worth it ?

[jvwvalmar]

True.

We don't have a detailed plan yet but assuming we'd stay 2 days in each city.
Our flight to Seattle would make us arrive at a decent time too (somewhere around noon)

If I have more details, I'll definitely post.

We're definitely willing to drive some more on certain days or do 1 day of driving with smaller stops.