San Jose to Crater Lake - help with reviewing the trip plan...

[want_to_travel]

Hi Everyone,

We are a group of 6 friends planning a road trip to Crater Lake this coming July 4th long weekend ( 3 days)... We have already made some bookings and need some advice on a few....

I took help of a few of the existing threads to come up with the itinerary below... I would appreciate if someone could have a look at it... I am still undecided about the Day 4 journey and need your help with that....

Day 1 ( Friday): Leave around 8 pm from San Jose and arrive at Redding in 4-5 hrs.... stay at a motel...have made the reservation..

Day 2 ( Saturday): Spend the day hiking/sight seeing in/around Shasta Trinity National Forest... Mt Shasta, Lake Shasta, Klamath Falls... Any suggestions as what to see and do?
Drive up to stay @ Fort Klamath for the night... have made the reservation...

Day 3 (Sunday): Drive to Crater Lake and enjoy the day over there - West rim drive is thankfully open now... Hoping to get done by 5 pm in the evening.... Then drive west to Crescent City to stay for the night... Should reach by 10pm or so... Not yet booked a place to stay...

Day 4 (Monday): Wake up early morning ( 6am or so) and take PCH 101.. on google maps this shows as an 8 hr drive to San Jose.. Assuming (8+3)11 hrs in total, we should be able to reach San Jose by 5 pm.... Does this sound feasible? We are planning to stop by at some places like Gold Buffs beach, Avenue of Giants, Redwood Forest... We want to be at San Jose between 4-5 pm.... Is it doable? Is it gonna be too hectic? Also, how beautiful is this drive? Please help with your inputs...

Thanks,
Manish

[Midwest Michael]

I think you are again really trying to do too much with too little time.

You basically are assuming a best case situation for every single day, leaving absolutely no time to actually explore and enjoy yourself. And in many of the cases, the "best case" is somewhere between extremely unlikely and completely impossible.

I'd say the worst issues basically involve your night drives.

Is there a reason you can't leave before 8pm on day 1? Starting a trip where you won't get to your first hotel until 1am generally isn't a great idea, especially when you've got a pretty full day 2 planned.

Your plan to drive leave for Crescent City at 5 pm is an even bigger concern. First, you'll have to constantly be watching the clock while at Crater Lake, but even if that part goes off perfectly, you'd be taking off on a very mountainous, technical, and beautiful drive as the sun is setting.

Finally, I'd say getting from Crescent City to San Jose is way too far to try to do in one day, and your goal of getting their by 5pm is virtually impossible. You certainly wouldn't have time to stop at the things you have listed. Basically the only way it might be possible is if you drive non-stop, all on US-101, skipping all of the scenic stops as well as ignoring CA-1 which is actually the Pacific Coast Highway for most of the trip.

[want_to_travel]

Thanks Michael for your valuable inputs!

Yes we will try to leave between 5-6 pm on Day 1... 8 pm was the latest I had in my mind...

Given Day 2 and Day 3 look fine... and are already planned...., do you have any other suggestions for Day 4? I think the idea of taking Pacific Coast Highway doesn't sound practical and wouldn't be worthwhile....that leaves I-5 ( route to go up) as the only other option??

May be this route... http://bit.ly/mBJBc8 ?
with the Day 3 night stop at Grants Pass and 8-9 hrs ( including stops) of journey on Monday I-5 to reach San Jose.... probably by 6 pm...

thanks!

thanks!

[Midwest Michael]

I'd say that makes a lot more sense and is much more realistic. I usually try to avoid coming and going the same way, if I can help it, but to make Crater Lake on your timetable, I don't really see another work able option.

[want_to_travel]

thanks Michael! Yeah, I also picked up the Pacific Coast Highway route in the beginning to avoid coming back the same route... but it seemed too hectic for a 3-day trip....

by the way, do you have any suggestions for any must-see stops on I-5 route? Also, in general how beautiful is this drive? Just to get an idea!!

thanks!

[DonnaR57]

thanks Michael! Yeah, I also picked up the Pacific Coast Highway route in the beginning to avoid coming back the same route... but it seemed too hectic for a 3-day trip....

by the way, do you have any suggestions for any must-see stops on I-5 route? Also, in general how beautiful is this drive? Just to get an idea!!

thanks!

The I-5 routing will bring you past Mount Shasta, and Shasta Lake. Unless they've closed them for financial reasons, there are viewpoints along the highway that you might want to stop at, just to look. Shasta Dam used to have a tour, but with security these days, a lot of dams no longer give tours. So I'm not sure of the status of Shasta Dam's tour.

There are national wildlife refuges along the route, just south of Willows and Williams.

It doesn't sound like you'll have time to swing east of Redding into Lassen Volcanic NP, but that's another thought for another trip perhaps.


Donna

[want_to_travel]

thanks Donna for your inputs!

[glc]

CA-89 through Lassen is still closed "for the winter". It's going to be a very late opening this year. Last year it didn't open till July 8 and I'm betting it may be even later this year. According to the NPS site, they are chewing through about 20 feet of snow right now.

[want_to_travel]

Thanks glc for the heads up! will do more research on that part... working on the details now!