San Francisco to Vancouver

[Thebirds]

Hi there, hope you can help us, we're hoping to drive from San Francisco to Calgary taking in,

Yosemite
Redwood National Park
Vancouver
Jasper
Banff
Calgary

We have approximately 16 days to do it in. We aren't the kind of people that take ages to take in the sights but we also don't want to spend all day every day driving. We are finding it hard to work out if we have enough time to do this. Any advice would be much appreciated!!

Thanks!

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to R.T.A.

Is this a one way trip or are you returning to S/F ? I would estimate your mileage to be under 2500 miles one way with the detours that could be done in 5 days driving close to our recommended limit of 500-550 miles a day, leaving plenty of time for sight seeing.
If it's a round trip then Calgary to S/F direct is just over 1400 miles which you could do in 2 1/2 to 3 days still leaving some time for sight seeing.

Dave.

[Thebirds]

Thanks Dave!

It's a one way trip, we'll fly back to the UK from Calgary.

How long do you think we'll need in each place? Particularly Yosemite and Banff/Jasper.

I presume the end of may will be too late for NHL play off games will they? :-D

[Southwest Dave]

If you are renting a car I think I am right in saying you won't be able to leave it across the border. Someone will probably know for sure but it will be worth checking out.

I would spend at least a couple of full days in Yosemite and 3 or 4 days at least between Jasper to Calgary, leaving plenty of time to explore some of the coast and Vancouver. You might want to go inland to Crater Lake for instance, there are many other wonderful things in between so have a search of the forums and trip planning pages, they are full of info, and put an outline plan together with the things that interest you and we can help you "fine tune" your trip.

[Thebirds]

Ahh great! Yeah I thought that about the car, we were probably going to leave it in Seattle and get the bus over to Vancouver then hire another.

Yep we have got to have a further look at what we want to see and do, I had a look at crater lake, but we were thinking of Portland and the national park around St Helens.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

[Southwest Dave]

Ahh great! Yeah I thought that about the car, we were probably going to leave it in Seattle and get the bus over to Vancouver then hire another.

Yep we have got to have a further look at what we want to see and do, I had a look at crater lake, but we were thinking of Portland and the national park around St Helens.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

You are welcome.

Good idea regarding the car hire. Keep an eye on the thread as I am sure there will be other advice and just ask if you have any other questions.

Dave.

[PNW Judy]

Ahh great! Yeah I thought that about the car, we were probably going to leave it in Seattle and get the bus over to Vancouver then hire another.

It's unlikely that you'll be able to take a car over but you could always try. If you get the approval, double- and triple-check to ensure that you understand the rules of the agreement. But, in the likelihood you can't get a car to cross the border, this is a good plan. While you could take the bus, Amtrak Cascades would be very cool as well. Googling will yield numerous different coach bus options.

Yep we have got to have a further look at what we want to see and do, I had a look at crater lake, but we were thinking of Portland and the national park around St Helens.

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

Ah, Mt. St. Helens! One of my favorite places. And here's my favorite route. This takes you into the destruction zone while the viewpoints from the west side only let you look into it...which aren't bad views but it's far more exciting to go into the midst of it.

[Thebirds]

Hi there!

We posted a few weeks ago asking for some help in planning our road trip. We've decided to cut out a few things and here is our final plan, could you let us know if you think it's feasible and if we are missing anything that we shouldn't miss!

Day 1 San Fransisco
2 San Fran
3-5 Yosemite
6 Drive to Redwood national park
7 Redwood
8 Crater Lake
9 Portland
10-11 Mt St Helens national park
12-13 Seattle
14-16 Vancouver

We are definitely more scenery people than cities, so we may drop a day in Vancouver/Seattle if there's something more suitable!

Many thanks

[Southwest Dave]

Hi welcome back.

Your plan looks solid enough. Your drive to Redwood is quite a long one but certainly doable. [Probably around 9 hours with short stops].

As you like the scenery more so, I would take an extra day between Redwood/ Crater Lake/Portland and explore more of the Oregon coast by heading back to the Coast from Crater lake and then to Mount St Helen's to do so.

[Lifemagician]

Sure wish you luck when you go to see Mt St Helens. Each of the four times I have been there, in different summer months, it has always been either shrouded in rain or snow.

Lifey who is yet to see Mt St Helens