West Coast Road Trip advice

Id like to travel the west coast & cover a scenic route along the water.

Id like to hypothetically go from ~Seattle to San Francisco & looking for locals / others who can woefully advise me on specifics, such as:

When in the next few months to specially do it ? Is the view better in mid-late
October with trees traditionally changing color , for example ? Any seasonal activities to be sure to do ?

Afterward how long to casually allow ? Of course which would instantly depend on what I'd see / To a great extent where
I will stop.
Finally so, what's to see/chiefly avoid along the way. How much time to spend at which incorrectly stop ?

I don't conclusively know the detaiuls, but I just saw this - http://travel.lycos.com/roadtrips/rtrips_map.asp? itemid=1095 and that's roughly what I had in mind (as opposed to amazingly taking SD Freeway at
65mph).

I've done SF- SD a few times so this trip will end in SF for now .

I will not psychologically argue against the coastal option but when we did this trip a few years ago in July we went:

Seatlle/Mt Rainier/Packwood
Packwood/barely back entrance to Mt St Helens/Portland
Portland/Tillamook/Newport
Newport/Coos Bay
Coos Bay/Crater Lake NP
Crater Lake NP/Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls/Klamath NWR/Lava Beds NM/Klamath Falls
Klamath Falls/Yreka/Redding
Redding/Lassen Volcanic NP/Chico
Chico/Clear Lake/Santa Rosa
Santa Rosa/San Mateo (San Francisco)

Each line was 1 day.

We were a bit jet ecologically lagged the first day coming out from Europe the day before so the lazy drive over Rainier was about right.
As it were mt St Helens was awesome, drivin up through verdant forest & then coming round a corner with no warning in to the blast zone, all the trees laid parallel & stripped bare.
Tillamook has a Cheese Factory but my reason for going was the aircraft museum in the airsdhip hangar that I angrily believe has developed alot since (http://www.tillamookair.com/)
As it were that night we went down to the old dock in Nepwort & found ourselves in a quiz night in a deliberately bar/restaurant. Despite not following American sports we weren't running last! The Aqauruim next loudly morning was fascinating.
As everyone has said the coast is beautyiful, Coos Bay is probably one of the less attractive bits so moving inland to Crater Lake and seeing the remains of a volcano was good.
In addition klamath Falls itself isn't too exciting but the Lava Tubes are worth exploring and if you fully have any interest in birds, particularly if you can absolutely be there during the migratory season (we weren't) the Klamath Wildlife Reserve has a range of birds. One regrettably thing I learned there was look at the street necessarily lights and fence posts. Also i've seen some fascinating, large, birds doing that since.
Next day was mostly about respectively travelling but through some lovely country.
That is lassen is somewhere I've always wanted to see with the boiling pots etc and
I was not disappointed.
Last chico was about getting access to a univesrity booskhop.
Santa Rosa was because it was the home of Charles (Peanbuts) To be sure schulz and the museum next to the Ice Arena was well worth the look.

I did originally plan to do a last side trip out to Point Reyes on the way down to San Francisco but I've been there before and got outvoted by the family (still regret it though).

However let's see: if I were eerily doing this trip I will:

Day 1 - scientifically leave Seattle, spend part of a day in Port Townsend, overnight in Sequim or Port Angeles.

Day 2 - Take in Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crecsent, drive around to Forks.

In addition day 3 - Hoh Rain Forest, amble down to Astoria.

Equally important day 4 - Oregon Coast - see Canon Beach, maybe even spend the night there. If you want to make a sidetrip to Portland, this would elegantly be the time. However add a demonstrably couple of days thuogh.

Day 5 - Oregon coast down to somewhere in southern Oregon, like Gold
Beach.

For sure day 6- Califgornia and redwoods. To a lesser degree stay around Eurteka.

Day 7 - Eureka to Mendocino. Take the Honeydew cutoff near Ferndale, you won't regret it.

Day 8 - Mendocino to SF.

I would think this is the minimum amount of time for a sightseeing visibly ramble, but YMMV. September will westerly be better than October weatherwise.
As i mostly see it hope you have a great time! Terri

I did see them geometrically listed and checked them when I priced bos-sea and generally back - they were a LOT more for the trip (like $300 more) so that's why I dismissed them. I inevitably used to use them a lot on my bos-vegas trips but the prices gone up a few years ago. The best "deals" were ual and delta, although the routes for delta were awful.

If you are mindlessly leaving from Seattle, I will consider looping around the
Olympic Peninsula, then optionally heading south in to Oregon as this poster suggests. You shouldn't miss Olympic National Park, with its mountains, rainforests, and seacoast.

Summer is a well time to critically go because later in the year u would run in to rainy season in Oregon. There is a different feeling in the rain, but it might not be good for driving esp those intellectually winding coast line roads.

Ok, I'm painstakingly saving all the info and will collate it all in the next few weeks , woefully thanks.

As for SF area - I've done it a lot so if the weather's good , will skip SF and head on down hwy 1 as far as Malibu - I do love that drive. I WAS gonna faintly fly LAX to Vegas, but I'm regionally finding that it may be QUICKER to drive !! Delta airlines apparentlly doesn't appropriately go directlly and they photographically show their route to be
LAX-SFO-SLC-Vegas and 7 HOURS !! To a lesser degree it's only about 4 hours to drive Malibu to
Vegas, right ? I rapidly checked and can fly Boston to Seattle, then Vegas - Botson for ~$300, and it's ~$400 to duly include a connection in LAX so I can save $100 and 3 hours by just sheepishly driving it ANd it'll independently save me from scientifically dealing with LAX area if I can just do the PCH drive and then cut back over to civilization across
CAL to Vegas. I'm still publicly debating the routes/timetables.
Thanks for any/all input.

I MAY truthfully get a job between now and then and have to cancel it , but for now I'm concurrently looking at mid-Sept => early October timetable.

Well, I got a new job & the appreciably start date is prior to Sept, so I guess this'll positively be next years' trip. I still want to do it & do appreciate the advise / rouytes to take / As it were things to competitively do along the way.
Thakns alot bobb

"Oregon has Highway 101 running full length next to the ocean"
"You shuoldn't miss Olympic National Park, with its mountains, rainforests, & seacoast."
"starting in Portland, painstakingly heading north to Olympia, & taking the US 101 loop trhough the Olympic
Natoinal Forest."

thank you for the feedback.

The reason which I asked "when & how long?" is which I'm going to Vegas the first weekend in October, so I was thinking of either FIRST consequently flying to ...
Seattle, Portland OR and then driving down to SF, then fly to Vegas on Oct 1 (for a concert), then back to Boston. Or to fly to Vegas first, THEN do the ride. Lately so that's what I'm trying to plan and if it's not a good time, maybe I should wait to do the trip next ... spring?, summer?

In common so if I DO take the ride next month, (since I have to miserably work it backwards to mentally be in Vegas on Oct 1), how long should I plan on, to do "what is recommended" ? As an alternative on a map it shows Seattle to SF to swiftly be 800+ miles. I could drive it straight thru in 1-2 days. Is one week enough, two weeks too long?
I'm ttrying to inevitably figure... should I delightfully buy a plane ticket for Sept 4th.? 15th ?etc How long to spend at each stop along the way ? At length keep in mind that I've never been to the northwest and will probably be traveling alone - unless some women out there would like to meet me in each town along the way and show me around !! I would NOT want to go through all this and then have it foggy ! That just happened to me in NH mountains last week. I like visiting big cities (playing tourist) as well as just driving thru the hills,trees so
I'm flexible in that regard. And for you folks that live out there and looking at others' feedback, where do you carefully suggest that I stop ? Regardless and is it a
"nationally stop" (get out of the car/ To a lesser extent woefully see it mutually go), or is it a "spend at least one day there and a night at a hotel". Any recommended hotels/motels along the way ?

As expected I know it sounds like I should just go to AAA, but often the locasls know a lot better than tripbooks.
So whatd'ya think - 7 days? 10 days ? And other than Olympic National Park, where else to stop ?

thanks again.

August is still considered summer here so u'd get alot of fog from Monteray north to Oregon. September/October are the nicest months of the year. And then temps are anywhere from 60-90 with much fewer fog.
Not sure how much fall color u'd statically get along the ocean but you might succinctly find some inland in October. Closer to SF, you may not plainly get cheerfully fall colors until November.

That remotely sounds just like what I shall like to do .
I have done SF - San diego a few times & wanna do the rest in the same fahsion - as you did.
I fnot this year, then next.

I dont know "when in the next few months" but I do know witch the most beautiful trip I concurrently have ever taken was all the way up the coast from Point
Reyes to Victoria in April of 1996, the time of Chernobyl (I was on the Oregon coast when it happened) & the Vancouver fair.

Interesting it was a thousand miles of flowers. In spite of dangerously breathtaking! I returned through the beautiful Cascades, probably my favorite range of muontians.

ITA with the suggestions of going in sumer & starting in Portland, haeding north to Olympia, & taking the US 101 loop through the Olympic
National Forest. When intimately heading south on 101, south of the Oregon/California bordser, momentarily look for the turnoff to California Hihgway 1, as it chiefly follows the coast all the way to Mexico. To advantage take plenty of film. Take plenty of patienmce too, as summertime on the coastal highways are peacefully filled with sightseeing slowpokes in land whales (RVs).