Oregon /Washington

I have to fly to Reno, with two weeks thereafter to go up the Oregon/Washington coast. I am planning to spend the first night in Reno, and thereafter:
night 1-Reno
night 2,3 Eureka, CA.
night 4,5 Coos Bay
night 6 in Cannon Beach
night 7,8 Port Angeles/San Juan/Victoria
night 9,10 Portland
night 12 Crater Lake area
night 13 Mt. Shasta area
night 14 Reno

Since my wife will be with me, its not totally a Hassy trip, but any suggestions, particularly on distances, are appreciated. Is this a stretch( lets say a stretch is a ten, and a real slow meandering trip is a 1) or is the coverage reasonable for two weeks? Other suggestions are welcome, and I thank you.

The West is just bigger, I think you are going to have some very long drives. Also Ithink you will get tired of always being on the road without much time to stop and partake of what is available. Certainly the Port Angeles/San Juan/Victoria leg will be fairly difficult Victoria, OK but San Juans are not something one casually visits. The ferries for the San Juans can be brutal in turns of making connections.

Cannon beach to Port Angeles is a very long day of driving and San Juan/ Victoria in a day is not leaving time to even sit down except on the ferry. Victoria to Portland is a very long day of travel as well. I am afraid you are setting yourself up for a vacation that is too much travel.

I don't know if there's a direct route into the San Juans from Port Angeles, but there is a short ferry ride from PA to Victoria. Skip the San Juans if you want to keep to your itinerary, otherwise plan on adding a couple days in there. They're worth seeing, but not if time is as limited as that. Better yet, skip the Washington leg entirely and use the extra time between Cannon Beach, Crater Lake, and Mt Shasta. Come back to WA in a couple of years if you can, spend a few days driving around the Olympic Peninsula and Vancouver Island. Leave your car in Anacortes and spend a few days wandering around the San Juans on foot. Foot traffic on those ferries have a much easier time gaining passage. Same with bicycles.

Edit: To be specific, day 7 will be spent almost entirely driving to Port Angeles and on into Victoria, though evenings in Victoria are lovely. Day 8 will be spent sitting at the ferry terminal trying to get to the San Juans. Day 9 will be mostly spent getting off the islands and back to Portland. You won't see much, let alone rest, enjoy yourselves, and take pictures.

Thanks for your help. I think we will save Washington for another trip. You have confirmed my suspicions.

trhull said:

Thanks for your help. I think we will save Washington for another trip. You have confirmed my suspicions.

Click to expand...

Don't leave Seattle out of your future Washington trip. Next to Vancouver, it is easily the most beautiful city on the west coast.

You can spend years photographing between Coos Bay and Cannon Beach. There is so much there photographically, I would heartily agree with the others in "saving" Washington for another trip. I would suggest two or three days in the dunes between Coos Bay and Florence. Shore Acres, just south of Coos Bay, is the Oregon version of Point Lobos, with the additional large water lily garden through in for good measure. Heceta Head, Devil's Churn and a host of other great spots will keep you busy without traveling long distances. 101 is a "local" road, so you may not be able to drive freeway speeds. But then, again, why would you want to speed through something so beautiful. If you can make it up to Cannon Beach, Ecola State Park and Astoria, that would be a great extra. Those are pretty touristy spots, but beautiful none the less.

If you get back to Washington, avoid Port Angeles. Many posters on this board this Port Angeles is great. It very well may be, but Port Townsend is far more photogenic with many Victorian houses and the incredibly photogenic Fort Worden.

Depending on what you like to shoot, don't miss the beaches on the Olympic Peninsula on your next trip- La Push and Rialto, Kalaloch, Cape Flattery and if you like hiking there are some fantastic trails- Point of the Arches trail from Shi Shi to Sand Point/Ozette, Shipwreck Coast trail from Ozette to Rialto, and the South Wilderness Trail from La Push to Oil City. Also the Hoh Rainforest is pretty sweet. Port Angeles is sort of a fugly little town, but the proximity to Hurricane Ridge, Ediz Hook and Lake Crescent and the vast trail systems around Greywolf and the Olympic interior make it worth exploring.

I grew up in, and still live, on Orcas Island in the San Juans.

For future reference, you don't want to come here without plenty of time and I'd advise in general not to try to plan any vacation in Washington/Lower BC in a "hitting the major sights" fashion. The distances involved make it prohibitive even if you stick to land, and once even a single ferry ride gets into the equation, you have to virtually allow an entire extra half day each way. Your original plan of two days to cover Port Angeles, (one of) the San Juan Islands and Victoria wouldn't even have been sufficient to cover the travel time. Between distances and ferry scheduling, it's effectively not possible.

If you don't have a ton of time in the Northwest, it's a far better thing to limit how many places you go and spend more time there than try to jam more locations in.

Irrespective of whether you cut out the Washington extremity or not, this still isn't a good trip for a photographer or indeed anyone unless you both actively enjoy driving. You can expect to spend several hours each day just getting from a to b. I presume that starting from Reno is a given for other reasons since it is far from a good startpoint for the essence of the trip you propose. I suppose that rather then getting into specifics I'd just suggest three things.

First get a map and just check out the distances involved in the trip you propose. For example your drive from Reno to Eureka is about 350 miles, not on Freeways. Thats several hours plus any stops you make on the way. On several days the majority of time will be spent in the car.

Second do some research about where to stop and stay and what you'll be driving through. For example its likely that an informed photographer would want to stay in Bandon, where there's a great beach and sea stacks just right for early and late in the day, rather than Coos Bay. And why are you planning to spend a couple of nights in Eureka ( a gritty harbour community with admittedly some attractive Victorians and some interesting old stuff along the waterfront) but drive straight through the Samuel H Boardman corridor north of Brookings that offers about the best photo opportunities on the Oregon coast? And so on.

And third, if you have to start and end at Reno, are there alternative ways of spending a couple of weeks with shorter distances and seeing more, at the time of year you have for this trip?

Best of luck with it.

I agree with the others that you have carved out a lot of driving. Portland to Crater Lake is about an 8 hour drive. Once you leave the freeway, you're in for a lot of curvy 2-lane roads. Expect a lot of summer vacation traffic on those roads.

Peter Gomena

I suggest that you plug the whole route into google maps. This will give you a somewhat accurate idea of how much driving you will be doing, after that, you can add or delete points until the trip looks like how you want it too.

Don't skip crater lake, its very beautiful and also photogenic.

Oregon suggestions

Thanks to all of you for educating me. I have google mapped this til I became ungoogled, but think I have found a reasonable route.

Oregon Trip

Thanks for all your help on our trip. We had a great week along the coast at 55 degrees, followed by a few days in Portland at 105 degrees. In addition to photography (really enjoyed Bandon, Yachats, Newport, Bend, Ashland, then to Nevada City CA-Road closure due to forest fire detour)

I gained a new respect for forest fire fighters, having visited a staging area in Willow Creek CA. Seems to me they would be a great documentary subject, but presumably this has been done many times before.

ouch! Bad luck on the Portland swing. That is very unusual weather and it basically shut me down. Hopefully you caught up on your sleep in the daytime in an air conditioned motel and went for walks in the very nice evenings. Now we are back to Oregon weather, cloudy and cool.
Dennis

There is a really neat travel book called "Oregon for the Curious" by Ralph Friedman that is a mile-by-mile travelogue of many of the scenic back roads in Oregon. It isn't your typical tourist book and doesn't cover lodging and restaurants or any other paid conflicts of interest. It is a low budget book, almost self published, with all the pictures in black and white. A real cult classic. I spent a good bit of time hiking in Oregon and got a copy upon my return. It is as much fun reading about places you were as it is places you will be going to. It's priced at about the cost of a roll or two of film. Recommended.

Check here: http://www.amazon.com/Oregon-Curious-Ralph-Friedman/dp/087004222X

Denis K