cbigham wrote:
Gonna be about 3 weeks give or take. My fly the kid and wife back. Wed do counterclockwise but as of now the nephew will be home early on. Cant guarantee later. He's out of Ft Lewis. (Place brings back memories!)
So it sounds like the trip to Sandpoint is the sightseeing part with the family and the return is just you heading home?
Might I suggest skipping Olympic NP this trip? It's kind of out of the way and adds time to get there. Plus, unless you want to spend big bucks on a ferry, you have to go south through Tacoma to get around the southern part of the Puget Sound.
How about this route:
I-5 north to William and west on CA 20 to US 101. Follow US 101 north through the Redwoods and up the Oregon coast as far as you have time for. I don't know whether this works for your motorcycles, but Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area along the coast has an OHV area:
Link.
You can cut back to I-5 to get to Eugene or head further north to US 26 back to Portland where you can spend a day or two exploring the Columbia River Gorge. Or head all the way north on US 101 to Astoria where you can catch US 30 to WA 432 to I-5.
I might plan a day to head over to Mt. St. Helens. Interesting to see how the vegetation has regrown but yet the destruction is still quite evident closing in on 20 years later. Then north to Mt Rainier where there are plenty of hiking trails to spend a lot of time.
If you are still wanting to do Olympic NP, there are a couple of options. Head west on US 12 to US 101 north (Compared to what you'll see along the OR coast, I don't think the southern WA coast along US 101 is as spectacular). Then you can take US 101 all the way around the peninsula. TBH, for a lot of this trip, you'll just be in forest with only a few places where you'll be near the ocean. But the rainforest on the western end of the park is pretty interesting.
Another option for Olympic NP is to head west on WA 16 from the Tacoma area to US 101 up to the Port Angeles area. You can visit Hurricane Ridge and the Elwha area (hike up to Olympic Hot Springs) from there, plus if you have an extra day, take the fast ferry from Port Angeles over to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Plenty to see just walking around town then returning in the evening. Or get a motel for an overnight stay. (Hauling RV's via ferry isn't cheap).
I-90 is the quicker way heading back east, but WA 20 through the Cascades is more scenic (although I don't know what the recent forest fires did to the area).
Now if riding is more what you're looking for rather than coastal scenery, you might find that heading north on I 5 and visiting Lassen NP, Lava Beds NM interesting caves to explore), Crater Lake and then into Bend might give you more riding opportunities. There's more open BLM and NFS land in that area.
