Planning the Great West Coast trip

rhagfo wrote:

Much of this drive is alongside Hood Canal, there are many campgrounds along this side.

The 101 drive from Port Townsend down towards Olympia is absolutely beautiful. Similar to the Or. coast with lots of twists and turns where you have to slow down and speed up again plus lots of great scenery. Yes, lots of CGs along that route. The one in the photos is Potlatch Resort & RV Park. that we stayed in once. Right on the waterfront. One of the nicest CGs we've ever been to.

Many mention taking the Washington State Ferrys from Port Townsend to Coopville. The tough part of doing that is deciding which side of the Olympic Peninsula to drive up!!!!
DW and I spent a non RV weekend in a cabin on Orcas Island last last Fall and bypassed Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia by taking a left in south Olympia on HY 12 west to 101 and up the east side of the OP. This slight detour likely added time to the trip, but the relaxation factor was unbeatable!!
Much of this drive is alongside Hood Canal, there are many campgrounds along this side.

A park near me has both species. Obviously not native, but they are doing as well as the native Douglas Fir and W Red Cedar.

A blog about these trees in Seattle

The native range for coastal redwoods extends barely into southern Oregon. In California there are groves as far south as Santa Cruz.

Fern Canyon in Prairie Creek Redwoods SP on the California coast looks very like old growth coastal forests all the way up to British Columbia, dense with ferns, salal, and big Sitka spruce.

Wow! I have to say I was taken aback by your even asking if these parks would begin to look the same after awhile! Then I took a step back and realized I have lived out here too long and have become jaded by expecting to see great, spectacular, amazing, varied, and changing scenery around every corner!

I have lived on the East Coast, too (long, long ago, but have visited throughout the years) where everything is green from spring until fall and where there are actually four distinct seasoms (not just dry or rainy!) Also that much of the scenery doesn't vary much.

What the West does have, in particular California, is variety. In fact, California alone contains all of the world's known biomes/ecosystems, except for tundra! As for scenery, we go from the lowest to the highest points in the lower 48 states in less than 100 miles. The trees range from 165 year old palm trees in LA, to 5000 year old bristle come pines in the White Mountains. And most every other type of tree you can imagine, some fool has probably brought here and planted!

I'm not trying to be arrogant or smart, just honest. I'm trying to impart that you too will be amazed when you get here. There are so many different climate zones you will not be bored.

The Sequoia only live in a small range of the Sierra Nevada mountains and are adapted to life at moderate elevations with cold, wet winters and very warm, dry summers. They share their environment with few other plants. The redwoods on the other hand, need moisture year round be it rain winter and spring, or tule fog during the summer and the first part of fall. They also prefer a constant realtively cool temperature and share their environment with many different plants. They range from Santa Cruz in the South to the Oregon border in the north and only along the immediate coost. The 7 of the world's tallest trees are located in Humboldt Redwoods State Park.

Others have offered great suggestions for possible routes and places to stop and I believe you won't be disappinted anywhere you go. Sorry if I have come off a little too enthusiastic. Enjoy your adventure!

It's all good! If doing the Oregon Coast, suggest horseback riding on the beach at Pacific City. Mt. Saint Helens would be worthwhile (south side). I'd also suggest the ferry ride between Port Townsend and Whidbey Island. Unless you like heavy city traffic, stay away from Seattle. :( If you drive around Olympic peninsula, you won't actually see much ocean but the drive is great.

It's truly amazing how much the scenery and environment changes from the coast up to along the mountains and eastward. The west coast of the Olympic Peninsula is a rain forest that gets up to 12' of rain a year so the trees are very different than what you'll see in the Redwood forests of California. If you were to take I-90 through the Wa. Cascades, on the east side of the mountains it changes to many miles of nothing but dry rolling grasslands until Idaho.

If it gets really hot and dry in the west like the summer before last, forest fires might be an issue. I'd be prepared to revise your route(s) and CG reservations if needed and it would be good to keep an eye on things at least a few days in advance in case you need to change CGs. There's been a lot of precip. up and down the coast this year tho. which will help a lot. This past summer we had a trip to Yellowstone planned and we cancelled enroute due to the fires burning nearby and poor air quality.

GeoBoy, you can't go wrong. The real question is how much time you have for this big trip. You don't want to rush through it. We've been to almost every one of the national parks that you mentioned, except Teddy Roosevelt, and they've all been spectacular and unique. If you're interested in more details about each of them, just visit my blog (see link below in my signature) and then enter the name of the park in the search bar. Lots of pictures, lots of descriptions of hikes.

In answer to your specific question about the differences between the Sequoias and the Redwoods, they are very different places and very different trees. The sequoias are larger – more massive. There is less undergrowth than in the coastal redwoods. If you can get away from the crowds, which is very easy to do, you can just hang out amongst these amazing trees – it's like going to church, only a lot quieter. This is in Muir Grove (obviously in the wintertime) -- to get a sense of the scale, my wife is in the bottom center of the shot (kind of hard to see):


Click For Full-Size Image.

The coastal redwoods are also wonderful – they are in a much damper area, with lots of greenery. This is on the James Irvine Trail in Prairie Creek:


Click For Full-Size Image.

You mentioned Great Basin – we were there in late September 2016. I am a big fan of stargazing, and the stars in Great Basin were the best we've ever seen. This is (of course) the Milky Way, taken from the Mather Overlook – if you look closely, you can see that the stars are so bright that they are reflecting off of a dusting of snow on the north slope of the mountain:


Click For Full-Size Image.

Good luck with your trip planning, and be sure to ask lots of questions!

I live near Lassen and camp there frequently. Everyone does the main park road, hwy 89, and ignores the much more varied and interesting east half of the park, accessible only by dirt roads. Hiking to the top of Cinder Cone is strenuous, but the view from the top is world class. The kaleidoscope of colors in the lava below you is world class. The fumaroles and mudpots in the Devil's Kitchen is somewhat smaller than the more visited Bumpass Hell, but the Devil's Kitchen gets only a fraction of the visitors. Butte Lake is great for paddling, no power craft allowed, and quite possibly you will be the only ones on the water.
PM me for more information on the area. I know all the secret boondocking sites in the surrounding national forest.

We have stayed at Mounthaven RV just outside Ranier. Lots of big shady trees. Between the trees and CG being full maneuvering into our site was challenging, but we succeeded. No cell phone coverage when we were there. Had to drive down the road a mile or so. May be different now.

If you have fit issues in the Mt. Rainer campgrounds, you could try Mounthaven Resort. It is a very nice private park just outside the Nisqually entrance.

http://mounthaven.com

Here is the route we would take for the area we are familiar with between Yosemite and Crater Lake that would include Lassen and the Coast Redwoods. This route is also on the scenic side. From Yosemite going north, 49, 89 to Lassen, west on 44, 299, 101 north to the coast redwoods, 199, I-5 to Medford, and 62 to Crater Lake.

This route includes the journey, not just the destinations. Especially hwy 49. it fits a camper trailer fine.