Planning the Great West Coast trip
We are in the planning stage of our west coast. We want to visit the following: Great Basin NP, Kings/Sequoia NP, Yosemite NP, Lassen Volcanic NP, Redwood NP, Crater NP, Olympic NP, Mt. Ranier NP, Cas...
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
