Trip up coast--NorCal, Oregon, Washington

While Oregon and Washington state parks are usually great, there are lots and lots of great private ones along the Or. and Wa. coast too. We stayed at Secret Camp RV Park once, next to the Rogue River at Gold Beach, and it was wonderful (20 sites only). The owners said that the get the same repeat visitors from Europe every year because they like it so much. If into horse riding, you can do that on the beach at Pacific City which is fun. There is a Thousand Trails there that is really nice.

A visit to Seaside is recommended and there are a number of CGs in the area. The Fort Stevens military museum there is interesting and worth a visit.

Just across Columbia river in Wa., there is Cape Disappointment state park in Wa. with RV sites close to the ocean. We drove around and it didn't really excite us much so we went to the TT just up the road a bit which was nice. Farther up the Wa. coast, there are lots of private CGs around Ocean Shores. I'm not sure about Oregon, but in Wa., much of the foreshore is government owned and you won't find many CGs right at the beach. We stayed at Ocean Mist RV park at Ocean Shores and the beach was 500' or more away and you could only hear the waves. The wind blew hard non-stop and was so loud you could barely talk outside. We walked way out to the water at low tide one day when it was really foggy - when we turned around, we could not see the shoreline at all. Footsteps in the sand were the only thing that got us back. Fun experience there.

Gotta drive around the Olympic Peninsula. There aren't a whole lot of CGs there though and I assume you need to book well ahead. Then I would drive all the way 'round and then down to Port Townsend. It's an easy 1/2 day or so drive all the way around from Ocean Shores to Port Townsend. There is RV camping near Port Townsend and we have stayed at Diamond Point Resort which is small but nice. If you drive to Port Townsend, there is a ferry ride over to Whidbey Island which is worth doing. The drive up the Island to near Anacortes is nice, which will then take you over to the I5. The state park at Birch Bay is quite nice if you want to keep going north but it is very popular.

You might want to consider getting a Thousand Trails membership. They have a sale on at the moment for $445 which would get you a 1 zone pass that would cover Wa. and Or. All the ones I've seen so far are on the rustic side with lots of trees. Haven't seen a bad TT CG yet. A Coast-Coast membership or one of the others would get you a discount at some private CGs.

If heading along the Wa. and Or. interstate, our experience has been that there aren't a whole lot of CGs to choose from like on the coast, esp. in Or. We have stayed twice at Howard Prairie Lake Resort east of Medford twice now and thoroughly enjoyed it. In nearby Ashland, there is the annual Oregon Shakespeare festival which I believe runs all summer.

If you make it as far as the Canada/US border and still want to get even more out of the already awesome PNW adventure by that point, you could take the ferry from Port Angeles over to Victoria on Vancouver Island. Then make your way up the Island and take the ferry from Comox over to Powell River on the Sunshine Coast, and from there, head down to Gibsons where there is another ferry to Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver. There will be lots of CGs along this route. Be aware that BC Ferry rates are expensive and IIRC would be around $500 for a TV+TT. On the way back into the US, you could take the ferry over to Port Townsend and drive down the west side of Puget Sound and end up near Olympia which will avoid Seattle altogether.

This is a great book for RVers written by RVers, focuses mostly on non-private CGs and has detailed reviews of each CG:

jrichard wrote:
I need ideas and suggestions for a 3 week trip I'm planning for my family, two adults and two kids, up the West coast this summer starting from the Sacramento area. We'll be in a 30' travel trailer. Specifically, I'm looking for route, campground, and site seeing/activity suggestions.

We definitely want to see the Humboldt Redwoods and will probably make that our first stop, but I am looking for ideas for the rest of the trip.

We prefer state park / national park camping to "resort" style....but we also expect to spend time at more developed campsites to explore some of the larger cities.

We have some time, so we could even venture into Canada (though I haven't looked at any issues wrt taking an RV across the border).

Any input would be great!

jrichard,
You have a great trip planned. Just to give you a different perspective and base from which to begin making your plans and itinerary, The total milage from Sac. to Vancover is approx. is 900 miles one way. So driving 4-5 hrs a day, at 60mph would get you 240 to 300 miles per day. So have you are going to have to figure approx. 6 days for the total trip. Driving at 60mph would take you approx. 6 days of driving for your round trip. So, if you have 3wks or 21 days for the total trip, you now now have 15 days to plan for all the sight seeing, camping etc etc activities. Hope this will be of some assistance helping you plan what and where you want to allot your time. Let us know what your final trip looks like.
I have made this same trip many times both in my 5th. wheel and on my Gold Wing motorcycle. I spend one month every year RVing just the Oregon coast. You just have to decide what kind of RV trip you want to create-- a trip that is comfortable with time to stop and smell the roses or a trip that is a little less easy traveling and fewer days just site seeing and relaxing. If you want more information, email me privately with specific questions.
dick

Lots of places to see and stay along the coast there. I particularly like the area west of Coos Bay Oregon (just south of the Oregon Dunes.) Sunset Bay State Park has a campsite with a marvelous bay/beach, and the Shore Acres State park with a great garden left from a lumber baron's mansion. Another camping choice very near there is Bastendorff Beach County Park with a nice campground.

Bullard's Beach State Park is a large campground just north of Bandon Oregon, Bandon has a nice old town area.

In Northern CA, at Trinidad is Patrick's Point State Park on the Ocean, and a bit further north is Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. A short dirt road trip (sans trailer) down to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon is worthwhile.

Reservations are a must. For other side trips, Gold Beach has the Columbia River and the Jet Boat trips (I like Jerry's, but the Mail Boats are good too) First run in the mornings is best in my opinion. Oregon Dunes run a long way north from Coos Bay. Southern half is no motorized vehicles, northern half is open to dune buggies, etc. There are some neat Forrest Service campgrounds at the back of the dunes along with Wm. Tugman State Park near Lakeside Oregon. There are lots of waysides and other interesting things to see along the 101 highway.

Have a great trip!

If you are taking 5 either coming or going, be sure to do a side trip to McMinnville and go to the Evergreen Air and Space Museum. We spent an entire day there and probably could have stayed longer. The kids will LOVE the water park with slides coming from a 747 perched on the roof of the building. The Spruce Goose is an awesome thing to see.

I agree on the state parks, too. We usually make a trip to the coast each summer. This year we decided to wait until September so we could hit crabbing season. It was still a hit and miss proposition getting the space we wanted at Beachside. Harris Beach will be closed until Memorial Day 2016, as they are doing a repaving project in the campground. That is a funding dependent project, so you might check ahead and see if it went through.

If you have a few minutes, our blog might have some useful ideas for you -- we spent all of September in Washington -- there are three posts and this is the first:

Washington: first of three posts

And a few years ago we spent almost two weeks at Mt. Rainier, with a lot of time in the redwoods, too:

Redwoods and Rainier

BTW, if you are a timid driver, you may want to change your entire plans and take the above advice and only come down the coast from the north. Many of us have no problem turning left, across oncoming traffic, to access the coastal sites from the south.

Any of Oregon State Park Campgrounds are beautiful and clean. Just make reservations. Northern Cal Redwood area is nice. Oregon Sea Lion Caves is interesting. Newport Oregon has two campgrounds, South Beach and Beverly Beach SP. Both are great and clean. In Newport Bay Front there are plenty of stuff to do, along with the Aquarium in Newport. Stop at Astoria and visit the Goonies Movie House, camp at Fort Stevens SP and bike ride, visit Costco south of Astoria. Head over the Astoria Bridge and visit Long Beach in Washington with lots of Tourist stuff. Visit Seattle Space Needle. On the return to California Take I-5 and visit Mt St Helens, go south and visit Crater Lake NP.

I highly recommend Don's post on going north on an inland route and then coming back down south on the coast route. The reason for this is that (at lease on the Oregon coast) all the pull outs are on the west side of the highway making it very difficult getting in and out of the pull outs if your going north.

Oregon coast has some really great campgrounds, many with full hook ups. Reservations are recommended as many of the Portland dwellers head for the coast as soon as school is let out.

There was a previous post today (maybe yesterday) on sights to see on the Oregon coast. I found it HERE.

Hope this helps

Ron

We stayed at Harris Beach State Park in OR, just over the CA line to tour the redwoods. I recommend that you reserve sites up the Oregon coast - they are all nice parks.

Most of the public campgrounds in the Redwoods are no ultities and there are few big sites. The OR state parks are super but fill up fact. Some are reservation only and some most have some drive ups and a few are first come. We like Harris beach near Brookings, Beverly Beach (think res only and hard to get) and Fort Stevens near the Lewis and Clark Site. Plenty of other choices on the Coast, lots of things for the kids also. Recommend driving through the Columbia Grorge. We stay at Ainsworth near the Falls near Troutdale (first come) best to get there early and and or Memaloose near the Dalles with a great view of the river.