Hello,My family (me, wife, 4 kids of 7/9/11/13) would like to take an RV trip and see an area of the country the kids have never seen.We have 2-2.5 weeks for the entire trip. Right now my plan is to fly from NC to the NW somewhere then rent a Class C and hit the best of the best in the NW.After reading through a number of posts about the pacific NW, my top places to visit are Yellowstone, Teton, Glacier, Olympic, Ranier, N. Cascades, Center Lake. I know we won't be able to hit all these but I wanted to see if there are any in the area I should definitely add or eliminate from the list. Right now, my biggest questions I'd appreciate some advise on are logistics. Basically, I'm trying to figure out if we should fly into 1 city, rent the RV, and return it/fly out of a different city. Or, should we plan on flying in/out of the same city and make a loop.If it's reasonably doable, I think my preference is a 1-way trip flying in and out of 2 places. My concern is renting the RV in 1 place and dropping it off in another. I assume this will greatly limit my choices of who to rent the RV from and only leave me with the national agencies.Any advice on where to fly in/out of, where to rent from, and any stops I've missed is great appreciated.Thank you!

I would try to add Mount St Helens in Washington and the Redwood Trees if you have time.

You are right, you can't cover all of those unless you drive non stop. You could fly into Seattle, then take the Bremerton ferry and visit the naval shipyard. From there do the loop around the Olympic peninsula then head down the Oregon coast. If time permits, head over to 97 and head north through the high desert then back to Seattle.If you prefer Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, you could launch out of Spokane. The drive through Idaho to Boise is spectacular. Now go east to Pocatello then north on I-15 to Yellowstone. Don't rush and take on too much. There is so much to see and do, enjoy the journey.

2-2.5 weeks is severely limiting your time. By Center lake I'm assuming you mean Crater Lake.

You could pick up your RV in Boise ID, you could make a counter clockwise loop back to Boise. The rental would be cheaper and I think you could see everything on your list. The question is whether 2.5 weeks is enough time. You could spend several days in Yellowstone alone. We saw the Tetons in one day and Glacier in 2 days. Cruise America rents in Boise.

Personally I would fly to PDX (Portland), and head west toward the coast. Spend a week driving as far south as the OR/CA border, take in the Redwoods, then head NE toward Grants Pass, stopping off at Oregon Caves. Then maybe Historic Jacksonville and from Medford head toward Crater Lake. Continue east to US97 north. There is a nice logging museum at Collier State Park. Plus camping. About a hundred miles farther north is LaPine state park. From here you could visit the Lava Cast Forest, several caves and lava tubes. Continue north on 97 until you hit the Columbia river. Several dams, fish ladders and near the mouth of the gorge a lot of water falls some easy hikes, some more challanging. This will give you a nice loop. If you have a day or so to spare, from PDX it is not too far of a drive to Mt St Helens.

Flying from NC to Pacific NW for RV trip - Need advise

sdianel_-acct_c
Explorer
Apr 08, 2015
I would try to add Mount St Helens in Washington and the Redwood Trees if you have time.
romore
Explorer II
Apr 08, 2015
You are right, you can't cover all of those unless you drive non stop. You could fly into Seattle, then take the Bremerton ferry and visit the naval shipyard. From there do the loop around the Olympic peninsula then head down the Oregon coast. If time permits, head over to 97 and head north through the high desert then back to Seattle.
If you prefer Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, you could launch out of Spokane. The drive through Idaho to Boise is spectacular. Now go east to Pocatello then north on I-15 to Yellowstone. Don't rush and take on too much. There is so much to see and do, enjoy the journey.
2oldman
Explorer II
Apr 08, 2015
2-2.5 weeks is severely limiting your time. By Center lake I'm assuming you mean Crater Lake.
sdianel_-acct_c
Explorer
Apr 08, 2015
You could pick up your RV in Boise ID, you could make a counter clockwise loop back to Boise. The rental would be cheaper and I think you could see everything on your list. The question is whether 2.5 weeks is enough time. You could spend several days in Yellowstone alone. We saw the Tetons in one day and Glacier in 2 days. Cruise America rents in Boise.
donn0128
Explorer II
Apr 08, 2015
Personally I would fly to PDX (Portland), and head west toward the coast. Spend a week driving as far south as the OR/CA border, take in the Redwoods, then head NE toward Grants Pass, stopping off at Oregon Caves. Then maybe Historic Jacksonville and from Medford head toward Crater Lake. Continue east to US97 north. There is a nice logging museum at Collier State Park. Plus camping. About a hundred miles farther north is LaPine state park. From here you could visit the Lava Cast Forest, several caves and lava tubes. Continue north on 97 until you hit the Columbia river. Several dams, fish ladders and near the mouth of the gorge a lot of water falls some easy hikes, some more challanging. This will give you a nice loop. If you have a day or so to spare, from PDX it is not too far of a drive to Mt St Helens.
BB_TX
Nomad
Apr 08, 2015
First thing to consider is that if you do not have a toad, you will have to drive the C to each viewing area. Some parking lots at roadside viewing sites just do not have the room to park a C of much size. Plus the matter of having to unhook from your RV site each time you want to go somewhere. I don't know if you can rent a toad along with the C rental or not.

As far as flying into one city and out of another, it is certainly worth consideration. We have not done that with an RV rental, but have done it several times with rent cars. Have flown into one city, got a rent car, drove hundreds of miles, dropped off the rent car in another city, and flew from there back home. Saves backtracking a lot of miles and time to go back to the start. Doing that with an RV may be a little harder to arrange, although I think national RV rental chains will do that. If so, you could probably squeeze in an extra one or two of those destinations in the same time frame.
dcoutts
Explorer
Apr 08, 2015
BB_TX wrote:
First thing to consider is that if you do not have a toad, you will have to drive the C to each viewing area. Some parking lots at roadside viewing sites just do not have the room to park a C of much size. Plus the matter of having to unhook from your RV site each time you want to go somewhere. I don't know if you can rent a toad along with the C rental or not.

My plan was to essentially drive straight to RV site at each park, probably stopping off at Wal-Mart in between places for essentials.

Is not being able to hit the viewing areas something that will greatly detract from the trip? This will be our first RV trip so I really don't know.

Thank you
dcoutts
Explorer
Apr 08, 2015
sdianel wrote:
You could pick up your RV in Boise ID, you could make a counter clockwise loop back to Boise. The rental would be cheaper and I think you could see everything on your list. The question is whether 2.5 weeks is enough time. You could spend several days in Yellowstone alone. We saw the Tetons in one day and Glacier in 2 days. Cruise America rents in Boise.

I think this may make sense. I've done a quick check on flight prices and they aren't too bad in/out of Boise.

What do you guys think about:

- Fly into Boise (SW has reasonable prices). Rent RV here.
- Head to Teton, then Yellowstone, Glacier, Over to Olympic, probably hit something in Oregon.
- Then head back over and fly out of Boise.

Seems to make a nice loop that won't kill us on timing.
donn0128
Explorer II
Apr 08, 2015
I dont see a major problem not having a car. Most places on the trip I suggested will have plenty of turn outs or parking areas for a 25 foot MH
obgraham
Explorer
Apr 08, 2015
Years back with small kids I rented MoHo's twice. Drove to a lot of southwest US attractions. Yes you have to go there in the RV, but there is usually someplace to park close by, then you head back to the RV park or campground afterwards.

Toad is nice, but you can still see stuff without one.

I think your planned route will be fine. Not everyone has all the time in the world like us geezers do.

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