First summer road trip

[Mschnorbus]

My husband and I want to plan a trip traveling the pacific coast highway in our travel trailer this summer. We would like to start in San Diego and see many must see sites along the way as we travel up as far as Vancouver BC. We have from mid May until mid August to go up and then back down a more inland route so we can see as many states on the west as this block of time allows. We will be ending in Phoenix Arizona where we live full time in our travel trailer. This is a daunting itinerary and I really haven't a clue where I should start planning. I know there are many well traveled campers and history lovers on this forum who I hope will share their expertise with me. Our overall goal, in the end, is to see as many of our country's national parks and interesting attractions as possible. We want to start this summer with the west coast. We hope we will be able venture out to the Midwest and to eventually travel to all the 48 states starting with this first summer vacation.

Thank you

[cruiserjs]

Just sent you a PM FYI.

[cruiserjs]

Just sent you a PM FYI.

[bikendan]

Your biggest challenge won't be planning the trip, it'll be getting reservations for coastal campsites.
We lived in Socal and NorCal and camped for 30 years along the California and Oregon Coast.
But we avoided summertime as much as possible because reservations are hard to get then.
You'll have to make reservations 6 months in advance. Some places may already be gone for May.
You need to already be making reservations, otherwise you'll have to camp inland.

[evotech]

Your first big trip can certainly be intimidating. Check out my website CrossCountryRvTravel.Com I have blogged about most of the hot spots up the west coast. There are also some decent tips for newbies. Happy Trails.

[Mschnorbus]

Wow! I want thank all of you who responded from the bottom of my heart. What wonderful thoughts and advice. I would never have thought about the turn outs going north on the PCH, but of course it seems so obvious now going south is the much smarter course. We will definitely change course from inland on the first leg and going south along the coast. I will also do the point a to point b map/attraction trick. And thanks for the ideas of interesting things to see and do along the coast; I'm going to put them all in my itinerary. Thank you so very much.

[Dick_B]

Do Google searches for `_______ tourism' and put the State, city, area, or whatever in the blank space and read what the specialists recommend.

[Roy_Lynne]

Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterrey/Carmel, Redwoods, all of Oregon Coast to include Tillamock Cheese Factory for a double scoop of ice cream in a waffle cone. Washington Coast, making sure to stop at Ruby Beach (Day Beach, no camping) Port Angeles, and if you can, park the trailer and take the ferry over to Victoria for just the day (don't forget your passport or enhanced drivers licence.)

[korbe]

Not sure how to put this without upsetting the north to south group, but going north along the Pacific Ocean is just fine, IMHO. If you are scared to death about crossing light traffic to get to a turn out, then by all means, come from the north. It just amazes me that the direction along the coast is that important. Not even worth mentioning, again, in MHO.

[Artum_Snowbird]

It has been said a few times on here before: A thought to consider when travelling the Pacific Coast highway in busy traffic is to travel the road south rather than north. Many of the scenic spots are along the ocean side, and when towing they are much easier to get into with just a right turn off the highway.

[DutchmenSport]

For a 3 month trip, I'd get a map of the USA and simply mark all the spots that you are interested in visiting. (even if you go a little crazy with this, that's OK). Then after you have all the spots identified on the map, draw straight lines from one to the other and when done, look at the spider web. See which is the best route to travel to comfortably accommodate as many locations as possible in the time allowed. This will give you your basic route.

Then begin fine tuning everything. Start with the route from "home" to point A. Do research on the internet for things to see and do, and experience, to eat, sleep, spend the night, visit, or whatever. Write it all down. Now do between Point A to Point B and do the same. Go through the entire route and when done, look at the complete list of everything. Now, pick out the best of the best and eliminate everything else. This is your big-picture plan.

Now, when actually on the road, if you plans change "on the fly" there is nothing wrong with that. Plans can change drastic hour-by-hour. Adjust to what really interests you and how tired you become. You may find you really enjoy a specific location. If so, then there is absolutely nothing wrong with, even hanging out a month at that one spot. The important thing is to be flexible and make the trip meaningful! It's not able miles, or how many destinations you can make it to, or how much you can squeeze into a specific time line. What is is about is having fun. AND the JOURNEY should be as much fun, or even MORE fun than the DESTINATION. The important thing is to make your 3 month trip meaningful to you and your spouse! That's all that really matters. Enjoy the trip!

[4runnerguy]

You can find a ton of info using the search function. Like put in Oregon beach in advanced search, and check "Find posts with all of the words in any order" and then check RV Parks, Campgrounds, and Attractions and you'll get hundreds of posts, many extolling the virtues of Oregon State Park CG's.

As many others will probably also post, I'd try to go up the inland route and return via the coast. That way you are driving on the ocean side of the highway and using the pullouts is a whole lot easier.

Starting in mid-May means you can hit some of the Utah parks (e.g. Zion, Bryce, Arches) before it gets too hot. By the time you get up to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, it will be early June - late enough for much of the snow to be gone but early enough that some kids won't be out of school yet.

As you head south along the coast, it gets to be more of a pain once you get near to SF and then pretty tough driving in an RV south of Ventura. Through LA and much of San Diego, it's something to skirt way around or try to do it at night?