Help planning a Washington State/Oregon trip

Most people seem to fawn over the West Side when they come to visit. For some clear weather and drier conditions consider the East Side of the Cascades and north central Washington.

As a native Oregonian & someone who retired out of WA after living there for 30 years, I have a different opinion: I would skip My Rainier. You see more from the highway than the Visitor Center. I would visit Mt St Helen’s instead . Definitely spend time on the Olympic Peninsula & visit Olympic National Park. Be sure to include the Hoh rain forest & add a trip to La Push if you can. Then proceed down the coast to Astoria for the Maritime Museum & the Astor column. Visit Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach, visit Lincoln City for an additional beach, & return to the Willamette Valley. Then see Crater Lake if you like. I would suggest flying in & out of Portland if you want to visit Mt St Helens & Crater Lake. IMHO, Mt St Helens, the Hoh & La push give you the best quick overview of WA. Astoria & Cannon Beach give you some idea of the Oregon coast. If time were tight, I would spend more time on the Oregon Coast & skip Crater Lake. Have fun!

For the most bang for your tourist dollar, I'd fly into Portland and first go to McMinnville to the Air Museum and see the Spruce Goose. I don't even like airplanes and I loved that little museum. From there Id head south on I5 to Eugene and cut over the Cascades on Hwy 58 to 97 and check out Crater Lake. Heading north, I'd stay on 97 all the way up to the North Cascades NP. BUT I would take a little side trip when I got to the Columbia River and head west on Hwy 3 and check out the Bonneville Dam and Multnoma Falls. Hwy 3 is the Historic Road and your will be awed by the views and the drive.
Next I'd cross over the Columbia on the Bridge of the Gods and get on Hwy 97 again and head straight north to North Cascades, making sure you stop at Lake Chelan and take the ferry ride up the lake.
Now catch Hwy 2 and cross over the Cascades again. Its a beautiful ride and it will take you close to Whidbey Island where you can catch one of our famous ferries over to Port Townsend where you will start your Olympic NP adventure.Check out Hurricane Ridge, Ruby Beach, and the HoH rain forest. If you follow 101 around, it will eventually loop you back to the town of Olympia where you can get Hwy 12 to Paradise on Mt Rainier, then since your passing it, stop at MT St Helens and back to Portland. Happy travels

We stayed at an Inn called Alexanders while spending 3 days at Mt Rainier in July of 1996. Stayed at the Edgewater in Seattle.

Ok all, we booked flights into PDX.

Now looking for city/hotel to book near Mt Rainier NP, Olympic NP and Crater Lake NP. Looking to be close to each.

Any suggestions are appreciated!

We do want to find places to rent air bob or hotels near each park , and will be renting a car. I appreciate all the info, please keep it coming!

It will be somewhat challenging to visit out of the way parks if you are not camping. That means some commute time to places like North Cascades, Olympic, and Crater Lake and Mt Rainier. Rent a car you like.

Seattle feels crowded in summer. Portland might be easier, but most of your destination are closer to Seattle.

We have just spent the summer on the Olympic Peninsula and will be heading south this coming Sunday. What Tom/Barb says is true about the area (though we did not observe a "huge drug problem" at Pike Place Market in Seattle).

The PNW is the "it" place to be during the hot months, so make your reservations as far ahead as you can... NOW wouldn't be too late! We have thoroughly loved the peninsula and all the little port towns. We took the ferry over to Seattle about three times to spend the day (much better than driving over there).

Surface travel: while here, we flew from Seatac out to Baltimore to spend a week with grandkids. It takes about 2.5 hours to get from the peninsula to the Seatac airport on a good day. Coming back, we experienced two hours of delay on I-5 getting out of Seatac going south and, when we got to the Hood Canal bridge, sat there another 45 minutes while they opened the bridge for a Navy vessel (a common occurrence). Out on the peninsula, the roads are two-lane and speeds are 35 - 55 MPH - but the drives are gorgeous! We've traveled in eastern Oregon and will be doing Portland and the coast on our way south the next few weeks.

As mentioned, two weeks isn't enough to see even a small portion of either state, so spend a lot of time reading (we use Trip Advisor a lot) and plan your time. And remember: there is no bad weather - just bad choices in clothing.

Rob

alesis wrote:
What I'm wondering is which state is best to fly into and where to stay.!

There are but 2 major airports Portland and Sea-tac.
So it becomes a choice of where would you like to start your vacation.

Were it my choice,, I'd start in Portland, do the Washington coast, cross over to the east on #20 and south on 97 to Crater Lake and back to Portland.
stay off I-5 and the metro area. city is a city, pike place market has a huge drug problem. JMHO

Cascade national park..
look at it on google maps, you'll see it is very remote, most folks only see about 1% of it as they drive across the north cascades highway.
unless you are doing a horse back camp trip you won't see much.
there are basically three ways in to the park. (1) is by back pack hiking from Baker Lake (2) is by horse trails off the one of many trails from highway 20 (3) is from Hozomeen camp, again by foot or horse.
It is a very remote pristine park, only because of its difficulty to enter.