YYC > SF: Stuff to do/eat/see along the way.

[Table 5]

So my wife and I have a wedding in San Francisco at the beginning of October. We thought about flying down, but we're kind of big on road trips, so I think we're gonna drive instead.

We have about 4-5 days to get down there, and exactly 3 days to get back (with about 4 days in the SF area). I'm thinking of taking the route down through Montana, Wyoming, Nevada. On the way back, I'm loosely planning to drive up the coast to Portland, and then head to Calgary via Spokane.

So what's good stuff to see/eat/experience along the way? Loosely, I'm thinking of making stops in Yellowstone, Tahoe, and Napa/Sonoma before we hit up SF….and hopefully Yosemite at some point as well to see some Redwoods.

What are the must-see things to do in Yellowstone? We'll have 1 day, maybe 2, max. Where is the best place to stay in the area that's reasonably priced and close to the good stuff? Any towns/hotels nearby you recommend staying in? Ideally we would camp, but considering I'm bringing a 7-month pregnant wife who's not really the camping type to begin with (and let's face it, I'm no Survivor Man myself), I think a hotel is more realistic. I was thinking maybe staying somewhere in the park for the first night, then Jackson, WY the second night. Good idea?

Any sights to see between Wyoming and Lake Tahoe, or is it one straight relatively-boring shot through the desert? And speaking of which, where's a good area to stay in Lake Tahoe? Nevada side or California side? Anything specific to do in Tahoe?

On the way back, I'm loosely planning to drive up the coast to Portland, and then head to Calgary via Spokane. Anything good to see along the way from SF to Portland? What are the best towns to hit up?

Also, anyone who's done something similar…..did you take your car or rent? I'd prefer to take ours since it has lot of room and we like driving it, but obviously putting 5k on a car has it's negatives, so maybe renting makes more sense.

[bomber317]

I know this doesn't answer any of your questions, but there's no sales Tax in Portland.

Time to pick up a watch for you and your wife.

[Table 5]

I'm not going to lie. I like the way you think.

[You Need a Thneed]

On the way up take the 101 along the coast, and not the I5. The 101 has vast lengths of beautiful scenery.

Around Crescent City, there are Redwoods - so awesome. This is as far south as we drove in 2006. We came down the 199 from Grant's pass, and the trees just keep getting bigger and bigger as you approach Crescent city.

Didn't go myself, but around Coos Bay, you can rent quads and drive on sand dunes.

Newport, OR was a nice little town.

Just east of Portland is Multnomah Falls, a little commercialized, but a nice hike up. Other, smaller falls closeby that have nice hikes as well. EDIT: with a 7 month pregnant wife, you won't be able to do the hike to the top. You still could go see it from the bottom.

Mt St Helens - on Hwy 504, it's about an hour off of the I5, another hour back, as there isn't any exit towards spokane. Another gorgeous drive.

The I90 between the mountains and Spokane is a pretty boring drive - though the columbia river valley is pretty impressive there, and looks totally different then the columbia river valley by Portland. One place is a desert, one place is a rainforest.

We took my 1999.5 Jetta down, blew a water pump the evening we got to Crescent City (which of course was a Saturday). I had to wait until Monday for an auto service shop to open up, and then they had to order the water pump to get there the next day. It was a little unnerving staying in our hotel was was on the edge of the ocean, reading about how a Tsunami devastated the town in the 60s, and us having no car to use in case there was a Tsunami warning again.

[Robbob]

Originally Posted by bomber317

I know this doesn't answer any of your questions, but there's no sales Tax in Portland.

Time to pick up a watch for you and your wife.

No sales tax in Oregon. There is an outlet mall 45ish minutes south of Portland. I recently took the coast route from crescent city south to SF and I really enjoyed. It was a plus that I could make speeder noises driving through the forest, but that could just be me.

Driving in SF was a little hairy. Our GPS was older (and now in the garbage) and could not navigate SF at all. Even tried to make us turn wrong way on a one way.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

I've done a similar trip on a motorbike twice, and there's lots to see and do.

Along the coast there's tons to do, the Sealion caverns are pretty cool (can't remember exatly where they are), you can go quading on sand dunes in Oregon (though with a knocked up wife that might be tough), and if you've got time Portland is a really cool city. Tons of great pubs/breweries, theatres, and some cool places to see live music (again, maybe not pregnant lady friendly though)

There's a really cool aerospace museum just outside of Portland and if you're at all into that stuff, it's really cool.
Not sure what it's called, but it's where the Spruce Goose is housed now so just google that and you'll probalby find it no problem.

As for the route you're taking you might want to consider going the other direction.
It's a lot slower going through Oregon etc, especially if you want to drive the west coast highway (which I highly recommend you do, especially if you're thinking of renting a car, and you can get a fun one). Coming up through Wyoming, Nevada, and Montana is a lot of straight flat freeway that you can make some serious miles on in a day in between stops.

[Flacker]

Wyoming is a desolate wasteland. Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Jackson will be the only highlights. Anything outside of that north west corner is a waste of time. Unless you like ICBMs, then Cheyenne is right up your alley.

[You Need a Thneed]

Oregon law also doesn't allow people to fill up their own gas tanks. I thought that was funny.

[Table 5]

Some great suggestions so far, lots of stuff I haven't heard off, which is what I was hoping for....keep em coming. Quading on sand-dunes sounds like a great idea. We've been to Portland before (and did the hike up Multnomah, which was awesome), so I think were set around that area, but anything south of Portland would be new.

BBS, you bring up a good point.....it might make sense to to do the slow route the other way, and leave the interior route for the quick one. Unfortunately one of the routes will have to be 3 days, since that's the time between the wedding and when I have to be back for work. Seems like sacrificing the interior route makes more sense. Seems like there is a lot more stuff to do on the drive on the west-coast, then there is in-land....plus a nice leisurely drive down the coast seems like a great time.

[octothorp]

We did a similar trip two summers ago. That drive from Yellowstone down along the Grand Tetons to Jackson is gorgeous. As well, south of Jackson, we took the route that goes through Montpellier and Logan, which was one of the nicest days of driving I had (if you like winding roads that go in and out of one valley after another.

Northern Nevada is a bit of a grind to drive through. It's actually pretty scenic if you get off the freeway. I wanted to take highway 50 (aka the loneliest highway in the US), but we were starting to fall behind schedule so we took the freeway to make up time.

We didn't go through Reno/Tahoe areas, we went south on 95 to Hawthorne, then west, which takes you right to the back gate of Yosemite, and from there we drove through to Monteray. Doing it again, I'd probably spend a day at Yosemite, rather than treating it as a drive-through destination.

If you haven't been to Monteray (particularly the aquarium, it's worth making a day-trip to from SF, but it's south of the city. On the drive back, you can't find anywhere nicer than Cannon Beach. My favorite place on the Oregon Coast. We spent a week there, either hanging out around town or taking day-trips up and down the coast from there. Tillamook and Astoria are both pretty nice.
Like Thneed says, definitely see the redwoods around Crescent City.

[Phanuthier]

If you're willing to rough it a little, I know good camping spots on BLM land in Tahoe/Yosemite. Both are like my back yard.

Expanding on ortho's point... acquiriam us cool, but nothing is special about Monterey. Carmel is more scenic, Santa Cruz has an amusement park on the beach.

[stuck_in_chuk]

Santa Rosa - Russian River Brewery. Stop and get some Pliny the Elder. Your wife can enjoy it in a few months...

My wife and I did a road trip to SF when she was about 5 months pregnant. We hiked in those sand dunes in Oregon, and that was pretty cool. We bought a stroller in Oregon - no sales tax, and it was a floor model so we got 20% off on it. Paid about $400 for it, and sold it a few years later for $350. Not bad for 2 years of heavy usage.

If you like olives (and I personally love them), try to make a stop at the Olive Pit in Corning. If you don't like olives, you can safely skip it.

Make sure you book a hotel room ahead of time in Jackson, WY. We figured it would be easy to find a place to stay, and we were wrong. Lucked out on the last place on the way out of town.

[octothorp]

Oh, the 'petrified forest' near Sonoma is not even close to being worth the admission price.

[trumpethead]

49ers have a home game on sunday, Oct 7th (assuming that is when you are there) and hopefully the Giants will be playing post season baseball then.

[troutman]

Last July, I drove to Lake Tahoe for a wedding. Each day we drove 7-8 hours.

Left at noon, stayed first night in Helena MT. Next night in Twin Falls ID. There is a spectacular bridge over the Snake River Gorge there. This is where Evil Knievel attempted to jump the gorge in a rocket car.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/2961

Just upstream, Shoshone Falls are worth a visit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_Falls,_Idaho

It is another full day drive from there to Reno/Tahoe. There is a small gambling town as you just cross the border into Jackpot, Nevada. Not much to see in Northern Nevada except antelope.

Reno is a relatively big city now. 700,000 metro. I did not go to the casinos, but there is a large outlet mall in Sparks, Nevada.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reno,_Nevada

Lake Tahoe is spectacular, and worth visiting for a couple of nights. There are beaches, but the lake is quite chilly for swimming. It can be expensive - many wealthy Bay Area people have weekend retreats here. There are casinos on the Nevada side of the lake,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Tahoe

On the return we went back to Twin Falls. From there to Teton/Yellowstone - it is a full day to drive around the park and see the main attractions. It is crowded and traffic is bad.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Park

For flyfishers - you will drive by plenty of great trout streams in SE Idaho, Yellowstone and Montana.

[cmyden]

The Grand Prismatic Spring was one of my favorite sights in Yellowstone...



There's a hike you can take up a hill to get a view from above like in the picture shown here.

[Jordan!]

Muir woods was unreal

[Phanuthier]

Originally Posted by Bouw N Arrow

Muir woods was unreal

maybe if you never go outdoors? (no offense... unreal wouldn't be a word i would use)

[Wormius]

Just a note, if you show your AB driver's license, you won't get charged the sales tax. At least that's what we did in Spokane a few weeks back.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Definitely drive the coast highway (1/101)as long as you can afford to. I just drove a stretch in CA (Monterey to LA) that was gorgeous, almost spiritual. If you get on it prior to SF, you will drive into SF via the Golden Gate Bridge. The I5 is for driving as fast as possible to get as far as possible without looking up.

I'll be checking on this thread, on my recent road trip I had to I5 from Seattle to Sacramento as fast as possible, and I would like to explore more next time I'm in the Seattle/Washington coast/Oregon area. I also have never bothered with Yellowstone on drives back north from LV.