Mikey_Freedom

Hi There. Could any one suggest a good route betweem Yosemite National Park and Santa Cruz and any points of interest along the way? It's a relatively short part of the journey but I'm not quite sure of the best way to go. I'm still mulling over whether to check out the Oregon Coast or swing inland as suggested, however the trip is starting to take shape and I'm counting down the weeks until August! Thanks Mike

Thanks! You're right, I'm not expecting to cram all of that part of the trip into one day - It's just taking a while to get my head round how much time to devote to each part of the route. Inevitably, with only two weeks to spare, it's probably going to be a tight squeeze. I think the best idea is to book a place to stay in Vegas in advance and then book ahead the same day or a day in advance as we travel along the planned route. I figure that as long as i have a good idea of travel distances/times and some clue to roughly how long we want to take in certain places we can improvise along the way. I have quite a good book here with lots of phones numbers for hotels etc... so hopefully that will come in handy. I guess that leaving certain things unknown and spontaneous all adds to the adventure rather than having a strict plan that we have to stick to and therefore missing out all the good bits. I hope this is the case anyway! I'll go into more detail about the trip again soon. Mike

Hi Guys, I presented the proposed trips to my friends and we have all agreed to take the 'No L.A' route and also intend to visit Santa Cruz on the way from Yosemite to San Francisco. I am currently looking into how many nights we are going to spend in each place, what we're going to do, and how long it will take to drive from place to place. However, this will not be a strict rota as I tend to agree that it will be best to 'go with the flow' and improvise somewhat along the way. I will post another rough draft shortly and may need help as to things to do and see in certain places. My main concern at the moment is that the longest distance appears to be from San Francisco to Portland Oregon and I think that we should split the drive up by staying overnight somewhere about halfway through the journey. I think we will be driving up the Northern California coast towards the Oregon border. Any suggestions of somewhere good to go/stay the night in that area or once we have reached the Oregon border would be greatly appreciated. Thanks Mike

Funnily enough, one of my friends is a budding journalist so I've just told him about this potential new 'assignment'. It's something we're very much interested in... Regarding the Grand Canyon trip, i was mainly unsure as to whether we could make a substantial visit to it within 24 hours. I wasn't sure how far away it was and didn't want this to be a major diversion from our trip. It appears that this isn't the case, so it's definitely going on our list. Thanks Mike

I really like the sound of Santa Cruz. Has anyone got any thoughts on the Grand Canyon 'day trip' as I mentioned before? Thanks Mike

I'm back! My apologies again for leaving such large amounts of time in between posts. I realize I may have started the thread a bit prematurely but I have begun to research the route more intensely in the last few days and hope to be updating more often from now on. I have decided to plot an LA route and a 'non-LA' route respectively. This will give me chance to weigh up the pros and cons of both and present them to my friends in a more coherent manner, which will hopefully help us to decide what the final trip is going to look like. Personally, I am beginning to prefer the non-LA route that has been suggested. I must admit, the original inclusion of LA was mostly due to the fact that we were planning a 'West Coast' trip and LA seemed like an obvious place to visit before venturing up the rest of the coast. However, the more I think of specific things we want to visit/see/do there the more I realize that it doesn't really make for a very big list. I suppose the original appeal of Southern California was the thought of the Sunset Strip nightlife etc..., and also notion of the 'classic' Californian lifestyle I.E beaches, palm tress, and the aforementioned beauties! I also have an interest in visiting places such as Big Sur, Santa Barbara and Monterey. However this is mainly due to what I imagine being the beautiful Californian coast. By the sound of it, Northern California is equally, if not more, impressive and I am warming to the idea of sacrificing southern California for a more interesting trip inland before finally heading to the coast when we go to San Francisco. The majority of suggestions so far appear to favour the non-LA route and a rough idea of a trip is beginning to emerge. However, if anyone feels like plotting a more detailed route that DOES include LA and the southern California coast then that would also be appreciated. This will give me a more specific alternative root which I can then compare to the non LA one. As a very rough sketch, I have made a brief outline of the Non-LA plan so far... Land in Las Vegas. 'Historic Route 66' from the Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon. Vegas to Barstow. Take US 395 west of Barstow and head north. 395 along the east side of the Sierra Nevada Range up to Mono Lake and Tioga pass. Possibly make a brief diversion to visit Bodie (ghost town) Tioga pass leads to Yosemite National Park. San Francisco is now 'less than a day away' US 101 from San Francisco follows 'Redwood Highway' to the Oregon border Swing inland to visit Crater Lake then travel up US 97 through volcanic country around 'Bend' then across from Madrass through the warn springs Indian reservation to Portland or around MT Hood to Hood River and along the Columbia River to Portland. US 101 into Washington loops around the Olympic Peninsula. Take the ferry across Puget Sound into Seattle. I have left out specific places along the way but many that have been suggested I have found very interesting and I'm still considering which places we want to visit. I am thinking about spending 2 or 3 days in Las Vegas when we arrive and maybe devoting one of those days to a 'day trip' to the Grand Canyon and also the Hoover Dam. Any suggestions as to whether it is plausible to fit this into one day are appreciated. I am also trying to figure out if it is better to go on a 'tour' or to drive ourselves there and back. Again, any advice would be helpful. What I have written above is in no way solid, it's just an amalgamation of some of the ideas that have been floating around. Hopefully we will get chance to spend a bit of time in San Francisco, Portland and Seattle but I will go into more detail about that later... Thanks Mike

Hi. I'm actually originally from Scunthorpe which is near Sheffield and I went to University in Sheffield. The friends that I am going road tripping with live back home whilst I moved to Manchester a couple of years back. It's only about a one and a half hour drive back to 'Scunny' so it's pretty easy to meet up over a weekend and discuss our plans. My friend from Uni came from Blackpool and I visited it a couple of years ago for the first time - believe it or not, it's a renowned holiday destination for parents to take their young kids in these parts and is pretty infamous for it's bleakness/tackyness but also it's supposed 'charm'! I guess this gives you some idea why some English lads are so interested in checking out the west coast of the USA! Mike

Hi guys, this is a quick msg to let people know that I haven't forgotten about this thread and that I appreciate everyone's help/suggestions so far. I realized that I should probably reply again on the thread to keep the interest in the topic going. The reason why haven't yet is because the other guys who I am going on the trip with live on the other side of the country (this is actually not very far in England!). We are trying to arrange a time when we can all get together and discuss the planning of the trip but as yet we have nothing to go on aside from our original idea. I have taken everything into account that has already been posted and will discuss all these options with the guys. Obviously we can plan through email etc but it's going to be easier to organize stuff in person. I will be seeing them regularly soon so our plan should start to gather steam soon enough... The main issue seems to be whether to stick to our original route of visiting LA and Big Sur etc or go 'off the beaten track'. Both are appealing to me for different reasons and I'm sure my friends will be interested in the other options that have been suggested. Thanks again Mike

Wow people here are friendly, positive and helpful. It makes a change from quite a few internet forums that I have browsed! Keep the advice coming guys it's much appreciated! Mike

Hi there, me and a few friends from Manchester, England have a flight booked into Las Vegas on 3rd August 09 and a flight booked out of Seattle on 17 August 09. In the two weeks we're in the US we are planning on renting a car and driving from Vegas to Seattle along the west coast and hopefully seeing as much of the coast as possible (I.E Big Sur, the Oregon coast...). We are hoping to stay over in a few cities along the way such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francsico, possibly Portland, Oregon and finally ending up in Seattle. Places we may want to visit are the Grand Canyon (Possibly, as this is a bit of a diversion with it being a few hours drive North east of Las Vegas), Los Angeles (Sunset Stip etc...) Big Sur, San Francisco, the giant redwoods, Yosemite National Park, The Oregon Coast, maybe Portland, Crater Lake, Seattle, The Expirience Music Project, Hendrix's Grave,...Sites of particular interest are anything to do with music and places of 'outstanding natural beauty' I.E national parks, big sur etc... We have until August to get our heads around how we're actually going to fit all of this into a trip and the route we will take etc...any advice on routes to take, things to see, places to stay/eat and anything related to what I have posted above would be much appreciated. I am also wary of trying to cram too much into a period of two weeks and any comment on whether seeing all of the above would fit into our time scale would also be welcome. We ideally want to avoid large motorways and take the smaller, more picaresque and winding roads along the coast in order to see as much of nature as possible. It may also be an idea to stay in smaller towns along the coast overnight rather than rushing through the driving in order to stop off at a major city in the evening. Thanks in advance Mike