San Francisco -> Port Angeles in late December

Hey all,

So I'll be at a conference in San Fran from December 14-18. I'm intending to drive down. Afterwards I figure I'll make a little holiday and head north up the coast or maybe inland to the deserts of eastern Oregon if I'm super ambitious. I basically intend to cruise around aimlessly until I get bored and go home. Maybe 5 days or a week?

So yeah, suggestions of stuff to do, places to stop, see, etc? Meet up for a beer along the way?

Note 1: I am utterly uninterested in anything to do with a certain holiday that also happens late in December.

Note 2: My car is equipped with snow tyres and I do know how to drive in the white stuff, and I love highlands.

Unless your car is 4WD make sure you have chains ready to use for snowy mountain passes. California has archaic laws on the books that require you to use them on a 2wd car. The CHP blocks highways and wont let anyone through without them.

I am 25 miles south of SF in Redwood City, if you want to meet up and bench race.

Type Q wrote: Unless your car is 4WD make sure you have chains ready to use for snowy mountain passes. California has archaic laws on the books that require you to use them on a 2wd car. The CHP blocks highways and wont let anyone through without them. I am 25 miles south of SF in Redwood City, if you want to meet up and bench race.

Washington State has the same laws

Thanks for that, just looked into it. I might pick up a set before I go then.

Here the law typically is "real snow tyres or chains" but no one has snow tyres so everyone thinks it just means "chains".

Last thing I want is to get raked over for technicalities by some county sheriff for having a weird foreign car with out-of-state plates. :P

Pacific Cafe has good, inexpensive seafood. If you have never been to Lake Tahoe, it is really something to see. If you are into cars, and who here is not, the car collection formerly owned by Bill Harrah is impressive, most impressive. It is in Reno. You can take 395 out of Reno and catch I %, though that road can be a bit gnarly in the winter. You can check California road conditions at California road conditions

Re the chain laws, CA is a bit weird that appearantly with AWD and snow tires you still have to have chains in the car if chain controls are in effect.

Not that anybody ever checked, CHP let me through every time after verifying that I had AWD and snow tires.

Before you make it a road trip I'd check the weather forecast, at the moment we're getting roughly one winter storm per week up here. Not complaining, but it doesn't make for good travelling.

Jay wrote: Thanks for that, just looked into it. I might pick up a set before I go then. Here the law typically is "real snow tyres *or* chains" but no one has snow tyres so everyone thinks it just means "chains". Last thing I want is to get raked over for technicalities by some county sheriff for having a weird foreign car with out-of-state plates. :P

They're good to have in your trunk for even driving around here. Going up Snoqualmie pass or Stevens pass you can get stopped. If you have chains in the trunk and M+S rated tires, they'll usually let you go.

I would say five days is not enough to make Washington State worthwhile. Also it will be cold wet and generally uglier than staying South.

Have you driven down the coast (HWY 1) from San Francisco? It's technically the wrong way of your way home but well worth the drive if you haven't done it before.

Monterey to Morro Bay is just stunning.

Bumping this thread. What's a good place to stop for a night on the way down? Any nice BnBs along the way that might want a bit of off-season business?

bearmtnmartin wrote: I would say five days is not enough to make Washington State worthwhile. Also it will be cold wet and generally uglier than staying South.

Well I don't need to see absolutely everything Washington has to offer but a few nice things I can do en route would be cool. I have to head back north to get home, it's gonna be cold and wet anywhere along the way so that doesn't bother me. I'm gonna meet up with some friends in SF so maybe we'll have time for a short southward jaunt.

Speaking of Hwy 1, if you can swing it time wise I'd recommend driving up Hwy1 from SF to Leggett, then take 101 up to Eureka. It's not as spectacular as Hwy1 south of Monterrey but still beautiful.

I thought you lived in Yerup? When did you move back to US/Canada?

Start here:
Then here:
then here: then here:
then here:
and so on...

mtn wrote: I thought you lived in Yerup? When did you move back to US/Canada?

That was a few years ago... I've lived in a couple different places since then. Haven't been super active on the forums in the interim as I haven't had a car for a lot of the time. I'm in the PNW for the time being so I'm determined to actually see some of it while I'm here. ;)

Haven't been to Washington or Oregon yet ( & Nor Cal only once when I was ~18) so suggestions are great, keep 'em coming!