Highway 101 Seattle to San Francisco (Aberdeen, Ferndale: how much, hotel, vacation home)

[huzaifa.gain]

Hello Friends,
I am taking off for the next whole week and planning a trip from Seattle to San Francisco.

I am want to take highway 101. Please guide on the route, how much should I cover using I-5 and how much using 101.

Please guide me on the route to take?

[509]

Do it all on 101 until you hit 1 in California. Then stay on 1 until San Francisco. The best part of the drive is 1 in California...so don't spend too much time in Washington and Oregon.

Redwoods, Mendocino (town, not the county), Fort Bragg (stay at the state park), Pt. Reyes National Seashore.

[Hemlock140]

If you haven't been there before, Astoria/Seaside/Tillamook are nice to spend a few hours in along the way in Oregon, the rest of the coast is scenic. You might consider spending the night in Brookings at a waterfront hotel before crossing into CA. Highway 1 along the CA coast is a great drive, but 101 through the redwoods is great too. i would go all the way down 1 to SF, then when you return, take 101 to Ukiah, then 20 across past Clear Lake to I5 and get back in a couple of days on the boring but fast route. You will eat up a lot of hours on 101 and 1.

[DrunkOnLight]

Originally Posted by huzaifa.gain

Hello Friends,
I am taking off for the next whole week and planning a trip from Seattle to San Francisco.

I am want to take highway 101. Please guide on the route, how much should I cover using I-5 and how much using 101.

Please guide me on the route to take?

For me, the I-5 is a waste except for Ashland, Ore. to Redding, Ca. Too much traffic and too much civilization for my taste.

If it were me, I'd pick up the 101 at Aberdeen and take it all the way to SF. It just gets better and better the farther south you go. It gets really spectacular from about Coos Bay south. Humbug Mountain is a great camping spot as you near California. The best Redwoods anywhere are just south of the California state line. South of Eureka, CA, get off the 101 and onto the Avenue of Giants, a gorgeous two-lane that parallels the 101 and weaves through 50 or more miles of Redwoods and countless state and NPS campsites. There's very little traffic and campsites are always available. There's plenty of places to pull over and walk into the Redwoods

My favorite place on the entire West Coast is the Lost Coast, the largest roadless stretch of wilderness coast in the lower 48. Not many people visit but there's nothing like it anywhere. You can access it by taking the Mattole Road off of the 101 or the Avenue of the Giants about 30 miles south of Fortuna. It's a beautiful, nearly empty two-lane ridge road running West through the King Range for 30 or so miles. A few miles before you reach the coast, take a left on Lighthouse Road a short well-graded road till it dead-ends at the beach. It's a wild magical place and you feel you're standing on the very edge of the continent, which you are. It's not as complicated as it sounds. Any local or visitor center can guide you. To return to the 101, go back up the gravel road to the Mattole Road, but instead of returning the way you came, go left on the Mattole Road and it gets you back to the coast going north for a lonely and surreal few miles, then the road takes you back up into mountains and winds around 20 miles or so through wilderness until you suddenly burst into the old Victorian town of Ferndale, (worth a stop), and quickly get back to the 101. (Or do the whole trip in reverse, but I prefer the sequence I outlined.)

Have a great trip. It's truly one of America's greatest drives!

[revelated]

Yeah, okay people.

Highway 101 - San Francisco, CA | Yelp

Many people advise to avoid the 101, not just for its danger (which as I understand isn't constant), but the traffic. It's not built to handle the capacity that goes through it at times.

The problem with the 5 is Siskyou Pass.

Given a choice, I would suggest doing the 101, but to say it's a pleasant, breezy drive? Nuh-uh.

[beenhereandthere]

If you want to almost split it (assuming you have a car, big truck won't work), take I 5 to Grants Pass and then the road to Crescent City. Then CA 101, to 1, into SF.

[NorthWetter]

Some of the best parts of the 101 are in Oregon. Specifically the parts around Cannon Beach, Depoe Bay and Gold Beach. The part that goes through the Redwood Forest is nice as well. Many parts are just monotonous though.

If I personally just had a week to burn, I'd just grab a cheap flight to SFO/OAK to maximize my time there, and then do the Oregon coast on a different trip.

[eskercurve]

You only have a week?

What's the objective? Seeing San Fran? If so, I'd suggest taking I-5 all the way and just seeing SF.

I took the same road trip once, and to be honest I had to stop at least once on the way to SF, and THAT was arriving in SFO at night and I was beat and didn't really see SF at all till the next day. That means you have four days of road trip and three days in SF if you drove. If you drove I-5, you would save some of that time back.

Or you could fly.

Unless the road trip IS the journey ... then I'd suggest taking 101 across the peninsula and seeing some of the Hoh rainforest, checking out the coast, then drive south all along. There's lots of cute towns, interesting landmarks, and awesome nature. There really is no bad point. The redwoods in CA are especially cool. I just about made a promise to retire in Port Orford once day. Or have a vacation home there.

[safranbound]

I will be driving, pulling a small camper, from Seattle to San Francisco in December any advice on the safest route and can you help me plan it. Thanks

[Plenus]

Highway 101 = Retired folks driving RV's...with impatient drivers in between. Not the most enjoyable route unless driven during the winter (when it's hard to actually see the scenery).