Trip Route Recommendations +

[janwatts]

Hi All,
My partner and I are planning to rent an RV in mid-March of next year (2018) for three months. leaving from San Francisco and heading up into Northern California and perhaps the Pacific Northwest. Firstly, we are looking to rent from Cruise America. Any thoughts (good/bad experiences, feedback) would be most appreciated! We are looking to rent the 19' Compact RV.

In terms of our route, we are at the very preliminary phase - hence this entry - but have certain National Parks and other places we want to visit i.e. Point Reyes, Redwood, Lassen, Yosemite, Sonoma/Mendocino wine country. Our thinking, such as it is, would be to go north up the coast of California and eventually loop around to return via the Sierras, returning to San Francisco.

So, we are looking for recommendations regarding route planning - an online resource for route planning. We would welcome any suggestions, places to definitely go to and places to avoid.

Many Thanks!
Jan

[avalen]

Recent experience ,,,, stay off the I 84 along the Columbia river, (Oregon side) I'm a 30 year seasoned driver of large busses, and that windy road scared the hell out of me!! I crossed over at Dalles and took the 14 but it has some low tunnels. I had to wait til the coast was clear and ride the middle.

[BirdbyBird]

Look at getting the Allstays ap on your iPad. It has a filter and you can specific which types of campgrounds you want to stay in. Route suggestions are personal based on what the two of you like to explore. Personally I loved the Olympia Peninsula. Beaches? MOuntains? Do you like the towns with restaurants and shops? Think about what sort of traveling you enjoy. Moving around often or parking in one area for a week or so and renting a small car to tour the area?

Accept that decisions will have to be made along the way. There are so many beautiful places to see and museums to visit. Pick and choose and enjoy what you get to see. If you love the travel style...you can get your own RV and return.

[mtngal]

FYI re camping in Yosemite: start to think about your reservations soon. Probably a good idea for other popular parks. They usually have a window of 6/12 months ahead. I put a reminder on my calendar. I.E., April 1 make Zion res for Oct 1.
Have fun planning!

[JudyJB]

When you say you are going up the coast, are you thinking of 101 or 1? 101 is good just about anywhere along the coast, but north of Fort Bragg in California, Highway 1 is really scary. Your vehicle will be a lot shorter than mine, but I had trouble with hairpin turns and big logging trucks coming barreling down the opposite directions. There is no shoulder at all and in places where there is a big tree that they did not want to cut down, it will encroach a few inches into the roadway.

My son offered to take over the driving, but I told him if I crashed the vehicle, I would be very unhappy, but if he did it, I would be a lot more unhappy! Made it, but will never drive it again.

Also, you might want to check El Monte RV rentals. Cruise America takes off things like awnings and their motorhomes have no slides, which El Monte seems to rent more standard and less basic motorhomes. You might also check to see if a local dealer also rents motorhomes.

[janwatts]

This is all very helpful - thank you!

We are both hikers and will spend the majority of our time hiking in the national (and State) parks. We are planning to spend a minimum of 5 days in each of the national parks. We are aware of having to reserve a site well in advance in the more popular national parks. We are becoming very familiar with the National Park Service Find a Park website. Wish they had an actual route planning tool on the site however. We will look into the Allstays app. Has anyone used GoMaps from Reserve America? Any other suggestions on useful tools?

Specific routes to take and avoid is very helpful. We are looking at taking Rt. 1 up the coast and then on to 101 north of Fort Bragg. It looks like there are few options from there - if you don't white knuckle it through the hairpin turns and logging trucks, you either have to turn around or take 101 south. Please correct me if I am mistaken.

Have done preliminary search on El Monte RV Rentals. Will look into this site in more detail. They certainly have some helpful links in their Trip Planning section. Thank you!

[Cudedog]

You said that you wanted to loop around from the coast and then travel the Sierras on your way back south. Lassen is where the Sierras and the Cascades meet.

. . . And, if you like volcanoes. . . Lassen National Park contains all of the four main types of volcanoes: the Plug Dome, the Stratovocano (or composite cone), the Cinder Cone, and the Shield. The Lassen Park area is still considered to be volcanically "active" not dormant, or extinct. Lassen itself was the first United States volcano in the continental United States to erupt in the 20th century, Mt. St. Helen's was the second. Lassen Park is contains one of the the greatest number and variety of volcanically-driven thermal features in the United States, second only to Yellowstone.

If you are already at Lassen. . . just a couple of hours north of the Lassen area sits the mighty Medicine Lake Volcano, one of the oldest (an eruptive history of some five hundred thousand years) and largest volcanoes (it's "footprint" covers eight-hundred square miles) and most historically active volcanoes in the Cascade chain (although it is currently dormant, it will erupt again). The north-east area of the volcano comprises Lava Beds National Monument - with more than three hundred (!) lava tube caves awaiting your visit. With more caves still being discovered.

And what about Glass Mountain? Imagine, if you will, an entire slope of the Medicine Lake volcano, comprising some five square miles, made up of sparkling and beautiful black volcanic glass [obsidian]. Be careful, though - broken pieces of obsidian can be sharper than surgical steel - and have been used for surgery!

Amazing and not to be missed!

Great camping there - either at Medicine Lake itself (a beautiful caldera-depression lake, sheltered by massive conifers, located at the summit of the volcano), Lava Beds National Monument (at the foot of the volcano), or Hawk's Nest RV Park (I have stayed at Hawk's Nest many times) which is about five miles from the monument.

Amazing hiking opportunities at the volcano as well. The entire volcano is criss-crossed with U. S. Forest Service maintained gravel roads (including miles of trails on Glass Mountain). Buy the Forest Service map for this area before you go.

And the very best part? You can drive for miles on the paved and unpaved roads at the Medicine Lake volcano, and never see another soul. Perhaps a few people at the Monument, but there have never been more than a couple of dozen people at the Visitor's Center in the many times I have visited there.

And. . . if you are already at Medicine Lake volcano. . . why not go on for two or three more hours north to the exquisite and amazing Mt. Mazama volcano - home of Crater Lake National Park. As you drive north, you can see, far to the west, the glacier-covered slopes of beautiful Mt. Shasta volcano. The one time I visited Crater Lake, it was pretty much mobbed with people - but, still, a feast for the eyes not to be missed. And if you are keeping a tab of your volcano visits. . . as you leave the park out of the north exit. . . there is the lonely and majestic eroded spire of Mt. Theilsen volcano, looming in the distance.

Ah, volcanoes! Be still my heart!

Anne

[Cudedog]

Addendum:

Just re-read your post, and you said that you would be traveling in March. This might make it a bit "iffy" for the volcanoes that I mentioned, including Lassen.

All of these Cascade volcanoes are tremendously tall - Medicine Lake volcano, about 8000 feet. Lassen Park Visitor's Center is at about 8500 feet (the summit of the peak is more than 10,000 feet), Crater Lake is also around 8,000 feet. Mt. Shasta 14,000 feet.

People think of California as sunny, hot and dry - but this isn't necessarily the case for these southern Cascade volcanoes. The winter snow pack on these mountains can be very heavy - it is not uncommon for Lassen Park to experience snowfall in June. Sometimes the roads in Lassen Park can't be cleared enough to be passable (of snow) until late June, sometimes not until early July.

So check before you go.

Anne

[janwatts]

Just a quick "thankyou" (again) for all the posts. Very helpful, particularly Anne's great description of Lassen + advice.
We are still working on it all and will be for a while.
A couple of very quick additional questions:
1) Passport America v Good Sam's? We are thinking when the time comes to join both as they are reasonably priced for a year's membership, but your experience with both e.g. responsiveness, etc. would be appreciated.
2) Your views on T&B teardrop travel trailers? As you will know to rent a campervan for 3 months is very expensive. We are looking in to buying again and this time at the Little Guy teardrop travel trailers. How roadworthy are these for cross country travelling/long distance driving? Any other considerations you might draw our attention to with these, positives & negatives... thanks in advance.
Jan

[gypsyrose1126]

I did a 4 week trip to Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Glacier this June and July. Cruise America rentals outnumbered EL Monte 10 to 1 - from what I saw. Talked to one family that had the Cruise America rental they said they were have a great time.

[Birdie]

Considerations: Travel Trailer you have to either be at a campground or rough it as you will have no "power". You may have propane, which means all cooking will need to be thought out. If you propane it, you will need to keep an eye on the refill time. An RV normally has propane and microwave. Power can be generated using the generator which can allow you time dry camping time with less concern about power. This will be dependent on how you want to spend your camping time. Good luck and have fun.

[Cudedog]

Just a quick "thankyou" (again) for all the posts. Very helpful, particularly Anne's great description of Lassen + advice.

Thank you.

Anne