Seattle to California Road Trip
Seattle to California road trip: What started off as a pacific coast drive, quickly turned into an itinerary of places we have been wanting to visit – Crater lake, Yosemite and Disneyland. With our two munchkins one of whom is becoming a hoodlum almost – Disneyland was a must. Especially now that California is accepting out of state visitors and doing crowd control too.
So our broad itinerary looked like this –
Seattle —> Hillsboro (cape disappointment, Astoria Megler bridge, Fort Stevens state park) —> Eugene ( Silver falls state park) —> Ashland (Crater Lake) —> Santa Clara (via Napa) —> LA (Disneyland) via Solvang and Refugio State park —> Santa Clara —> Yosemite —> Lake Tahoe —> Eugene —> seattle
Day 1: Redmond/Seattle – Hillsboro
On a sunny day with a perfect weather forecast we started off on the longest road trip we had so far ever taken as a family – From Redmond (Seattle) to Los Angeles and back. We had devoted most of our waking hours in the last 1 week in planning and perfecting the itinerary. Of course, as we went along the way, things got added and some got dropped too.
The first day was about reaching Oregon from Washington through the longest truss bridge in all of North America. Itinerary we followed was – Redmond to Cape Disappointment State Park (some trails and a lighthouse) to Astoria Megler Bridge (connecting Washington to Oregon at the mouth of river Columbia) and then to Fort Stevens state park to spend time at the beach and visit the shipwreck of Peter Iradale and then to our hotel in Hilsboro.
Day 2: Hilsboro –> Silver Falls state park –> Eugene
This is the day in our Seattle to California road trip that we were moving inwards in the state of Oregon, towards Eugene. This was our day 2 pitstop before we reached Crater Lake on day 3. On our itinerary this day is the Silver Falls State Park. There are multiple trail heads but the 2 main ones are North Falls trail head and South falls trailhead. We however were not interested in either the North Falls trail or the South Falls trail.
Usually people do a 10 falls trail covering all the falls and can be done in either direction (North to South or reverse). We instead did a 5 falls trail starting at the Winter falls trailhead.
If you’ve driven some distance (2+hrs) to reach Silver Falls, head to the South Falls trailhead. The restrooms here are proper restrooms unlike the North falls trailhead which is just a pit-loo. This side also has picnic tables spread across from the parking.
However I recommend going to the North falls trail head to get your entrance pass and also see the North Falls from a distance along the way. Do note again, this is not the right place to use a restroom as the only one in the North Falls trailhead is the pit loo (no drainage system).
Day 3: Eugene –> Crater Lake –> Ashland
A day trip to Crater Lake is a must if you are traveling inwards and crossing Oregon. It is kind of in the middle of no-where but worth a trip on its own. Additionally, there are 2 well developed towns of Medford and Ashland where you can plan to stay when visiting Crater lake.
This is a lake formed by filling up of the crater formed by a volcanic eruption of Mt Mazama, 7,700yrs ago hence the name – Crater Lake. It has got some fun activities for kids too with the junior ranger workbooks and the badges so don’t worry if your kids are not in the age of enjoying the aqua blue of the lake for hours.
We did the Discovery point trail along with the various lookout points enroute the drive along the lake. The rimdrive of this lake is 33miles. But the entire drive is not with views of the lake along the rim – don’t expect to see the lake throughout this drive. A large part is also through the forests surrounding this lake with no lake views.
Check out the detailed itinerary about visiting Crater Lake with kids.
We carried out picnic lunch with us which we had sitting along the rim of the Crater lake close to Sinnott lookout point.
Dinner at Ashland: We had some Mexican food followed by some lovely ice cream from Zoe’s.
Day 4: Ashland –> San Francisco via Napa Valley
This was just a driving day for us with a stop over at Napa valley to enjoy some wine, pizza, pasta and chocolate lava cake. With kids we did not expect to do much in Napa. Since this was basically a Seattle to California road trip, we decided we can just do a touch and go. We would ideally want to come back here, stay in a place within the wineries and enjoy the scenery, probably in the right season too. It was warm and breezy but not particularly spectacular.
What fascinated us the most was the extent of farming in a water thirsty state like California. It started with Olive farming at Corning in Northern California, to grapes and wineries of Napa and then all along the way from Oregon to SF and SF to LA, we saw fruit orchards and farms, selling Cherries, apricots, peaches, nectarines and Avocados.
Day 5: San Francisco –> Solvang –> Refugio State Park –> LA
Solvang is a Danish town in US. It is a small town with one main street – Copenhagen drive, where you will find most of the famous old Danish bakeries. You can plan to spend 3-4hours in this city. We started with the Hans Christian Anderson museum celebrating the many fairy tales we all have heard since we were children (including our children) – Princess and the Pea, The Ugly Duckling and The Snow Queen to name a few. It’s a small 2 room museum with no entrance fee and is part of the Book Loft, a book shop in Solvang. We walked around the Solvang downtown, thereafter after picking some ice cream from the Solvang Trolley and some snacks from Mortensen’s bakery.
You can also take the trolley ride along the downtown but I did not find it worthwhile at $18 per adult and $12 per kid. Its just a 15min ride telling about the history of Solvang which you can read online and going around the neighborhood which you will anyways end up doing.
Before entering the downtown, we stopped by the Quicksilver ranch to take a look at the Shetland Ponies also called miniature horses, and then at Sunny fields park which had some shaded picnic spots and a nice play area for kids. We had our SF packed biryani in the picnic area and kids had some fun play area time too. Leaving Solvang, we made a stop at Ostrichland where kids had fun feeding Emus and Ostriches. It was a hot summer day and after spending about 20-25minutes there, we were ready to move on.
Our next stop was Refugio state beach. Enroute we got some subway sandwiches packed and found a great picnic table at the Pacific beach of Refugio and had our sandwich dinner. Refugio was a relatively small place but by the time we reached, people had already wrapped up their beach activities. So we spent some good time at the beach and had our picnic@the Pacific.
We wanted to avoid the city traffic of LA as to reach Disneyland, one has to cross the entire city. So we spent some good time in both Solvang and Refugio. We still got some traffic but it was considerably less than what we would have got earlier in the day.
Check out a day trip itinerary to Solvang
Day 6 and 7 were Disneyland
Check out a 2 day itinerary for Disneyland, California
Day8 and 9: San Francisco Meet and Greet
We left LA to reach SF on Day8 by evening. It was a catch up with friends and visiting SF downtown kind of days. Coming soon, the post on enjoying SF in a day with kids.
Day 10 and Day 11 – Yosemite National Park
You can spend a week in Yosemite or like us, revel in its beauty for 2 days and then move on. Since this was a long Seattle to California road trip and the first time long hiking experience for our kids, we decided to keep it short yet eventful. We experienced some of the best things that Yosemite has to offer – Taft Point and Sentinel Dome Trail, Tenaya Lake, views of El Capital as we drove past it, Mariposa Grove trail to the giant Sequoias and Toulumne medows (although in this season, we could have skipped this entirely).
Check out this 2 day itinerary for Yosemite National Park with kids
Day 12 – Mammoth Lakes
We decided to split our stay between Oakhurst and Mammoth lake so we could both enjoy Yosemite for complete 2 days as well as spend some time in another geological beauty called the Mammoth lake. So unlike what one would assume, there is no water body called the Mammoth lake. It’s a collection of many smaller lakes in the Mammoth lake basin which all together are called Mammoth lakes. It’s a haven for skiing in winters and mountain biking in summers. While we did not do either of these activities, we had our share of fun. We rode the gondola to the Mammoth mountain summit and enjoyed the views of the Sierra Nevada range and Mammoth lake basin. We then took the shuttle bus to Devil’s porspice in Inyo National forest. Due to COVID they had stopped any private vehicles between 7am and 7pm. The shuttle started from the Mammoth lake lodge – the central point from where both the shuttle and the gondola rides start. This area also has lot of kids activities like rope course adventure, bungee jumping, mining for semi-precious stones and few other activities.
Day 13 – Lake Tahoe
You can spend days in Lake Tahoe. But in our 15 days Seattle to California road trip, we only had a day. However, we still made the most of it (or so I think). This was in the middle of 2 fires – there was a wildfire in tacama which is South to Lake Tahoe and then there was a wildfire in Dixie which was North East. So while Lake Tahoe was quite ok, when we reached Susanville where we were spending the night after Tahoe, it was smokey all around outside.
Anyways, back to Tahoe – Of course you should do Emerald Bay State Park – the hike down to Vikingsholm Castle is kind of worth it as the beach you land at is pretty awesome. You can jump from the ramps and there is segregated area for kids to have fun (basically shallow part of the lake where no boats are allowed). While the water is quite cold, it was refreshing in the hot sun.
Parking is a big issue if you’re planning to take the Vikingsholm trail, so make sure to reach by 8:30am. Otherwise, you’ll have to walk for almost 1 mile just to get to the trailhead from where you park. The views of the largest Alpine lake in US are splendid and our mobile phone cameras couldn’t do justice to them.
Day 14 and 15 – Travel back To Seattle/Redmond
These 2 days were focused on driving. Although in our initial plan, we had explored the idea of visiting Cape Perpetua and Thor’s well but later decided against it.
