Mountains of the Northwest RV Vacation Itinerary

After picking up your motorhome in Bellingham, it's just a short drive south to your suggested first night stop in Bay View State Park.   Bay View State Park is a 25-acre camping park with 1,285-feet of saltwater shoreline on Padilla Bay.   The park offers views of the San Juan Islands fronting Padilla Bay, one of 28 existing national marine estuaries. On clear days, park users see Mt. Ranier to the south and the Olympic Mountains to the west. 

Washington State has over 24 million acres of forest.  It makes you wonder how there's room for their world famous orchards that supply supermarkets in America, Europe and around the globe.  After Seattle, Mount Ranier will be rising on the horizon.  Covered by glaciers and snowfields, Mount Ranier rises sharply to 14,000 feet.   A third of the way up it's southern slope, you could finally make it to Paradise; the most popular destination in this National Park.  As a reminder of why National Park roads can be impassable in the winter months, no less than 1,122 inches of snow fell in Paradise.  It's suggested that you overnight in one of the National Park campsites.  

Mount St. Helens is best known for its savage eruption over 31 years ago.  Still very impressive, the summit of this volcano is now 1.300 feet lower than it was before that catastrophe.  A National Park Service campground would let you wake up closest to what you came to see.  

In less than an hour, you'll be crossing into Oregon.   Though 11,240 foot high Mount Hood is less than two hours further south by the quickest route, a more leisurely way will be via the spectacular waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge.  The suggested Mount Hood campsite claims to be the finest in the Pacific Northwest and holds the highest possible 5 star rating.  (www.rvonthego.com)

Head for the beach and arrive in plenty of time to see the sun set over the Pacific Ocean.  These will be a couple of days contrasting the grandeur of the National Parks with the broad, sandy beaches along the Pacific coast.   The suggested campsite is the Lincoln City KOA. 

A leisurely drive south hugging the coastline down to Bullards Beach State Park.  There are lots of attractive places to stop along the way including Cape Perpetua and the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area.  The suggested campground is close to the long sandy beach and the Coquille River lighthouse.  (www.oregonstateparks.org)

Crater Lake has inspired people for hundreds of years.  Oregon's only National Park now attracts visitors from around the world.  The deep blue lake and it's 2 picturesque islands are surrounded by cliffs almost 2,000 feet high.  The eruption that created the lake was over 40 times stronger than the devastating Mount St. Helens blast.  Suggested accommodations can be booked at www.prospectrvpark.com or www.nps.gov.

Back to the Pacific Ocean and the suggested overnight stop is the Crescent City KOA.   Your route will take you right through the northerly section of the Redwood National Park.    The tallest trees in the world, the mighty redwoods, can grow as high as 350 feet tall or more.  The film, Return of the Jedi, was set outside Crescent City.

Plenty more redwoods to be seen even after you leave the National Park and pass the Humboldt Redwoods (www.americansouthwest.net) and its Avenue of the Giants.  These trees can be more than 2,000 years old.   As John Steinbeck described them, they are "ambassadors of another time".   The suggested campground for tonight is the Caspar Beach RV Park.   It borders the Caspar Headlands State Natural Reserve which lies on a rugged bluff overlooking the Pacific.

On your route south there is the opportunity to visit Jack London's ranch home as well as to explore the wine country of Sonoma and Napa Valley.  

Take a short and easy journey to return your motorhome, full of petrol, by 11:00 am at El Monte RV's Dublin location.