Check out our roadtrip movie on my youtube channel:
3 best friends flew from around the country & met in Seattle to road trip the Pacific Coast Highway from Olympic State Park to San Francisco. We drove 1338 miles in 4 days. We saw one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. 5 different climate zones. 4 types of bodies of water. 3 states. 4 Native American reservations. 3 idiots & a dog. One epic adventure 😋
We landed in Seattle on Thursday morning and picked up our RV in Tacoma. On a side note, never ever use the company Apollo RV, they took 5 hours to get our camper ready, the generator ended up being broken so we had no power, and then they did not refund our $1000 security deposit even though we passed inspection upon returning the vehicle. Literally run away from this company.
From there we had some sites to see in Seattle. My homegirl was all about seeing the Mariners play because of her love for Ken Griffey Jr. And I couldn’t wait to get to the Fremont Troll. We saw the space needle from the outside, but decided that we didn’t want to pay $25 per person to take an elevator ride to the top. And then from there we hit the pacific coast highway northbound baby!
First stop was Hurricane Ridge. It’s about a 45 minute drive up an extremely windy cliffside road up into the mountains. You drive through mountain tunnels and over high ridges as you make it to the top. We saw so much wildlife! A bunch of deer and elk and then we came across a mama bear and her cubs! We may or may not have gotten a little too close, but the video we got was pretty dope! We were disappointed to see that when we got to the top the supposedly breathtaking view of the cascades from the top of the ridge was under complete cloud cover. I mean, Olympic Peninsula is one of the rainiest places on earth so what did we expect? The drive up was still worth it though!
Next was Lake Crescent and Marymere Falls. Wow. Just wow. Because the area is almost under constant rainfall, the trees in the park are covered in moss and look like they’re from another world. Marymere falls is huge and and beautiful. And Lake Crescent is this crystal clear lake completely surrounded by mountains. There’s hiking trails all around the area and if you’re brave enough, a cliff jump into the lake 😋
Next stop was Sol Duc Hot Springs. This was where we were originally booked to camp, but since we had such a delay from the RV rentals, we didn’t make it and ended up camping at a park and ride. But the campsites looked really nice and I’d definitely book it again. The hot springs themselves were awesome! I mean, I wish they were more natural and not a man made pool built on top of the hot spring, but you take what you can get. The completely natural Olympic Hot Springs is now inaccessible by car due to a road wash out and is therefor a 12 mile hike one way. So needless to say we skipped that! But Sol Duc was pretty rad, and we were freezing from jumping into Marymere Falls so it was much needed! Word to the wise though, the sulfur smell is strong and unpleasant lol.
As we made our way to the coast we drove through Forks (the teenage Twilight fan inside me was jumping up and down and screaming 😂) and stopped at La Push. It was one of the most beautiful and breathtaking beaches I’ve ever seen. The towering rockstacks offshore plus all the giant tree driftwood give it such a unique look.
This is where we missed our first site. We just drove too far in too short of a time. I really really wanted to see the Hoh Rainforest, but we just didn’t have time and had to keep on driving to make it to our next campsite at Cannon Beach. But man oh man was Cannon Beach and Haystack Rock worth the drive! Absolutely stunning! We camped at Cannon Beach RV Resort and I’d 100% stay there again.
The drive down the Pacific Coast Highway along the Oregon coast is one of the most beautiful drives in the world. It did not disappoint.
Up next was California and Redwood National Forest, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. I cannot explain to you in words the size of these trees. You’ll just have to watch the youtube video. At one point there were trees wider than our 27 foot RV. They are just awe inspiring. We camped at Jedediah Smith campground and I can’t say enough good things about the place. Each campsite is nestled right in to the tree giants and there’s trails all over the place.
If I were to do this trip again, which we’re already planning as a family with our kids lol, I’d stop here. The drive from Redwood National Forest to San Francisco was way too long. There’s nothing left to see really, and you lose the coast until you hit San Fran. But all in all it was such an awesome trip and I can’t wait to do it with my babies!
You can find the vacation movie on both my instagram and youtube.
Mama Bear Inc 