In about a week, a buddy and I are driving from San Jose to Bellevue, right near Seattle. We're going for the Penny Arcade Expo, for any gamers who know about it. Anyways, I was hoping for suggestions about pleasant routes to take along the way, nice scenic drives that are fun, interesting, moderately safe and not out of the way. Google Maps has us taking I5 for 700 of the 850 miles... what's that like? Because of scheduling constraints we'll probably be doing most or all of the driving through the night, but some nice scenery and interesting roads would still be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
Cross posted in the West and Northwest forums because we're going through states in both regions... also in 4th Gen for exposure. Feel free to delete my whorage if you feel the need.
Ive done the drive quite a few times. If you are driving at night, it is best to stick to I-5, there is not going to be much to see at night anyway, and its safer. If you have extra time, and you can drive during the day, take the coast, PCH all the way as far as you can. It takes a lot longer, added a couple days to the trip, but there are some insane views. The roads can get quite twisty through there, and its two lanes a lot of the way, so you will get slowed down by people who won't go over 55mph. If you just take I-5, just go as fast as you feel comfortable and watch out for cops in Oregon. Have you looked at a map of CA from Sacramento on up? There is nothing. Long boring open roads, with not much scenery. Best to get through it as quickly as possible. Some nice twisty roads in southern oregon, but watch out for the highway patrol. Portland is pretty cool, if you can figure out your way around. Buy a map. I'd rather haul but up to WA/OR, and get to spend more time in Seattle/Portland than waste my time in Northern Cali driving. Bellevue is alright, there is a decent size mall, called Bellsquare. Nothing you can't see in Cali though. From Bellevue shoot across I-90 and hitup seattle, much more to see and do, plus I-90 bridge and tunnels are pretty cool if you have never been. The only nightlife your probably going to find will be in Seattle. I'm from LA and moved up here 4 years ago. If you have anymore questions feel free to ask.
I've done the drive from San Fran to Seattle twice. Both times we did it at night. Less traffic. Depending on when you leave there won't be anything to see as mtrai said.
We left at about 10-11:30pm. Since it's a 12 hour drive, it didn't get light until we were over the mountains. From there, there's nothing to see. hehe.
The northern California route is quite scenic. I believe you head west at Yreka or maybe its Eureka and go down through Mendocino and Bodega Bay and come out just north of San Fransico. Just a thought on the way home. As stated above, the Washington coast and Oregon coast are quite scenic, but you actually see more on the northern California coast than on the Oregon coast, IMHO.
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