From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days

Between August 2007 and March 2008 I published a series of blog posts here in my blog about that wonderful trip I did together with my wife in September 2006 through the Nortwest of the USA. For all reader stumbling upon my blog later on – here is a chronological table of contents of all these blog postings and a pdf copy of all articles.

Von Travel

USA NorthWest 2006

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 3+4

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 5+6

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 7

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 8

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 9

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 10+11

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 12+13

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 14

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 15

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 16

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 17+18

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 19+20

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 21

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 22

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 23

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 24+25

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 26+27

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 28

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 28

September 30th (Day 28): San Francisco

Guess who that is with the Golden Gate Bridge behind …

From Mendocino we drove all the way south along the windy state route 1, visiting another lighthouse, stopping in Bodega Bay for a light lunch, stopping at Point Reyes Station for coffee, and stopping in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to enjoy a view of the Golden Gate Bridge with the city of San Francisco in the background.
We found a motel at the end of Lombard Street close to the Presidio area for our last night during that vacation.  In the evening we went down to the marina, passing by the Exploratorium. After sunset we returned to Lombard Street and found a nice little restaurant there – the “Taste of the Himalayas” – to have some Asian dinner.

And that was it ! The loop has been closed after driving 3600 miles with our rental car. We arrived where we started one month before. A United Airlines flight would take us back to Frankfurt, Germany, early afternoon the next day.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 26+27

September 29th (Day 26): Redwood National and State Parks

Redwoods in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Parksmall

After breakfast we drove up the Howland Hill Road east of Crescent City and then did a 5 mile hike along Mill Creek to the Stout Grove in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, which now belongs to the Redwood National Park. The entire hike lead us through a wood of majestic redwood trees.
After a lunch picnic at a river close to Stout Grove we returned to our car and continued to drive south to reduce our distance to San Francisco below 300 miles. In “Elk Meadows” we had the opportunity to observe elks very closely.
Fog still was hanging over the coast of Northern California. We reached Eureka with a beautiful little old town and lots of victorian houses, the most bizarre one the Carson Mansion and on the other side of the street: the Pink Lady-House.
We had a wonderful Crab Fettucine in the Sea Grill restaurant, East Street.

September 30th (Day 27): Mendocino

Point Cabrillo Lighthouse

We left Eureka after another great breakfast in a Dennys restaurant and continued to travel south on U.S. route 101, until we reached Leggett where we turned on to state route 1 south. The very windy road led downhill through forest back to the Pacific coast. After Fort Bragg we stopped at Point Cabrillo and did a short hike to the lighthouse there to have a picnic at the coast. Fog started to disappear making room for sunny weather.
In the late afternoon we reached the pictorial small town of Mendocino located directly at the coast where we found a Bed&Breakfast House for the next night. After a walk through this place and also visiting the colonies of birds breeding out there on rocks in the water
we had a great dinner at Ukiah Street Restaurant and a beer in Patterson’s Pub.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 24+25

September 27th (Day 24): Oregon coast

Bridge in Astoria, crossing Columbia River

In the morning we hiked along Long Beach on the Seashore Trail, seeing the bones of a gray whale stranded here some time ago.
After visiting a lighthouse in Cape Disappointment State Park we continued our trip into the South, crossing the Columbia River and heading into Oregon. While we had our lunch picnic at Cannon Beach fog started crawling in from the ocean so we would drive through fog for the rest of the day as soon as we got closer than half a mile to the coast line.
We drove until Waldport where we spent the next night.

September 28th (Day 25): U.S. Route 101 South

Fisher boat leaving Florence harbour

Next day we had breakfast in Florence in a cute little cafe where you could watch grandma cooking the breakfast for you.
We stopped in one of the state parks exploring the Oregon dunes and later the day we bumped into California where we made it to Crescent City. We stopped by the Redwood National Park Visitor Center to get us some tips for a day hike for the next day.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 23

September 26th (Day 23): Olympic National Park

Our motel at the longest sand beach of North America (or of the entire world ?)

From Forks we continued to follow U.S. route 101. We reached Ruby Beach and went down to the beach at the Pacific Ocean, encountering  a mystic surrounding with rocks in the water, fog, through which sun started shining, paled logs in the sand and noisy seagulls.
From there our new driving direction was South. At Lake Quinault we explored the rain forest and enjoyed resting at the lakeshore. In the late afternoon we reached Long Beach and got us a room with ocean view, before we spent some time at the longest sand beach in USA ( 28 miles ) waiting for sunset.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 22

September 25th (Day 22): Olympic National Park

Deer Lake, Olympic National Park

Today we vistited Sol Duc Valley in  Olympic National Park for another day hike. We hiked to the Sol Duc Waterfalls and continued on a 4 miles long trail to the small and peaceful Deer Lake, a little piece of paradise we were able to enjoy just on our own.
At 05:00 pm we returned to our car and drove to Forks to spend there the next night. Definitely now we are on our way back to San Francisco !

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 21

September 24th (Day 21): Port Angeles

Port Angeles, seen from uptown

Olympia is not only the capital of the state of Washington but also the city where U.S. route 101 starts in the North originating from Interstate 5.
After leaving Woodland it was a short ride to this place. We then started traveling along U.S. route 101 around the Olympic peninsula, along Hood Canal, a fjord of Puget Sound.
At early afternoon we reached Port Angeles, the most northern point of our entire journey. We right away went to the Olympic National Park Visitor Center there to collect some day hiking related information. Then we explored downtown and waterfront of Port Angeles, latter providing a nice view on the Strait of Juan de Fucca, Vancouver Island and even Mt. Baker far away, had some cappuccino at 1st street and booked a room in a Quality Inn located uptown – again with a nice view on the city and the Strait of Juan de Fucca.
In the later afternoon we did a first approach into Olympic National Park visiting Elwha Valley and the Madison Falls, before we did a short walk along Lake Mills during sunset.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 19+20

September 22nd (Day 19): Skyline Trail

Marmot at Nisqually Glacier at Mt. Rainier, getting ready for the winter

The nicest birthday present I could possibly get for today was this gorgeous weather with blue skies and sunshine. After a hearty breakfast at Copper Creek Restaurant we again drove through the park and then we saw the mighty Mt. Rainier towering above the trees in the valley into the blue sky, covered with lots of snow.
From the Jackson Visitor Center in Paradise we first took the Dead Horse Creek Trail to then reach the Skyline Trail which would take us to the Nisqually Glacier, up to Panorama Point at an elevantion of 6.800 foot and back via Myrtle Falls to Paradise. We saw dears, marmots and squirrels, trees and rocks covered with ice, climbers returning from their two day climb on top of Mt. Rainier. It has been a fantastic hike through the world of mountains.
Mt. Rainier was hiding behind clouds – as he does it most of the time – as we left the park and were heading back to Mt. St. Helens where we were planing to do another hike the next day. We ended up in a small logging town called Morton where we found a nice motel and a good place to have a wonderful steak or prawns for dinner.

September 23rd (Day 20): Windy Ridge

Lave dome in the crater of Mt. St Helens

As we drove to the Windy Ridge Viewpoint at Mt. St. Helens we came to an area of forest destroyed during the huge eruption in 1980 and not renewed yet. From this viewpoint we could look down to Spirit Lake still full of logs from trees taken away by the pyroclastic flows more than 25 years ago.
We hiked to the Loowit Falls below the crater and returned via the Truman Trail – a 10 miles round trip. We came through a spectecular desert like area ( and especially my wife is always fascinated about those type of hikes )  and had great views of Mt. Rainier, the fume lava dome in the crater and down to Spirit Lake. The sun was shining and we consumed a lot of water here.
After the hike we drove around Mt. St. Helens via the southern route towards I-5 and reached Woodland late in the evening to find a room there for the night plus some Mexican food for dinner.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 17+18

September 20th (Day 17): Ashford

Space Needle, seen through the strange roof of the Science Fiction Museum building

Regarding weather conditions I think this was the worse day during our 4 week vacation. It has been raining all day long.
Rain always means: good weather for a museum. Thus we decided to visit the Science Fiction Musueum located in the Seattle Center. There we could see some exhibits about history of science fiction in novels and movies: costumes, weapons, communication devices, space ships and worlds science fiction authors have come up with since the times of H. G. Wells or Jules Verne or even before, including the chair of Captain Kirk used to film the early TV shows of Star Trek.
In the afternoon we went shopping in a shopping mall south of Seattle ( I always buy Jeans in US since those are much cheaper there than in Europe ). Later we reached Ashford, a small village close to the western entry into Mount Rainier National Park. Still raining, but the weather forecast looked somewhat optimistic.

September 21st (Day 18): Mount Rainier National Park

Silver falls in Mount Rainier National Park, close to Stevens Canyon Entrance

It had stopped raining but still heavy clouds covered the sky above Mount Rainier National Park. We drove up to the Paradise Visitor Center: zero view, cold, windy, almost snowing. Then we continued to drive through the park and visited the Box Canyon and the Ohanapecosh Visitor Center. From there we hiked to some Hot Springs, the Silver Falls and the Grove of the Patriarchs, a wood with mighty western redcedar and Douglas fir trees, a 5.6 mile round trip.
After driving all the way back through a foggy surrounding and dawn we reached the Copper Creek Restaurant, famous for home made bread and blackberry pies and marmelade, serving a great grilled trout for dinner this evening.

From San Francisco to Seattle in 30 days – Day 16

September 19th (Day 16): Seattle underground

Starbucks everywhere in Seattle, this one located at Pike Place Market

Building at Pioneer Square, Seattle

Today we started the day with washing clothes. This has to happen at least once during such a long trip. Then we went to Pike Place Market, the oldest continually-operational farmer’s market in the country. It is located close to the waterfront at the end of Pine Street and distributed over several buildings and levels. Almost everything you can imagine one can see, smell or taste there: fish, herbs, fruits, pastries, flowers ( not for tasting ), cheese, meat and you name it. We have been so excited about this agile place that we spent several hours exploring it and watching the fish guys throwing their fish to each other.
In the afternoon we did the Underground Tour starting at Pioneer Square , a fun way to explore the strange world beneath the streets and to learn a lot about Seattle history. Seattle originally has been built a level too low to get rid of the wastewater especially during flood tide. After a big fire 1889 this problem was fixed the cheap and fast way: just the streets have been raised, buildings and sidewalks remained where they have been before. What originally was the second level of a buiding now became the first level and the lowest level disappeared in an underground world. Sidewalks have not been raised either so people kind of had to walk underground and use ladders to cross streets. Funny to see the results of this cost saving approach today. And good to learn that time and money has been very critical already in former times.