Best driving roads in Norther California (and Oregon too)

[gtc]

A friend of mine is getting married in Santa Cruz in early May, and I'm thinking that this is an excellent excuse for a road trip.
Can anyone recommend some fun roads between Seatte and Santa Cruz? I've done 101/1 before, so I'd like to find something new.
Here's a rough idea of what I was thinking, based solely on the number of twisties (sorry about the overlapping routes):
http://tinyurl.com/c9d3ja

Oh, and ignore the northern oregon bit. I think I should have that taken care of already.

Thanks for the suggestions, and also feel free to post your own routes, if you don't mind publicizing them somewhat.

Edit: Meh. Northern, not norther....

Thanks,

[Laneco]

Bail off of I-5 at Wolf Creek. Take Bear Camp Road to the coast. 93 miles of paved narrow road, curves, no guard rails, bring dramamine for your passenger.

When you get to 101, turn south. Follow that down to Brookings, hang a left toward Grants Pass/Medford. Drive through the Redwoods, join I-5 again in Grants Pass.

Follow that down to the Happy Camp turnoff (I-5 north of Yreka). You've got that route picked out already and it's a doozy. Particularly the drop from Weaverville back into Redding (that is the one, right?). Though that route is funner in the uphill direction.

For both of these bail-offs, fill your fuel tank before you get away from the freeway.

The way back up, snag 395 and head north. Some real neat geography up that route.

angela

[gtc]

Cool! Thanks for the tips and specific directions.
Is Bear Camp Road pretty easy to follow down to the coast? It looks pretty tiny on google maps.
No passengers to worry about, just my buddy behind me in his 914.
I've seen from your other posts that you use a Garmin. What model do you have? I've been thinking about getting one for mapping out drives like this so I can remember where I've been before.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by gtc

Cool! Thanks for the tips and specific directions.
Is Bear Camp Road pretty easy to follow down to the coast? It looks pretty tiny on google maps.
No passengers to worry about, just my buddy behind me in his 914.
I've seen from your other posts that you use a Garmin. What model do you have? I've been thinking about getting one for mapping out drives like this so I can remember where I've been before.

Isn't bear camp the road that the SF tourists got snowbound on? The hubby now dead? Not likely to happen in May, tho.

Hwy 97...from K-falls to Bend is almost as straight and boring as I-5...

[Laneco]

That stretch of 97 (K Falls to Bend) is one that I avoid at all costs... Too many very serious centerline infractions, head-on crashes, etc., on that stretch. Plus, it's the most boring drive on the planet.

Bear Camp in May is a safe bet. Bear Camp in late November is a really dangerous idea for most people. Even the locals avoided it during the winter (back before the sometimes locked gate went up).

angela

[Tobra]

on your return, you could also hit some roads East of I 5, how much time you want to wander around?

[gtc]

I'm planning to spend two days driving down and two days coming back. It's a long day's drive each way, so I figure we'll have about two days worth of wandering to do along the way, total.

Anything East of I-5 would be good, since it would be new to me. I've generally stayed between I-5 and the coast on my previous trips.

[therotman]

It's coastal, but the 20 between Wilits and Fort Bragg is top notch.

I'd drive the 101 S to 1 S to 20 E back to the 101.

[Tobra]

If you take I 5 to Hwy 20 E, just north of Williams, you will come to Colusa, take Hwy 45S/Hwy 20 E out of Colusa(they are the same) you will come to W Butte Rd about 5-6 miles later on your L. W Butte becomes N Butte, then you come to Pennington on your L. Take this to Colusa Hwy, east on Colusa Hwy past Hwy 99 to Hwy 70 N. Take this N to Hwy 162 at Oroville, AKA Oroville Dam Blvd. L at Mountain Blvd, R at Cherokee Rd. Cherokee Rdover table top mountain(Carefully, not really two lanes) to Hwy 70 N(right) up Feather River Canyon to where it runs into Hwy 89 north of Quincy. 89 N to 44 W to Redding or 89 all the way to Dunsmuir

W Butte Rd or Cherokee Rd may very well have washed out following the rains we have had they are 1.5 lane roads at best, and have been half assed patched and repaired in many places. Have not been on these in a year or two.

Feather River Canyon is very scenic, I could also give you roads N of Tahoe if that is more to your liking

Get fuel in Oroville if you take the route I delineated above

[cantdrv55]

check out www.pashnit.com

[gtc]

Originally Posted by cantdrv55

check out www.pashnit.com

Wow, what a wealth of information there. Thanks for the link.

[Markus33]

Graham,

After crossing the Golden Gate, I suggest taking 280 South to San Mateo, then 92 West towards Half Moon Bay. After just a few miles (way before HMB) turn south on 35, aka "Skyline Boulevard":

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skyline_Boulevard

Stop at Alice's Restaurant in Woodside for lunch, where "you can get anything you want...":

http://alicesrestaurant.com/index-6.html

Proceed down Skyline to the intersection with Highway 9. Take 9 South towards Santa Cruz. This takes you right into downtown, along River Street...

Markus

[Tobra]

Skyline is a stellar loop, that was basically the Lapawuli run
Before


during


that is the Feather River on your L there, this is going towards Oroville, you cross that river a couple of times, in May it would be crankin'(My Uncle Adam helped build some of the power houses along this, Hwy 70)

[josephsc]

Get a MadMap: http://www.madmaps.com/roadtrips/products/view/108/

[gtc]

Updated map:
http://tinyurl.com/d655mq

Wed - Night 1 (leaving after work): Seattle to Roseburg (A-B)
Thurs - Day 2: Roseburg to Redding (B-F)
Fri - Day 3: Redding to San Jose - Might need to shorten this one a bit in order to arrive by 4 or 5PM (F-G)

4-29 edit:
http://tinyurl.com/d9t3rm

[Zeke]

See Laneco's thread on her trip to SoCal and back to OR.

Here it is:
Working for a Living - Wanderings of a Blue Collar 911
Page 3 begins her journey back up the state.

[madmmac]

In Oregon, out of Corvallis, Hwy34 and the Lobster Valley branch off of it are great.

My wife actually got sick and I was driving the 4runner!!

Have a great trip Graham.

[Dottore]

subscribed

[gtc]

This is how all roads should be made - no road markings or street signs except for a warning sign (large image here) at the beginning with hazards and safety tips.



Underway:


Unfortunately we were stopped just short of the summit by a treacherous, 15" deep snow drift.





More to come. I need the pictures off Austin's camera in order to fill in some blanks.