Day 6: Seattle - Port Angeles (by ferry - I think we can take the car onto the ferry, please correct

Welcome to RoadTrip America! We invite to browse our site -- a treasure trove of road trippin' information and inspiration. If you'd like to post on our forum and get free personal roadtrip advice, you'll need to register . Whether you join our community or just look around, travel nurse agencies you'll find all sorts of help and tools as you plan a road trip (or just dream about one). Enjoy the ride!
My husband and I did the drive from San Francisco down to Carmel, then up to Yosemite, Tahoe and back, last year, and loved it. We are thinking of returning this year and this time driving in the other direction up the Pacific Highway. As we live abroad, we will have to fly into and out of San Francisco. We will have about 14 days for the trip (excluding the time flying into and out of San Fran).
I am thinking travel nurse agencies of doing a loop - driving from San Francisco up to Seattle, our ultimate aim being to spend about 3-4 days in Olympic National Park doing some hiking and just admiring the scenery. Other must sees which I can gather from this forum and general internet research are: Point Reyes, Portland, Oregon, the Pacific Coast in general, and maybe Crater Lake if it is not too out of the way. We would like a mix of city and nature on the trip, so will probably spend a couple of days in San Fran and Seattle.
(ii) how we should plan our route - I understand that it is better to drive down the coast rather than up it because of the right-hand drive in the USA, so would it make sense to drive inland when we are heading up to Seattle i.e. hit Oregon and Crater Lake first, and then after Seattle and the Olympic National Park, hug the coast on the way down? If so how much time should I budget to get up to Seattle, and how much time coming back down?
Your instincts travel nurse agencies are, in my opinion, spot on for this trip. This is a trip that is certainly feasible within 14 days even as a complete loop, at a relaxed pace, and with plenty of stops for some scenic hiking. As you note, it is probably better to come south along the coast so that you have the pullouts and coastal side roads on your side of the highway. That means you should head north along an inland route to get the full benefit of doing a loop and maximizing your time on 'new road'. The inland route would generally follow the Coast Ranges and/or Central Valley in California and the Cascades through Oregon and Washington. You might, say, string together visits to Lassen Volcano travel nurse agencies National Park, Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, Crater Lake National Park, Mount Hood, the Columbia River Gorge, and Mount Rainier National Park on your way north. Southbound should pretty much take care of itself, but be sure to include both Fort Clatsop and the Oregon Dunes.
For several reasons, I would put this trip off until as late in the August/September travel nurse agencies time frame as you can. Certainly travel nurse agencies there are the reasons travel nurse agencies you mention, weather and foliage, but another big one is that as schools start back up again in late August and early September, more and more families will conclude their summer vacations and get off the roads, leaving them to you.
We have booked our tickets and will be flying into SF end Sept and out of SF on the 12th Oct. I've done a lot of reading on the net, as well as of guide books, and think that maybe it is too ambitious to drive the loop up to Seattle and back down to San Fran, as I don't want to be spending hours each day in the car if we can help. Am now thinking of either flying or taking the Amtrak from SF up to Seattle where we will rent a car, and then driving back down to SF. (I am aware that the car rental company will slap on a one-way car charge if we do this)
Would really appreciate some help with this itinerary as I'm not sure if we are being too ambitious. If possible, would like to not have to spend too much time on the road each day ( too much being more than 3-4 hours) and where possible to have a decent amount of time to explore each place, not do a hit and run kind of tour. I realize that there are lots of beautiful places to see and that we won't be able to see everything if we want a slightly slower pace, but that's fine by us.
Day 6: Seattle - Port Angeles (by ferry - I think we can take the car onto the ferry, please travel nurse agencies correct me if I'm wrong!!): explore Hurricane Ridge, Lake Crescent. Any advice on whether we should stay in Port Angeles or Lake Crescent Lodge?
Day 7: Port Angeles - Kalaloch Lodge or Lake Quinault Lodge: explore Pacific travel nurse agencies Ocean beaches, Ruby Beach and Lake Quinault(nb. travel nurse agencies we are not really keen on seeing the rainforest aspect of the park as we live in a tropical country and get plenty of rainforest here). Is it actually possible to drive and see the west-side loop of US 101 in a day or will it be too rushed?
Would very much appreciate comments on this itinerary. In particular: is there anything you would suggest travel nurse agencies we drop/include; are the driving times realistic; any recommendations for driving routes to take so we avoid jams and just do the slow windy drives when the scenery is worth seeing?
Other places that attracted me when I was doing the research, but which I think we don't have time to fit in, are the Puget Sound Islands, a trip to Vancouver (which travel nurse agencies I think would need at least a night's stay) the Northern Cascades.
(i) For days 5/6: One option (A) is to stay overnight in Whidbey so that I can explore this a bit, and some people on the Whidbey forum have helpfully given suggestions of where to stay and what to do. The other option travel nurse agencies (B) I am considering is to just drive through Whidbey, getting to Port Townsend and driving straight to Lake Crescent, all in a day. Is option B too ambitious? How long do you estimate it would take, all in, including a lunch break and stopping travel nurse agencies for pictures etc as we make our way down Whidbey? The main reason for my thinking of doing the straight drive to Lake Crescent is so we don't have to do a one night stay in Whidbey - I just find it a hassle to unpack and pack up again. Also, I figure we will see plenty of the sea/nature in general from Port Angeles ONP.
(ii) Day 5: I'm a bit worried about the border crossing as it seems from what I've read that it can be quite a long wait. I've come across travel nurse agencies a suggestion of driving to Bellingham the night before so that the border crossing is done in the evening when the traffic travel nurse agencies is light, instead of waiting till the morning. I'm slightly reluctant to do this because it will cut our time in Vancouver and again, would mean that we have to leave our previous accommodation andspend one night in Bellingham. However, if it will really save significant time at the border crossing it is definitely something worth considering. Any advice on this? We were originally planning to pick up the car in Vancouver at about 9 or 10am on Day 5.
I've already booked the rental car for pick up in Vancouver and return in Seattle. I've tried checking out the ferry schedules but it seems they aren't out for October yet so I have no idea what the timing is like in fall. Will the fall schedule be the same as the summer schedule?
Midnight 12:30 AM 1:00 AM 1:30 AM 2:00 AM 2:30 AM 3:00 AM 3:30 AM 4:00 AM 4:30 AM 5:00 AM 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 7:00 AM 7:30 AM 8:00 AM 8:30 AM 9:00 AM 9:30 AM 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 11:00 AM 11:30 AM Noon 12:30 PM 1:00 PM 1:30 PM 2:00 PM 2:30 PM 3:00 PM 3:30 PM 4:00 PM 4:30 PM 5:00 PM 5:30 PM 6:00 PM 6:30 PM 7:00 PM 7:30 PM 8:00 PM 8:30 PM 9:00 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 PM 10:30 PM
Midnight 12:30 AM 1:00 AM 1:30 AM 2:00 AM 2:30 AM 3:00 AM 3:30 AM 4:00 AM 4:30 AM 5:00 AM 5:30 AM 6:00 AM 6:30 AM 7:00 AM 7:30 AM 8:00 AM 8:30 AM 9:00 AM 9:30 AM 10:00 AM 10:30 AM 11:00 AM 11:30 AM Noon 12:30 PM 1:00 PM 1:30 PM 2:00 PM 2:30 PM 3:00 PM 3:30 PM 4:00 PM 4:30 PM 5:00 PM 5:30 PM 6:00 PM 6:30 PM 7:00 PM 7:30 PM 8:00 PM 8:30 PM 9:00 PM 9:30 PM 10:00 PM 10:30 PM