Idaho-Oregon-Washington Recommendations

[bikendan]

I'm trying to understand why you're going to Newhalem, from Port Angeles and having to go right by Seattle. Then turning right around back to Seattle.
I would do Seattle/Tacoma, then Newhalem and continue East on Highway 20.

[MNtraveler]

Originally Posted by bikendan

I'm trying to understand why you're going to Newhalem, from Port Angeles and having to go right by Seattle. Then turning right around back to Seattle.
I would do Seattle/Tacoma, then Newhalem and continue East on Highway 20.

Newhalem was booked already over Memorial Day weekend! :-O So we had to book a site there the weekdays before. Otherwise we would have done it the other way around.

[MNtraveler]

Originally Posted by debit

Going north (north of Seattle about 60 miles) on I-5, take exit 232 east, to connect to Highway 20.

Day 23-25: Newhalem - you will enjoy this camp, and like you wrote, you will need your generator.

Good news: the pass opened on the 18th so this is a "must" trip over the pass. You will really enjoy the views and snow (views).
We go over the pass several times a year, and the grade down does look scary. We drop down two gears (fourth) and not touch the breaks, for the steep part of the downgrade to play it safe. (coming back, we use the 5th gear all the way up at 50 mph)

Then you can continue over to Liberty Lake. It will be a long day, however, so you might make another stop.
Enjoy Washington State!
………………………………
Ram2500 diesel, 4x4 6 speed manual / FR Surveyour 251rks

Thanks so much! That's great news. We are going from the Olympic Peninsula directly to Newhalem and then back to Seattle (because Newhalem is booked over Memorial Day weekend already). It sounds like from your follow-up post you think the ferry crossing would be OK that direction. Do we need a reservation or just show up and wait in line?

Is there any preference between Port Townsend and Kingston ferry routes? It looks like Port Townsend might be much more scenic, as well as staying off I-5.

[coupevillefish]

Originally Posted by MNtraveler

Thanks so much! That's great news. We are going from the Olympic Peninsula directly to Newhalem and then back to Seattle (because Newhalem is booked over Memorial Day weekend already). It sounds like from your follow-up post you think the ferry crossing would be OK that direction. Do we need a reservation or just show up and wait in line?

Is there any preference between Port Townsend and Kingston ferry routes? It looks like Port Townsend might be much more scenic, as well as staying off I-5.

Port Townsend/Coupeville will require reservations. Both Port Townsend and Coupeville are great places to visit. This will be your most direct, most scenic, and least traffic alternative. Edmonds/Kingston runs larger boats. The route is still scenic on the peninsula side but just I5 traffic when you get off on this side.

Full disclosure: we live about 6 miles from the Coupeville terminal and love thevarea.

[MNtraveler]

Originally Posted by coupevillefish

Port Townsend/Coupeville will require reservations. Both Port Townsend and Coupeville are great places to visit. This will be your most direct, most scenic, and least traffic alternative. Edmonds/Kingston runs larger boats. The route is still scenic on the peninsula side but just I5 traffic when you get off on this side.

Full disclosure: we live about 6 miles from the Coupeville terminal and love thevarea.

OK, I got my reservation. Thanks again! We can't wait to see your area!

[MNtraveler]

We recently completed this trip, and I would like to thank everyone who posted all the really helpful suggestions. The routes and campground information was helpful, and getting a reservation on the ferry to Coupeville turned out to be really important. The ferry was packed!

Here is the final itinerary we followed:

Day 1: Left MN, stayed W. of Fargo ND, at Casselton, Governor’s RV Park and Inn.
Day 2-4: Stayed at Red Trail Campground, Medora ND, visited Theodore Roosevelt NP for 2 days. Great park!
Day 5-6: Miles City, MT visiting friends for 2 nights.
Day 7-9: Gardiner, MT staying at Rocky Mountain RV Park, visit Yellowstone NP, Mammoth Springs area for 2 days. Nice campground and beautiful park!
Days 10-11: Craters of the Moon/Arco KOA, Arco ID, visit Craters of the Moon National Monument 1 day. Amazing park to visit!
Days 12: Stay a day's trip west of Acro, at a trailer park that allows overnight stays at Juntura, ID.
Days 13-14: Crater Lake Resort, Fort Klamath, ID, visit Crater Lake NP 1 day. Beautiful campground and great park!
Days 15-17: South Beach State Park, Newport OR, explore the beach and coast area for 2 days. (It rained and dripped most of the time but we got around a bit.)
Day 18: Stop at Cascade Head trail area near Otis, OR. Beautiful!! We parked our RV at Knight County Park which is right at the trail head. Stopped at Tillamook Creamery too.
Days 18-19: Fort Stevens State Park, Hammond, OR, explore the area for 1 day, watch ships coming out the Columbia River hit the ocean waves.
Days 20-22: Olympic Peninsula/Port Angeles KOA, visit Olympic NP and area for 2 days. We decided on the KOA after reading reviews of the park and concessionaire campgrounds which sounded pretty dismal ("gravel parking lot" for one). Amazing and huge national park!
Days 23-25: Newhalem Creek Campground in North Cascades National Park, explore for 2 days. Beautiful campground and park! Wonderful trails at the campground and all along Rt. 20. No hookups so we were on battery and generator for a few nights.
Days 26-28: Seattle/Tacoma KOA, got back into civilization and visit Seattle for 2 days over Memorial Day weekend (when Newhalem Campground is already booked out). Very disappointing KOA but it has the location near the city which we drove to with our toad. (I believe the state park nearby was booked for the weekend.)
Days 29-31: Liberty Lake Regional Park Campground, Liberty Lake, WA - we found this nice little local park on a lake with some good hiking trails. It looked much better than the campgrounds at Coeur d'Alene which seem quite packed in and mostly oriented to people going boating and fishing. We were close enough to visit and explore the area for 2 days though.
Day 32: Ulm and Great Falls, MT visiting a relative. We stayed one night at Holter Lake BLM Campground at Wolf Creek, a beautiful setup though no hookups or dump station. Excellent for boaters and fishing, with free overnight dockage available for campers. Very inexpensive especially on the senior or other federal pass.
Day 33: Jordan, MT, we stayed at the new Old Dorm RV Park. I don't recommend this route (WA-20 east of Lewistown is really a disaster!) or the campground which is currently heavily rutted. They are trying to fix it. It's a new, self-service campground with FHU, 8 back-in sites and 2 pull-along sites. Interesting concept...
Day 34: Jamestown, ND, staying at the very nice Jamestown Campground (Good Sam).
Day 35: Back in MN.

I have added reviews for all the campgrounds at campgroundreviews dot com (these reviews are also available on the app RV Life, and the reviews on the web site are linked into RV Trip Wizard too).

Trip recap:

34 nights
4,363 miles
7 states
4 National Parks
1 National Monument
1 National Recreation Area
1 National Recreation Trail
1 National Park Campground
1 BLM Campground
1 BLM Outstanding Natural Area (Yaquina Head Lighthouse)
2 State Park Campgrounds
1 County Regional Park Campground
10 private campgrounds

Thanks again and happy travels!

[Dirt Sifter]

Thanks for the follow-up report and observations! Come back to OR when you can spend some time. You'll be amazed.

[MNtraveler]

Originally Posted by Dirt Sifter

Thanks for the follow-up report and observations! Come back to OR when you can spend some time. You'll be amazed.

Thanks. There is a lot more to see, especially the whole Gorge area!

[rebellee]

Sounds like you had an awesome trip! I appreciate the summary too. Did not see mentions of any real serious problems so that is great for such a long trip. Our trip was only 20 days but we had a great time. I'm too lazy to write things up but I do like to put videos together. We just watched the final 48 minute cut of our trip but this 5 minute vid sums it up nicely. I chose 'Harvest Moon' by Neil Young as the music since it meant a lot to our Portland friends Ricci and Albie plus I got to see Neil play it live while in Portland.

https://vimeo.com/manage/339440739/general

[MNtraveler]

Originally Posted by rebellee

Sounds like you had an awesome trip! I appreciate the summary too. Did not see mentions of any real serious problems so that is great for such a long trip. Our trip was only 20 days but we had a great time. I'm too lazy to write things up but I do like to put videos together. We just watched the final 48 minute cut of our trip but this 5 minute vid sums it up nicely. I chose 'Harvest Moon' by Neil Young as the music since it meant a lot to our Portland friends Ricci and Albie plus I got to see Neil play it live while in Portland.

https://vimeo.com/manage/339440739/general

No problems at all! Phew!

The video must not be public. It says “not authorized”

[rebellee]

Originally Posted by MNtraveler

No problems at all! Phew!

The video must not be public. It says “not authorized”

Hmmm, not sure why you're getting that, vimeo says it can be seen by 'anyone'.

[sdowney717]

I recommend stopping at Yachats.
Just got back from 2 week road trip on Oregon coast visiting our daughter, wonderful trip. Went all way from N Cal to southern WA. Then I read they are going to raise price of gasoline-diesel about $1 per gallon due to cap and trade. The prices we were paying was about $3.20 when we were lucky. Made a trip into Northern California to see redwood trees and remarked how gas was about $4.35 so glad I did not need to fill up. Sad that Oregon prices if we go again, everything is going to be a lot more expensive then. Everything is passed onto the consumer. Here in VA, gas is $2.35, its a big shock to see those prices out west.

I have a few videos up from Yachats for June 2019. We took thousands of pics and hundreds of videos from all over the coasts, but you know its much better to see it directly.
Oregon has every kind of climate and sites you can imagine including volcanoes.
We drove up to Mt Hood into a snowstorm, and it was in 60's below the mountain.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTP..._as=subscriber