The Scenic Route, Our 2020 West Coast Road Trip.
When our Disneyland trip was cancelled spring of 2020 (shocking, I know), we decided to reschedule for late summer… then we rescheduled for fall… and then we had a complete overhaul of the vacation. We knew Disneyland wouldn’t open anytime soon and I also knew we wouldn’t want to go to overcrowded places or dine-out too much. So, the road trip intenerary began and the trip turned out to be rather amazing. This is going to be a lengthy blog full of all the details and all my tips, but if you’d like to get right to the intenerary… I used Inspirock.com and found it incredibly helpful. You can find my detailed West Coast Road Trip calendar here.
HERE WE GO!
From ATL - LAX, renting a car and driving up scenic HWY 1 and HWY 101 to Seattle, WA (with some stops along the way, of course) in one week’s time. Once we secured our flight with Delta and our rental with Budget, next was deciding how long each stop would be, securing all of our hotels, airbnbs, and researching where we could get groceries, what hikes we’d want to take, the stops we’d want to make on our drive (we ended up taking TONS of impromptu detours) and more.
Here’s what I planned:
Day 1: Arrive in LA, secure our rental and try In-n-Out for the first time. Check-in to the Hyatt Place by the airport.
Day 2: Watch the sunrise on Santa Monica Pier and start our drive to San Francisco via HWY 101 with stops along Big Sur. Check in to Hotel Del Sol on Webster Street and take a stroll to see the Golden Gate Bridge for a picnic.
Day 3: Drive to our campsite in the Redwoods for our two night stay in an Airstream. Secure groceries.
Day 4: Hike and explore!
Day 5: Drive to Portland, OR (a basement airbnb in Camas, WA) for one night on our way to Mineral, WA.
Day 6: Drive the Oregon Coast, head over to our cabin in Mineral for the last two nights.
Day 7: Visit a snowy Mt. Rainier.
Day 8: Head to Seattle for our flight home, grab breakfast and see Pike Place Market.
Here’s what we did:
Day 1:
We arrived late evening to LAX and traveled by bus to get our rental car which turned out to be an older vehicle (which is fine, I did get a great deal on it!) and we were starving. With COVID-19 restrictions in place, airport dining was also reasonably restricted and after a long flight, we were ready for our first taste of In-n-Out. Thankfully, our Hyatt hotel room for the night was conveniently next to one and we were able to dine outside. I have to say…. I wasn’t impressed with the fries, but I’d take another burger any day. Being used to the east coast, and knowing we’d be getting up early for some long driving, we fell asleep before 8:00 pm to prepare for an early morning by the ocean.
Day 2
We checked out around 5:00 am and immediately hit the road to visit Santa Monica Pier on our way out of LA. That’s when the check engine light started blinking like crazy and our key fob died… Budget was more than helpful, though. After a little detour from the beach, we secured a new rental, a 2020 ford mustang (the seats were much more comfortable) and we made our way to San Francisco via HWY 101.
The views were breathtaking… the drive was flawless… and we made it to San Francisco before sunset. After checking into the hotel we were able to walk over to Crissy Field Beach and watch the sunset over the Golden Gate Bridge (swipe through the photos and you’ll see how magical it was)
Pro-Tip: Get gas and download your navigation before hitting Big Sur. Cell service was no where to be had, but we sure enjoyed our stop at Big Sur Bakery and dining outside. Always stop at the vista points.
Day 3
Another long drive up to the Redwoods. We were really excited to be in an airstream for two nights and to spend time in the small town of Trinidad, CA. We took a walk around San Francisco, got some morning coffee, took a look at Lombard Street (got a major workout walking up those hills) and checked out of our hotel. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge on our way to our next destination, which was 7 hours away. We listened to music, audio books, and talked about all we wanted to do when we arrived at our campsite complete with an Airstream we found on Airbnb.
Along the drive we took time to stop at Glass Beach on Fort Bragg, a rocky stretch of waterfront featuring colorful, broken pieces of glass washed up on the shore. It was worth the extra hour on our travel.
After arriving in Trinidad, we visited Murphy’s, the local grocery, stocked up on some meals and got settled into the camper. The area was quaint and calming, surrounded by beautiful trees and forest.
Day 4
Time to hike. We took our time in the morning since it was our first chance to sleep in all week. I tried to make some pour over coffee and spilled it everywhere, therefore delaying our departure, but soon we hand sandwiches packed and we were ready for our hikes at Lady Bird Johnson Grove and Patrick’s Point State Park. Joel learned not to wear his favorite boots as they swiftly destroyed his feet and I learned I am incredibly out of shape and should have picked a trail with less elevation treks. We used the app, AllTrails, to discover trails off of Lady Bird Johnson Grove and ended up taking the Berry Glen trail - nearly 6 miles of walking and exploring the forest.
After a quick pause for lunch we drove over to Patrick’s Point and listened to the waves crash all afternoon. It was a wonderful day that we ended in our camper, cozied up with some pasta and much needed rest.
Day 5
We were sad to leave our little camper this morning but excited to move on to a place with a full sized shower. Our fifth day on the road included an impromptu stop at Meyer’s Beach and Cape Sebastian Trail to allow us to see the wonders of the Oregon coast from our car and while stretching our legs. These two stops were breathtaking. I cannot dream of a more beautiful place than the Oregon Coast. The landscape outside of our windows made it the most beautiful drive I’ve ever taken.
We made our way to through Portland to our next stop in Camas, WA, a small airbnb basement apartment. We visited SafeWay and picked up some amazing to-go Thai food from Camas Thai Cuisine while daydreaming of uprooting our entire lives for this adorable town outside Portland.
Day 6
Onwards to our last leg of our journey: Mt. Rainier/Our cabin in Mineral, Washington. We drove back to the Oregon Coast to visit the famous Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach and the entire day was cold, misty, and cloudy… truly the quintessential moody fall day. We knew now weather the next two days was not on our side and we would likely have trouble getting to see the parts of Mt. Rainier we really wanted to. (HIGHLY recommend doing significant research on the season you are visiting Mt. Rainier and follow their twitter to get live updates on what roads are closed and when)
When we finally arrived to our cabin I had lost internet access and couldn’t retrieve the code to get into cabin - we had to drive 20 minutes back to town and back to get in (oops).
Once we got in and settled we cozied up by the fire, ate dinner, and slept to the sound of rain on the roof.
Day 7
Snow. SO MUCH snow. We knew Mt. Rainier would gift us with a winter wonderland but we were truly not prepared. We entered the park from the southwest entrance with snow chains in the trunk. While we were able to drive up to Paradise Peak, we were not set with the right outdoor gear to really enjoy any winter activities. So we stuck to driving up, taking pictures, getting stuck up there and having to ask for help to get out of our parking spot and me having full blown anxiety attack, and then safely driving back down to the much less snowy short hiking trail and gift shop.
Needless to say, it wasn’t the hike I had hoped for - we saw the next day much better weather and even saw the Mountain on our drive out (what a bummer it couldn’t have done that for us one day sooner)
After getting some frozen pot pies from the small corner shop we heated up the oven, through on a movie and talked about our favorite parts of the journey before departing for home the next morning.
Day 8
We woke up early to grab breakfast in Seattle from Biscuit B*tch and celebrate the presidential election results near Pike Place Market before boarding our plane and heading home. One of the coolest parts? We saw the peak of Mt. Rainier on our way out from the sky.
I would 100% do another trip like this one in the future (Joel is a great travel partner), especially one where we are able to enjoy dining and other local happenings, instead of always grabbing to-go and avoiding crowds. We know travel isn’t for everyone during this time, and as two work-from-home folks with many friends in the hospitality industry struggling, we knew we could make this trip happen according to the CDC guidelines and that’s exactly what we strived for.
Thank you to all the hotels and airbnbs with contactless check-ins (Gosh I love technology), to all the restaurants who shifted their offerings for to-go style meals, to all the nature lovers out there enjoying the outdoors safely, to Delta for flying with lower capacity, to everyone following the mask mandates, and to Joel who was along for the ride of my crazy plan.
