shen050

Hi, my husband and I are thinking of driving from SF to Portland for the upcoming Labor Day weekend (leaving Friday morning, returning Monday night). Any recommendations for what to see along the way, and which route is best (101 or I-5)? We would like to spend 1 day in Portland, and see Crater Lake too. Thanks very much!

SultanOfSwing

I don't know the area as such, so I'm just going by the road designations but I would imagine that a combination of both routes might do the trick.

I-5 is closer to the park and will be quicker, but 101 is coastal, maybe easier to stop along the way but will certainly be the slower route.

A possible option, looking at google maps, might be to take 101 initially, then cut across to I-5 on US-199. There look to be a few exits to Crater Lake in Medford, OR. Then out of the park you could zip up I-5 the rest of the way to Portland.

The good thing is, you can take 101 back to SF again, so you get to drive that part along the Oregon coast, knowing you can cut across back east to I-5 again should you choose to.

Like I said, I don't know the area, this could be a bad route but looking at the maps, that's how I might plan the drive if I were doing it.

S Folinsky

I suggest quite strongly that you scale back your plans. I-5 is Iong but US 101 is much longer.

S Folinsky

Perhaps I-5 up to Crater Lake and then 101 up the Oregon Coast up to Astoria then east along the Columbia River to Portland.

SultanOfSwing

In light of the fact that they're just going for the weekend (I misread and thought it was a week ...) this might be better as far as length of trip.

lansbury

+1. Or coming up 101 all the way and I-5 back home.

As a guide on times, we did Sacramento to Portland in 10 hours a few months ago on I-5. That was allowing almost an hour stop for lunch, and a few stops in rest areas along the way.

Oh yes and a shopping stop at the Liquor Barn in Yreka.

If you want to go to Crater Lake. Go home on I-5 to Eugene, then OR-58 towards Oakridge and Klamath Falls, then down OR-97, that should take four and half hours to Crater Lake.

Psyman

Yes, 4 days is not a lot of time to see a lot of cool stuff. You might consider saving Portland and northern Oregon for another trip and concentrate on northern California. Highway 1 is spectacular but slow driving, with Mendocino the main town to visit and stay in - very pretty. North of there you could do Redwood National Park - everyone has to see the redwoods sometime. In 4 days you might even fit in Crater Lake afterwards, but you'd be in the car a lot. If the weather is crap, it doesn't do Crater Lake justice. One of the reasons to see it is because the water is so incredibly blue, but only if the sky is blue too (reflection in such a deep lake).

Oregon coast most of the way is beautiful, any of the roads from I-5 up into the Oregon Cascades will be nice with rivers and waterfalls, Portland is a cool town and the Columbia river gorge west of Portland pretty spectacular up to around Hood River. Check out the old road, the Historic Columbia River Highway on the Oregon side for tons of waterfalls, and drive the Washington side on Hwy 14 for a different perspective.

Do two separate trips.

shen050

Thanks everyone for the helpful responses!

cluedweasel

Just a quick heads up. There's a pretty big fire in the Grants Pass area at the moment. The smoke's blowing into Crater Lake and it's spoiling the views as well as the air. Here's hoping it shifts by Labor Day.

Welshgator

Crater lake is awesome, we had a sunny day with blue skies and the deep blue colour of the lake was beautiful. We stopped there on our road trip from Seattle to Florida. Columbia River gorge and Multnomah Falls a little east of Portland is nice too. They have a bunch of windsurfers who sail across the gorge at high speeds. We tried windsurfing there but the wind was way too much for our big sail. There's a consistent 30mph breezing up there most days.

cluedweasel

Here's Crater Lake at the moment

CAdreaming

not quite sure how you get to Portland but the 101 north is empty north of Santa Rosa - it takes about 4 hours to get to Eureka but its an amazing journey through the redwoods
I know that people do drive to Portland from here but im guessing it would take a while
Whichever way you go have a good trip

shen050

Just wanted to say thanks again for the responses and also to give an update on our trip, for anyone who might be doing this road trip. We went via the I-5 to Medford, stopping at Mt Shasta, Ashland and Jacksonville (old historic town - recommended!) on the way. From Medford we drove to Crater Lake - so beautiful. We spent about half a day there then went to Portland. On the way back to SF we were on 101 till about Coos Bay, where we switched back to 1-5. Very long drive back (about 16 hrs) but worth it for the stops on the coast