one month usa west coast road trip - our camping journey - places to visit, things to do
our favorite picture from our road trip was taken on the main road past sunset in the valley of fire. luckily we were not run over by a truck.
the franklyne route. there’s an interactive map of the places we visited if you scroll down!
in mid august, evelyne and i left switzerland for a month road tripping the west coast of the united states. with our rental toyota 4runner from seattle, we have traveled 5001 miles of open roads, seen breathtaking sunsets on giant rocks, two brown bears, explored thousand year old forests, jumped into glacier lakes, escaped a wildfire, slept on the road, and made friends with squirrels.
we designed our route the scenic way, to see as much as possible in a very short time, so you will find the itinerary most helpful if you like to drive as much as we do. this blog post is meant to be a summary where we show you our entire itinerary with all the highlights we loved on our road trip. evelyne and i are working hard to post articles and thoughts about the individual places, they will be up soon!
our itinerary
excited and curious? no more beating around the bush, here’s our itinerary!
1 day seattle
2 days north cascades national park
1 day portland, oregon
2 days cannon beach
2 days oregon coast
1 day redwoods national park
2 days san francisco
2 days big sur & californian coastline
evelyne trying to make friends with a california ground squirrel
sunset across the golden gate bridge, on the other side of san francisco
1 day santa barbara
2 days malibu & los angeles
1 day palm springs
2 days joshua tree national park
1/2 day valley of fire state park
1/2 day las vegas
2 days sequoia national park
3 days yosemite national park
1 day lake tahoe
1 day lassen volcanic national park
golden hour in the burning heat of joshua tree!
1/2 day lake siskiyou
1/2 day crater lake national park
1/2 day umpqua hot spring
1 day mount rainier
how we traveled
most nights we stayed in official campsites inside national forests, national parks and state parks. we never booked anything more than 2-3 days in advance, but if you don’t enjoy the uncertainty, book early! popular sites, especially during weekends and national holidays tend to be booked out months in advance.
all official, public campgrounds can be booked through recreation.gov.
there were two times where we couldn’t find anything for the night (we really tried our best) and had to sleep on the roadside. once around big sur in california, and once in central oregon around umpqua national forest.
every around 5 days we stayed either at a privately owned RV park, or in a hotel to have access to showers and laundry.
places we visited
i have dreamed of a west coast road trip ever since 2015. a little while ago, i started drafting an itinerary for two separate road trips: a pacific northwest one, and a californian one. when we booked our round trip flights to and from seattle to make my dream come true, we connected the dots and added a few more exciting spots to come full circle. here’s the result, an interactive map for you to play around!
of course, we’ve created the map after our road trip, so you don’t have to go to places we thought were lame and can look at the exciting part!
the pacific northwest, part 1
we started our adventures in seattle to get used to how things work in the u.s, picked up our rental car… and drove straight up to a lovely veggie restaurant called café flora.
happy evelyne and sleepy and happy me, 5 am, driving from klipchuck campground to portland, oregon. we had a long drive ahead, but saw misty magic in the morning hours on the countryside
from there, we traveled north. close to the borders to canada to see real wilderness, swim in glacier lakes - diablo lake, rainy lake and blue lake, and old pine forests in the north cascades national park. while we have seen all of that, evelyne and i also shared a famous caramelized green apple from a candy shop in western village winthrop.
evelyne in the last light, mount baker national forest
our food after the first night sleeping in the car. guten morgen!
we got our car camping and hammock set up, got used to how camping works in the u.s, and most importantly, purchased an america the beautiful annual pass, which is 80 USD and pays itself after visiting a few national parks. we couldn’t get enough of the scenery, but since we had thousands of miles ahead of us, we left the north cascades for portland, oregon early on a morning to grab a coffee and a camping in national parks book.
from portland, oregon, it’s barely two hours of a drive to get to the see pacific ocean again. we went to a special rock formation, the haystack rock on cannon beach. it’s a popular place to see the tufted puffin. although we didn’t spot any puffins, we thought the pelicans were badass enough. well, maybe next time, but our music session by the fire on the beach was great, just as great as heyxnatalie’s!
campfire pasta and acoustic music sessions on cannon beach
we liked the place a lot, so we camped for two days before heading south along the oregon coast. whenever we found sweet places along the coast, whether on a serene and peaceful morning or in a dramatic sunset, we stopped to stop the time for a while. one morning, a farmers market in coos bay caught our attention, and our yield was solid and diverse: cinnamon raisin sourdough bread, veggies, hummus, and most importantly caramel fudge.
cozy times on meyers creek beach on the oregon coast
stunning cliffs inside the samuel h. boardman state scenic corridor
the oregon coast and the samuel h. boardman scenic corridor was covered in a mystic, thick layer of fog. my fear of height certainly did not help when we hiked down to the natural bridges and climbed over rocks standing next to cliffs. luckily, our drone was not afraid of heights, so we sent it over the natural bridges, onwards into the unknown. evelyne wasn’t too afraid of cliffs either, so she came back with stunning photos while the view itself took my breath away, already.
towards the end of the day we decided we’d still go up to the redwoods national park, the lady bird johnson grove trail, to go on a walk through a forest of giant, thousand year old sequoia trees. we sat beneath a giant sequoia, sang some songs. it was our first time to hug trees this big, but the sun went down, and when the mosquitoes came out, we found shelter in a campground nearby.
the california coastline
a spark in the streets of san francisco
the next morning, i woke up very early to beat the morning traffic on our way to san francisco. we found a safe spot to drop off our car in suburban tiburon, and traveled to the busy city by ferry.
in the city, we explored chinatown, watched sea lions on pier 39 before we took the ferry back, crossed the golden gate bridge and checked into our hotel near the apple hq in cupertino.
if you are doing this route, the golden gate bridge was the only toll road we encountered. you can do a one-time payment, and do not have to pay any extra for toll handling service on your car rental.
what a poetic moment! golden gate bridge in the pink sky above fluffy clouds of san francisco
view into the city from mosaic tiled steps called the moraga steps in san francisco
the next morning we headed back to san francisco city to see the mosaic tiled moraga steps before making our way to the sea again, this time to the rugged coastline of big sur, california. we encountered the same type of fog like in san francisco and camping was a struggle too, so we continued our journey towards malibu and los angeles soon enough.
yellow sandy beaches, blue water… and a cloudy sky
a squirrel hug from big sur
we stayed a while in cambria to have pizza, decorate evelyne’s ukulele with a sticker from moon stone beach in cambria, watch sea elephants and california ground squirrels. finally, we tucked away in los padres national forest for a campground nearby santa barbara in the night and headed out to the beach in the next morning.
this way, we slowly made our way to malibu where we visited the filming location of kids tv show zoey 101, pepperdine university. we had lunch in the student cafe, funnily enough with all the students that had their first day of the semester and found camping inside malibu creek state park. if i would have looked believable if i tried to grab a welcome t-shirt?
in the city of los angeles we made the trip our own, truly, when we faded out the night inside a jazz bar in bel air, hollywood after watching the sunset over the city on top of runyon canyon park. do you like jazz? speaking of la la land, we also found the lighthouse café on hermosa beach, and sang city of stars on the pier.
the next morning, we magically woke up in the middle of the desert. we had the most amazing stay at the westcott botique hotel in palm springs and were welcomed with freshly made granola yoghurt you would typically only find in hipster brunch restaurants in berlin kreuzberg.
the california nature (and a bit of nevada)
joshua tree national park undoubtedly was one of our favorite places on our trip
our journey continued into a place where sunsets are layers of orange and red over seas of cacti trees and giant, round moonscape rocks that were stacked like nature certainly had fun while shaping this place. joshua tree national park in the california desert! our time was accompanied by an arizonan blonde tarantula at our campground, 100 degrees fiery air and survival skills of smart rationing of our water supplies throughout the days.
a giant joshua tree
a hundred degrees in cholla cactus garden before the storm
we certainly did not see enough of the desert, which is why we took a four hour detour through the desert of california to the valley of fire state park. we arrived late in the afternoon to explore the swirled red rocks in the golden light.
fire canyon inside valley of fire state park, nevada
into the wild, into the light
no nature was harmed. just red sand from beside the street
after we had our hottest camping experience close to las vegas, we went into the city of las vegas for a smoothie at pressed and to see the welcome sign, eiffel tower, the statue of liberty, venice and oversized luxury malls, well we did not really, we just drove past. but did you know that trump tower in las vegas is located on a road called fashion show dr?
anyway, we were looking for a more wholesome experience and guess where we drove to next? right, its sequoia national park in california!
for one day we hiked all the way to the parker group of giant sequoias, had a lovely picnic there and then climbed onto moro rock to have view to the high sierra wilderness. just like hiking in switzerland, the high sierra trail all the way to mount whitney has a shelter on its way, and we are definitely keen on trying that hike when we are coming back to this place.
fly away with me. sunset rock in sequoia national park
then, we saw the most magical sunset on our trip, the sunset over sunset rock. it was a view into layers of mountains and forests painted in pastel pink, we talked to a ranger about how we wanted to see bears and stayed inside the lodgepole campground. the next morning, we not only saw lodgepole chipmunks, but also we didn’t notice we were having breakfast just next to a brown bear at crescent meadow. it was peacefully snacking on berries and spiky fruits. we couldn’t believe our luck. evelyne and i were so, so happy!
view from glacier point in yosemite national park
next, it was our turn to visit yosemite national park! if you plan to visit yosemite national park, be sure to reserve your entry, because you can’t enter the park otherwise. we arrived in our campground very close to curry village inside yosemite valley late in the evening, where entry was free and we could explore the national park the next day.
golden moments from…
el capitan meadow
the most popular spots in yosemite are on a road traveling high up above yosemite valley called glacier point road. in august 2022, the road was closed for construction so the only way to go up from yosemite valley was through “strenous hike with no facilities”.
portrait of a thief: a squirrel and the half dome in yosemite. unfortunately, the clouds aren’t clouds but smoke from a nearby forest fire
we hiked up the four-mile trail and said hi to all hikers that were just as legendary and are enjoying the stunning views to half dome, the waterfalls and yosemite valley.
the next morning, we came here for a swim in the river
the trees are all gone, nothing but a pink cloud in the sky
emerald bay state park at lake tahoe
after camping in yosemite, we had a swimming day, where we first started swimming in the river of yosemite valley, merced river and then traveled through tioga pass over the mammoth lakes all the way to a campsite near lake tahoe. inside emerald bay state park, we found a secluded, hidden cove with a sandy beach where we stayed there all day.
the pacific northwest, part 2
lassen volcanic national park near bumpass hell
our first destination after we left lake tahoe was reno, where we got a giant vegan pizza at sizzle pie, had a genuinely amazing oat cappuccino, found a patagonia outlet store before we headed northbound for the lassen volcanic national park in northern california. there, we used a few hours to travel to bumpass hell, a place that smells like rotten eggs and everything is bubbling and steaming.
we crossed back into oregon the next morning and spent the following day in the national park with the deepest lake in the u.s: crater lake national park with piercing blue, crystal clear water.
sunset at crater lake national park, oregon
one of my favorite squirrel portraits, crater lake national park
the only way to legally swim and get close to the water is a trail called the cleetwood cove trail. there, we went to enjoy the ice cold water and i, of course, took the chance to jump off the cliff.
umpqua hot springs inside umpqua national forest was barely two hours away and it was our place to relax the following morning. just like the saturnia hot springs in tuscany, italy, be prepared to smell like rotten eggs after the swim. but the feeling of going into naturally heated pools make you forget about any stress you have ever had on a road trip.
our last adventure takes us back into washington state to the national park of the most iconic snow covered volcanic peak: mount rainier.
at sunrise, we stood at reflection lake to watch the snowy tip of mount rainier being painted red, and then we hiked the infamous skyline trail. while this time we missed out on the bear family, we befriended deers, marmots and a truck load of squirrels.
mount rainier in the morning light, almost looking like a painting
alright then, this pretty much concludes our road trip episode. i’ll work tirelessly on documenting these every single adventures separately on this blog soon!
we’ve deep cleaned our 4runner and went to café flora in seattle for some vegan burgers, so that we truly did come full circle. now it’s time to leave for the airport to fly to iceland, so stay tuned and until next time, america, the beautiful.
with 🐝 by frank.
a digital postcard showing the squirrels of the world
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