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A Spectacular Volcano highway drive from Seattle to San Francisco through the Cascade mountains and volcanoes.
As there is a short summer window to do this trip, hotels fill up fast and I recommend booking 6-9 months in advance to get affordable prices.
This Really is a volcanologist's dream road trip!! Immerse yourself in the beauty and awesomeness of nature on this very unique trip. You don't have to have a serious interest in volcanoes to attempt this trip, but you certainly will when you finish it! I have seen quite a few of these volcanoes, but not all of them. I highly recommend this road trip if you like volcanoes and beautiful mountain scenery.
The cascade range of mountains start on the US/Canada border with majestic Mt Baker to the north all the way down central Washington state, through Oregon and into the Northern California area with Lassen at the southern end.
If you get good weather the end of May/June/July is the best time as wildfires are a danger later than that and snow will be a problem before the end of May. Book your accommodation/campsites well ahead of time as there is such a short window of time to do this trip and be able to see every volcano. There are 20 major volcanoes of different types to be seen on this road trip. The largest is my favourite, as I have been there several times, and in my opinion the most Beautiful in the world, Mount Rainier or Tahoma as the locals are asking for it to be called now, it's Native American name.
I would suggest starting this road trip in Seattle and finishing by flying out of San Francisco, but if you have time, when you have reached California you could head to the coast and then embrace the rugged beauty of the Pacific Northwest coastline heading north to rialto beach in Washington and then heading back to Seattle on the Kingston - Edmonds ferry. This will give you a total change of scenery, but just as amazing! A perfect road trip for any photographers amongst you. This part of the US is perfect for dark sky and Milky Way photos either above the volcanoes or on the coastline. You can even capture bioluminescence in your night photos too along this coastline, particularly in the summer.
Starting point Seattle’s Seatac Airport. (Where you will catch a glimpse of Mount Rainier on a cloud free day) pictured below. RESERVATIONS NOW REQUIRED FROM SPRING 2024 Booking form.
Pick up a hire car, I recommend Alamo and get a hotel in Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah, Redmond, Woodinville or Bothell, all lovely towns and cities with very low crime rates! Take a day trip to Seattle and at least a day to visit Mount Rainier National Park. Mount Rainier, the largest of the Cascade volcanoes is shown below at 14,411 feet.
Mount Rainier (Tahoma) A Stratovolcano.
Mount Rainier from the air, coming in to land at Seatac airport. Mount Rainier Reflection Lake
Then head north and stay in La Conner, (We stayed in La Conner) or Anacortes to explore Mount Baker and the North Cascades National Park. (There is no entry charge for this National Park!!!) If you have time take the ferry to the cute island town of Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands for a few hours.
Then head south to Tumwater to stay and to view the most famous volcano in this mountain range, Mount St Helens which erupted in 1980. From here you can take an optional trip to Mount Adams too. Photo of Mt St Helens below taken from Portland, Oregon.
Then head south to Mount Hood. You can stay in the city of Portland to view Mount Hood, Don't forget to see Multnomeh falls on your way!
Mount Hood
Mount Hood on landing at Portland airport.
Then head south to Mount Jefferson, Three sisters and Newberry staying in or near Salem or Eugene. Optional Volcanoes you can visit as well are Mount Bachelor, Mount Washington, Three fingered Jack and Mount Mazama.
You can also visit spectacular Painted Hills and Oregon's own Grand Canyon the Smith Rock State Park.
Then head south to the astounding Crater lake, the deepest lake in the US as this is the volcano crater. You can stay in the National Park here as there isn’t much nearby.
Then head over the border to the final volcanoes Mount Shasta and Lassen in California. Redding is probably the best place to stay.
You can take a side trip from here to Lake Tahoe and Yosemite or head to San Francisco.
You can fly home now from San Francisco, but I recommend driving along the truly spectacular coastline highway 1 and 101 all the way north to Kingston via Forks and Port Angeles and back to Seattle to fly home from there.
Your first stop along the coast from San Francisco should be Sausalito for lunch, then head to Little River, there is a popular hotel there, Little River inn, but I haven’t stayed there so look at Tripadvisor for recent reviews.
Sausalito
You can take detours to Napa Valley and Redwoods National Park.
Head North on highway 1 to Crescent City, then over the border into Oregon to stunning Bandon for lunch then stop in Newport.
Keep heading north to Otis where you then follow highway 101 north stopping for lunch in My favourite beach in the US Canon Beach. These Pacific ocean along these beaches are rarely warm enough to swim in, but beautiful and great for walking, surfing and photography. Then stop overnight in Ocean Shores, Washington State. A tourist beach resort with abundant wildlife such as deer, black bears, owls, bald eagles, sea otters, Orca whales etc.
Canon Beach, Oregon
Then head north to Rialto beach with a detour to the unique UNESCO world heritage awarded Olympic National Park highly recommended!!! I really enjoyed this park and the awesome Hoh rain forest.
Head to Port Angeles for an overnight stay. You can take a day trip on the ferry from here to Victoria on Vancouver island, which I highly recommend. The Pacific Northwest coastline particularly Ruby, Rialto and Kalaloch beaches are also great for bioluminescence at dark. I will try and get a photo myslef next time I go there.
Victoria BC
Then head to Edmonds Washington via ferry at Kingston ferry port stopping in Port Gamble and/or Port Townsend. You can stay the night in Edmonds then catch an afternoon/ Evening flight home from Seattle.
Port Gamble
Edmonds
For more information on each state:
Washington State
Oregon
California
This is truly a Unique breathtaking road trip along an accessible range of volcanoes and the option to drive back along the most spectacular coastal roads in the US as well. Truly every photographer's dream . You do need to be lucky with the weather though.