Tips & Must-Sees on my Roadtrip

[El.Padrino]

Hi fellow FBBO-Members!

I am doing the last steps and adjustments on my fully restored and stroked '68 Coronet before I leave my country for a journey to the US.

My starting point is Seattle, Wa arriving this coming weekend. After that heading towards Spokane through Idaho to Montana down south an back through Oregon (Portland)

Can you give me some recommendations on what to see on this route, maybe even Mopar related stuff (museums, shows, events, junkyards, vintage Chrysler/car stuff or shops…)?

I would highly appreciate your tips!

Really looking forward to this trip as I haven't been around in this part of the country so far.

 

[ckessel]

IF it was open, I would highly recommend Highway 1 from Monterrey to Morro Bay. Beyond spectacular views. But... it's still closed in the middle from a big slide. They have been working on it for quite awhile, almost had it done, then more slides started happening where they are working. You could do the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. The Gold Country areas in the Sierra Nevada mountains is pretty neat too.

 

[slepr1]

We've done roadtrips all over the states for many years, probably around 25 so far. Our absolute favorite road trip is starting in Seattle and driving down the Pacific Coast Highway (#1 highway), down to San Diego. Everyone should enjoy this route once in their life! The views are really nice. Once you get to California they even get better. Mountains on one side and ocean on the other. We are actually planning a roadtrip in late October. We are starting in Las Vegas (for the Sema Show), renting a car for 2.5 weeks, driving to San Francisco coast, then down #1 to San Diego. We might even go farther north first to Mendocino/Fort Bragg area first, then drive southward on #1. It's that beautiful.

I found the North Central States where you are going is mostly farmland, hours and hours of corn fields. We did a roadtrip in June of this year in that area. Its our least favorite trip. BUT, that was our first trip in that area. We could've missed a bunch of stuff. It was just allot of driving with corn fields everywhere. Mind you, we mainly avoid highways unless we are in a hurry.

We did a 3 week EU roadtrip in 2019. Started in Amsterdam to Italy and back. We did a large circle trying to visit every country we could in that time. Austria was beautiful. Thing we didn't like...it wasn't until Austria when the hotels started having air conditioning. We are so spoiled.

 

[slepr1]

IF it was open, I would highly recommend Highway 1 from Monterrey to Morro Bay. Beyond spectacular views. But... it's still closed in the middle from a big slide. They have been working on it for quite awhile, almost had it done, then more slides started happening where they are working. You could do the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley. The Gold Country areas in the Sierra Nevada mountains is pretty neat too.

OMG I just read your post. We are planning a #1 trip the beginning of November. Is their a way we can find out if its fully open?

One trip we drove hours down #1 and without warning the road was closed. We had to drive back 2 hours just to get to a drive around road.

 

[ckessel]

Try the website for CALTRANS[ California Department Of Transportation] or CHP[ California Highway Patrol]. I see info periodically on my local news. Currently the closure is at Gorda/Lucia. If you really want to do it still, you could go to the closure and double back then come south, head north of Cambria to do the same. BTW, Hearst Castle in San Simeon is awesome too. Then you have the Elephant Seals further north from the castle, awesome, plus Ragged Point. Great place for food/drink/hotel/viewing. I live near here, its about an hour north of home.

 

[wahya]

Ok, I see you are headed through Spokane into Montana (big state) and south from there and then want to go back through Portland if I read that correctly. If you are looking for natural scenic areas(didn’t say), I would suggest heading to Spokane as you wrote. Then the west side of Glacier National park has accommodations. I just checked, the Going to the Sun road is open there. I would then head south to Moab Utah, lots of things to see there. Then going back to Portland area is not really that far. I would also say you need to see the coastal Highway.

 

[SlingLow]

@El.Padrino , of course there is Yellowstone National Park on the Idaho/Montana border which is very unique.

and Glacier National Park and the Going to the Sun Road in northwest Montana which is beautiful.

South of Yellowstone is the Grand Tetons

and Jackson Hole, a destination tourist town.

Hell's Canyon Road on the Oregon/Idaho border east of Baker City, OR is pretty spectacular.

If you like gold dredging history, there is an old gold dredge you can visit in Sumpter, OR (and not much else). The valley is full of spoils from when these dredges operated in the 1930s through 50s.

And of course, everything on the coast.

 

[ckessel]

And don't pet the Buffalo's.

 

[SlingLow]

And don't pet the Buffalo's.

And don't let them pet you!

 

[Dennis H]

Road Conditions

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

I’ll post my recommendations later today when I don’t have to try and type from a phone. I have good list for you, I’m from the Pacific Northwest

 

[GTXDAN]

If you are into aviation go see the Spruce Goose (largest wood airplane in the world) at Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, OR, just southwest of Portland.

Home - Evergreen Museum

 

[Carcinogen]

Crater Lake in Oregon eat dinner and stay night at https://www.diamondlake.net/ then hwy 126 down river to I-5 south to hwy 199 down to CA and hit Jedediah Redwood park Jedediah Smith Redwoods SP
Then hwy 101 north and hit restaurants and beaches on the way to Lincoln city Casino then east to Portland

 

[440 4 speed]

If you want information in the Spokane area contact [email protected]. He can tell you about parts places, sights to see etc.
If you like history, the Grand Coulee Dam has a very good night show about the Colorado River. Don’t know if it is open this time of the year.
Just thought, Wildcat Auto Wrecking is out that way.
We drove from Bellingham across to Winthrop, quaint western town. June 26th 1972 we drove the Highway to the Sun following snow plows. Watertown Parks are there, along with Glacier.

 

[ckessel]

Hit the local eateries/breweries. BBQ joints. Why bother with Mickey d's, Denny's etc when you can get that anywhere.

 

[440 4 speed]

Tried to pm you, your inbox is full. Most of our travels were done on non Interstate Highways. Got to see more, but we had time.

We've done roadtrips all over the states for many years, probably around 25 so far. Our absolute favorite road trip is starting in Seattle and driving down the Pacific Coast Highway (#1 highway), down to San Diego. Everyone should enjoy this route once in their life! The views are really nice. Once you get to California they even get better. Mountains on one side and ocean on the other. We are actually planning a roadtrip in late October. We are starting in Las Vegas (for the Sema Show), renting a car for 2.5 weeks, driving to San Francisco coast, then down #1 to San Diego. We might even go farther north first to Mendocino/Fort Bragg area first, then drive southward on #1. It's that beautiful.

I found the North Central States where you are going is mostly farmland, hours and hours of corn fields. We did a roadtrip in June of this year in that area. Its our least favorite trip. BUT, that was our first trip in that area. We could've missed a bunch of stuff. It was just allot of driving with corn fields everywhere. Mind you, we mainly avoid highways unless we are in a hurry.

We did a 3 week EU roadtrip in 2019. Started in Amsterdam to Italy and back. We did a large circle trying to visit every country we could in that time. Austria was beautiful. Thing we didn't like...it wasn't until Austria when the hotels started having air conditioning. We are so spoiled.

To slepr1. Doesn’t sound like you got to Murdo SD car museum, Black Hills, Reptile Gardens,Custer State Park, Deadwood or The Battle of the Little Big Horn site.

 

[ckessel]

Back roads and older state highways rock. Takes longer sometimes but way more to see.

 

[BLK 68 R/T]

Here is my 2 cents. Don't know how far east or south you are planning on traveling so I'll keep it to what I know for the area you stated.

From Seattle. Take the ferry across puget sound and get on highway 101. Follow it around the Olympic Peninsula and check out Olympic National Park, can go as far south as Ocean Shores or whatever to check out the coast. Beautiful scenery and the only rainforest in North America along the way.

Take 101 back and go to Port Townsend, take ferry back across Puget Sound to Oak Harbor, follow highway 20 all the way across the North Cascades scenic highway to Twisp - see map. Check out Grand Coulee Dam, they used to have a laser light show as mentioned above, not sure if they still do it or not. Then take highway 2 across the channeled scablands on into Spokane.

From Spokane you can keep on highway 2 across north Idaho and into Montana and check out Glacier National Park. Head back south on highway 93 from Glacier all the way to Arco Idaho.

From Arco Idaho - To the east is Yellowstone and to the west is Craters of the Moon National Monument. Continue onto Ontario Oregon.

From Ontario take highway 95 north to Whitebird Idaho, can take a little detour along the way and check out Hells Canyon. Deeper than the grand canyon by like a 1000 feet or so. Continue on into Lewiston Idaho. Follow highway 12 to highway 730 all the way to Umatilla Oregon.

Cross over the Columbia river at Umatilla and get onto highway 14 headed west down the Columbia River Gorge. Tons of stuff to see and do all through the gorge - big hydro dams, waterfalls, bridges, tourist towns etc.

The end of highway 14 is in Vancouver Washington, just on the other side of the river from Portland. So from Portland you can go over to the Oregon Coast via highway 26 and hit 101 south and go all the way to northern California and check out the Redwood Forests or go back north to Seattle. I highly recommend if you have the time to drive the 101 along the Oregon coast to the Redwoods. You wont be dissapointed.

 

[ckessel]

You might even see Bigfoot with some of that trip. That looks like it would be a way cool road trip there BLK 68 RT.

 

[SteveSS]

If you can make it to Colorado Springs you can hang out here for a few days. Too much to list. BTW the mountains I look at all got snow-capped last week.