Driving the Oregon and Washington coasts on Hwy #101 in a motor ome. - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Vstarrider1946 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Driving the Oregon and Washington coasts on Hwy #101 in a motor ome.

HighwayRanger · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hopefully you'll get some good advice here, Dave. We hope to do the same coast route this summer to some degree. We're currently a lot shorter than your rig, but won't always be, since we're trying to buy a coach similar in length to yours.

Roy

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good road. Take your time. Trickiest part of 101 is in California. Try and stay a couple of days at Winchester Bay. Just south of Reedsport in Oregon. Actually Highway 101 isn't much of a road once you get to Washington. What is your destination point in WA?

Barb

Ann and Steve · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have about 6K miles of experience, driving a Silverado 3500, crew cab, dually. We just finished the run from San Diego to Santa Barbara, up CA-1 to Bodega Bay, cut across CA-43 to US-101 and up to Astoria, OR, pulling a 40' fiver. Painful. Treacherous. Scary. Climbs, descents, switchbacks, hairpins. Beautiful views for the wife, white-knuckle driving for me. Road surface changes with each jurisdiction. White edge line on CA-43 marks edge of the world - sheer drop if you go an inch past it. US-101 north from CA-43 runs the gambit from smooth, 4-lane, limited access to twisting, winding, bumpy, narrow, and rough. No consistency. One mile you're on a two-lane, smooth, wide road, the next mile it's narrow, pot-holed, and poorly marked. Not recommended for the faint-of-heart. Remember, this road navigates the mountainous coast of California and Oregon. The coast is not all a straight-line, level beach.

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

CA-1 is something I wouldn't take our motorhome on, but Highway 101 is really easy. Yes, part of it is two-lane road, but just slow down a little. I am really surprised you thought Highway 101 was that bad. We've driven it several times both going north and going south, and never found it that difficult. Again, CA-1 is totally different and we won't do that, but Highway 101 is a easy to do.

Barb

pkhalin · RV-Dreams Family Member

Barbara,

Is there a particular way to navigate L.A.?

Vstarrider1946 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We don't really have a destination point in Washington. We're headed for Idaho and just thought that we'd run up the coast and get some Dungeness crab and clams along the way.

Vstarrider1946 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We're avoiding any coastal roads in California. Right now we're in Grants Pass, OR and we don't plan on turning south until we hit Montana or South Dakota. biggrin

-- Edited by Vstarrider1946 on Sunday 7th of June 2015 08:50:01 PM

Vstarrider1946 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hey, thanks for your service!! I'm a Vietnam Vet too.

I have driven commercial bus in Idaho and other parts of the Northwest for the past 15 years and you're right. Much of it is not for the "feint of heart". There are NO straight and level roads in North Idaho. Lots of grades and twisty, windy roads. I guess it just depends on what you're used too. We just drove across Texas and we couldn't get over how FLAT it is out there and the roads go straight until you fall asleep!

-- Edited by Vstarrider1946 on Sunday 7th of June 2015 08:59:14 PM

Trabuco · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dave,

We've done the exact same drive you're planning on doing with a 40' MH and CRV toad. No issues and a pleasant drive. As others have said the 1 in California between Santa Barbara and San Francisco is what you want to avoid. We'll be heading south on the 101 from Wa to CA sometime in Oct or Nov.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

The OP asked about Oregon and Washington, not California. We have taken much of US-101 in California and did not find it that bad. We have even taken some of CA-1. We have taken all of it in Oregon and Washington multiple times and don't remember anything except some bad pavement here and there. We have done this in our 40' DP and toad and can't see a problem with being 5' longer.

Where are you joining US101 in the south?

US101 wraps around the Olympic Peninsula (Olympic National Park) in Washington from around Aberdeen and ends in Olympia (my home town) at I-5. Lots of beautiful scenery and stopping points on the Olympic loop, but if you need to get east faster, take WA-107 to US12 and then continue on WA-8 to where it meets US101 just west of Olympia.

L.A. is bad. We try to avoid it by taking CA-58 to Bakersfield. But, we have taken I-210 to CA-134 to US101 and up a couple times. Not fun through the L.A. metro, but doable until San Francisco area, where we take I-680 around. We have family off I-680, so it makes sense for us. We also have family off CA-20, so we divert that way via I-80/I-5 before rejoining US101 to head north.

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've taken both 40' and 45' Motorhomes up along the Oregon coast and the only problem we had with the 45' MH was that a few of the RV parks could not accommodate the 45' length. You shouldn't have any problems finding parks along the way though, just may want to call ahead and make sure they can handle your length.

Jim

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Last October Steven and Dianne took Hwy 101 down the OR coast. Dianne writes a great blog, you might want to check out her blog from that time frame.

steveanddiannesmostexcellentadventure.blogspot.com/

Bill and Jodee · RV-Dreams Family Member

We're to that route right now, starting in Southern California. We'll end up in the Olympic Peninsula the end of July. Everything I've read about folks traveling with good size rigs tells me Hwy 101 is no problem for our 35' MH with toad, and most are much longer than we are.

While the road isn't a concern, reservations have been a challenge even for our size. Summer break is in full swing on the Pacific Coast!

Jodee

dianneandsteve · RV-Dreams Family Member

As NWescapee said we did the Oregon coast last fall. Our rig is 65' and we had no issues with the 101. Oct. 8, 2014 is the blog start date for our Oregon trip.

Safe travels!

MarkS · RV-Dreams Family Member

Los Angeles is a piece of cake...between midnight and five in the morning.

HighwayRanger · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill and Jodee wrote:
We're to that route right now, starting in Southern California. We'll end up in the Olympic Peninsula the end of July. Everything I've read about folks traveling with good size rigs tells me Hwy 101 is no problem for our 35' MH with toad, and most are much longer than we are.

While the road isn't a concern, reservations have been a challenge even for our size. Summer break is in full swing on the Pacific Coast!

Jodee

Jodee, where are you guys now? Still in Cali?

Roy

Bill and Jodee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Roy!

Getting caught up

Yes, we're in Morgan Hill tonight, heading to Bodega Bay tomorrow for five days. We plan to cross in to Oregon on July 2 with five days on the Chetco River over the holiday.

It's been a lovely first week

Jodee

Barbaraok · RV-Dreams Family Member

Make sure you visit "The Tides" restaurant. Sometimes food is good, sometimes not, but they have a lot of "Birds" memorabilia and a beautiful view of the bay.

Barb

gypsymaus · RV-Dreams Family Member

Great information for future travels thanks all!

HighwayRanger · RV-Dreams Family Member

Bill and Jodee wrote:
Hi Roy!

Getting caught up Yes, we're in Morgan Hill tonight, heading to Bodega Bay tomorrow for five days. We plan to cross in to Oregon on July 2 with five days on the Chetco River over the holiday.

It's been a lovely first week

Jodee

If you go up the I-5, send me a PM and maybe we can meet for a cup in Redding.

Roy