Itinerary Details

​Friday, July 20th

Seattle, WASHINGTON

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• Fly to Seattle - Flight left JFK at 9:20pm

• Hotel - Days Inn for $123 a night (13050 48th Ave S) (approx. 9 minutes from airport) 

 

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Saturday, July 21st

Seattle, WASHINGTON

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• Explore downtown Seattle

• Head to Target (or a local store) to stock up on essentials for our 15 day campervan road trip. (Go to my "van living" page on this site to see more details on that!)

• Pick up our campervan (through Escape Campervans) at the Seattle location. (22834 Pacific Hwy S, Des Moines, WA)

• Start heading down to Leavenworth (near "The Enchantments" and find a place to camp that night. (Approx. 2 hours 15 minutes from Seattle)

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Sunday, July 22nd

The Enchantments, Leavenworth, WASHINGTON

 

• Hike! - visit "places visited" to learn more details on this.

• Get back on the road later that day to head towards Mount Rainier.

 

Mount Rainier National Park, WASHINGTON

• Approx. 4 hours from The Enchantments.

• Settle in to our campsite right within the national park.

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Monday, July 23rd

Mount Rainier National Park, WASHINGTON

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• Hike!

• Go back to our campsite where we spend another night.

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Tuesday, July 24th

Mount St. Helen Ape Caves, WASHINGTON

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• Approx. 2 hours 40 minutes from Mount Rainier.
• Explore the caves. Bring flashlights, completely dark down there (and cold). Otherwise you can rent lanterns for the day at the gift shop. The caves are a lava tube located in Gifford Pinchot National Forest, South of Mount St. Helens.
• You don't have to spent too much time here. We were probably here for 1-2 hours at most.

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Bagby Hot Springs, OREGON

• Approx. 3 hours from the ape caves.

• Hike 1.5 miles through Mount Hood National Forest to explore the hidden hot springs. (More info under "places visited")

• Camp nearby within the forest (dispersed camping) for the night.

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Wednesday, July 25th

Smith Rock State Park, OREGON

• Approx. 3 hours from Bagby Hot Springs.

• Hike

• Get back on the road to head towards Bend.

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Bend, OREGON

• Approx. 35 minutes from Smith Rock State Park.

• We arrived in the evening so we found a spot to park our campervan (we did dispersed camping here) and we settled in for the night.

 

Thursday, July 26th

Bend, OREGON

• Head to Elk Lake Resort to spend the day on the water.

• We rented paddleboards for 2 hours and then had lunch at the resort bar afterwards.

• Later that evening we drove down the road a bit and found a campground where we called home for the night.

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Friday, July 27th

Toketee Falls, OREGON

• Approx. 2 hours from Bend.

• Hike to the falls!

• Get back on the road.

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Brookings, OREGON

• Approx. 4 hours 15 minutes from Toketee Falls.

• We hit a road block here and didn't really have time to do much here so we ended up just settling in to a campground and that's all we really did in this area. We stayed at "At Rivers Edge" and I'd definitely recommend it. Really nice RV/van resort with showers, laundry, and public bathrooms. Very clean park and also very open (not in the woods/forest)

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Saturday, July 28th

Redwoods National Forest, CALIFORNIA​

• Approx. 30 minutes from Brookings.

• Explore "Avenue of the Giants"

• Settle into our campground to spend the night. (More details under "places visited")

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Sunday, July 29th

Napa Valley, CALIFORNIA

• Approx. 5 hours from Redwoods.

• Drink wine! ;) More info under my "Napa" page on the vineyards we visited and the things we did.

• Campsite to spend the night.

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Monday, July 30th

Point Reyes, CALIFORNIA

• Approx. 1 hour and 20 minutes from Napa.

• The roads to get here are super windy! Drive safe around those narrow cliffs. The sites were pretty but if you get car sick, good luck ;)

• We found a campground near the Point Reyes area: Olema Campground

• The campsite was walking distance to a restaurant nearby where we grabbed dinner and a drink at Sir and Star. I'm not a seafood lover but we did order their grilled oysters and they were delicious!

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Tuesday, July 31st
Point Reyes, CALIFORNIA

• Hike Point Reyes National Seashore (very rough rocky roads to get up to the trailhead)

• Honestly I don't have this under my "places visited" because I'm not so sure I would recommend it. We heard great things but we didn't have great weather and we never made it to the "falls on the beach" that we heard about. We met other hikers who couldn't really find the falls either. We ended up turning around to avoid wasting more time.

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Wednesday, August 1st

Big Sur, CALIFORNIA

• Approx. 4 hours and 15 minutes from Point Reyes.

• Another area where the roads are super windy! Although Big Sur is known to have really gorgeous views while driving, we didn't get to witness any of that due to some serious fog.

• Settle into a campground for the night. We chose Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins.

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Thursday, August 2nd

Big Sur, CALIFORNIA

• Hike

• Go back to campground for another night.

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Santa Monica Mountains / Malibu area, CALIFORNIA

• Approx. 5-6 hours from Big Sur.

• I'm putting this on here because this is where we went but it was a last minute decision. We were supposed to head to Joshua Tree National Park but it was over 100 degrees and we would not be able to camp in that heat. Unfortunately our plans got pretty messed up and we sort of drove here for nothing. We didn't get to do much of anything other then find all the campsites nearby were full :( 
• We ended up driving about 30 minutes to a nearby hotel for somewhat decent rates so that we had somewhere to spend the night. Although we were in a campervan we unfortunately did not find any dispersed camping nearby.

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Friday, August 3rd

Phoenix, ARIZONA​

• Approx. 6-7 hours from the Malibu area.

• We went to a hotel here as well due to the excessive heat in Phoenix. Definitely a lesson learned that when traveling in the summer months, a campervan in certain areas (with no AC) is just not smart.

• Hotel - Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites Phoenix Airport North

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Saturday, August 4th

Phoenix, ARIZONA

• Hang by our hotel pool all day! & spent another night here.

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Sunday, August 5th

Phoenix, ARIZONA

Return campervan to the Phoenix location (136 S 40th Pl, Phoenix, AZ)

Fly home to NY - Flight left Phoenix at 10:30pm (redeye flight)

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