Oregon Coast and the Redwoods: Portland to San Francisco

Arrive in Portland

Portland International Airport (PDX) to your hotel in downtown Portland

• Repas du soir
• Nuit : Portland
• Environ 30 min de route

Soir

Then we walk to a welcome dinner nearby. Tomorrow starts with roses and a view of Mount Hood before we head for the sea.

Compris

• Pick-up at Portland International Airport (PDX)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner in Portland

Through the Coast Range to Cannon Beach

Portland to Washington Park, then US 26 to Ecola State Park and Cannon Beach

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Cannon Beach
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

At about 9 am we drive up into Washington Park, in the hills west of downtown, to the International Rose Test Garden, quiet at this hour, where the terraces look over the city to Mount Hood on a clear morning. Then we head west on US 26 through farmland and the forested Coast Range, about an hour and a half, to Cannon Beach, a village of cedar-shingled cottages on a long beach.

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice in the village. In the afternoon we drive a few minutes north into Ecola State Park, where viewpoints look down on Indian Beach, the headlands and the old Tillamook Rock Lighthouse on its rock offshore. We walk to Haystack Rock, about 72 m high, at the daylight low tide, set per departure from the tide tables, when the pools at its base show sea stars, anemones and crabs; from about April to August, tufted puffins nest on the rock.

Soir

The evening is free on the beach for sunset.

Compris

• International Rose Test Garden in Washington Park (Portland)
• Drive through the Coast Range on US 26
• Ecola State Park viewpoints and Indian Beach, day-use fee included
• Haystack Rock tide pools at low tide with your guide

Down the coast to Yaquina Head and Newport

Cannon Beach to Tillamook, Cape Kiwanda and Depoe Bay, then Yaquina Head and Newport

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Newport
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Depoe Bay, a fishing town around a tiny harbour; gray whales often feed close to shore here in summer, and the state park whale watching centre is on the seawall. About 20 minutes on, just north of Newport, we turn out to Yaquina Head while the interpretive centre is open: Oregon's tallest lighthouse, lit in 1873, seen from the grounds (tours inside run only as staffing allows), and Cobble Beach's black stones rattling in the waves below. We spend the rest of the afternoon, after the school groups have left, at the Oregon Coast Aquarium, with its sea otters, tufted puffins and walk-through shark tunnel.

Soir

The evening is free in Nye Beach or on the Bayfront.

Compris

• Tillamook Creamery visitor centre
• Cape Kiwanda at Pacific City
• Sit-down lunch in Depoe Bay
• Yaquina Head Lighthouse grounds and Cobble Beach, day-use fee included (lighthouse tours as staffing allows)
• Oregon Coast Aquarium entry (Newport)

Cape Perpetua, the Oregon Dunes and Bandon

Newport to Yachats and Cape Perpetua, then Heceta Head, Florence, the Oregon Dunes Overlook and Bandon

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Bandon
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Matin

We stop at Cape Perpetua, about 40 minutes on, where the waves surge into Devil's Churn and Thor's Well at the right tide, and the overlook at the top of the cape looks far down the coast on a clear morning. A few minutes on, Heceta Head Lighthouse, first lit in 1894, stands on its headland above a cove, and the sea lion caves are close by.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal in Florence, in the old town on the Siuslaw River. Just south of town the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area begins, some 60 km of open sand between the forest and the sea; from the Oregon Dunes Overlook a path leads out onto the dunes. Then it is under two hours past Coos Bay to Bandon, where we arrive by about 4:30.

Soir

The evening is free in Old Town Bandon, and Face Rock viewpoint is the place to watch the sun go down behind the sea stacks.

Compris

• Cape Perpetua, Devil's Churn and the cape overlook, day-use fee included
• Heceta Head Lighthouse viewpoint
• Sit-down lunch in Florence
• Oregon Dunes Overlook and a walk onto the dunes
• Face Rock viewpoint (Bandon)

Activités en option

• Sea Lion Caves near Heceta Head

Bandon sea stacks to the redwoods

Bandon to the Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor and Brookings, then Crescent City and Stout Grove

• Petit-déjeuner
• Nuit : Crescent City
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is your choice in Brookings, the last town in Oregon. Half an hour later we cross into California and reach Crescent City. In the late afternoon, when the light slants through the trees, we drive into Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park on the Smith River, the only major undammed river in California, and walk the Stout Grove loop among coast redwoods many hundreds of years old. Redwood National and State Parks are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We stay two nights here, so there is no packing tomorrow.

Compris

• Bandon beach and Coquille Point at low tide with your guide
• Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor: Arch Rock and the Natural Bridges viewpoint
• Stout Grove in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park

Prairie Creek, Fern Canyon and the elk

Crescent City to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, Fern Canyon and Lady Bird Johnson Grove, and back

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Crescent City
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

Roosevelt elk often graze in the open meadow at Elk Prairie in the morning. From there a gravel road leads down to Gold Bluffs Beach and Fern Canyon, which we reach at about 10 am on the summer day-use permit: the creek runs between walls about 15 m high covered in five-finger ferns, a short walk with wet feet or seasonal footbridges. We picnic by the beach, then walk among the giants at Big Tree.

Après-midi

In the afternoon we climb Bald Hills Road to Lady Bird Johnson Grove, a quiet loop in an upland redwood forest.

Soir

Back in Crescent City by about 4:30, there is time to walk out to the Battery Point Lighthouse if the tide is low, before dinner together.

Compris

• Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway and the Elk Prairie meadow
• Fern Canyon on Gold Bluffs Beach, with the seasonal day-use permit (May 15 to September 15) and the day-use fee covered
• Picnic lunch in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park
• Big Tree Wayside
• Lady Bird Johnson Grove in Redwood National Park
• Dinner in Crescent City

The Avenue of the Giants to Mendocino

Crescent City to Trinidad and the Avenue of the Giants, then Highway 1 to Mendocino

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Mendocino
• Environ 5.5 h de route

Soir

This is the one long day, about five and a half hours on the road: no town between the redwoods and Mendocino lets us keep both the two nights at Crescent City and the night in Mendocino, so we break it into legs of under two hours. We leave at 8 am through the redwoods of Del Norte Coast and stop after about an hour and a half at Trinidad, a fishing harbour below a wooded headland, for coffee. Past Eureka, the Avenue of the Giants leaves US 101 to run through Humboldt Redwoods State Park, and we spend an hour and a half in Founders Grove, walking the flat loop past the fallen Dyerville Giant, with a picnic lunch among the trees. At Leggett, Highway 1 turns west over the hills to the sea, and we stop at a viewpoint near Westport before the cliffs lead south to Mendocino, a 19th-century lumber port of wooden houses and water towers above the sea, by about 5 pm. The evening is yours.

Compris

• Trinidad harbour and Trinidad Head
• The Avenue of the Giants in Humboldt Redwoods State Park
• Founders Grove loop with your guide
• Picnic lunch in Founders Grove
• Highway 1 along the Mendocino coast

Mendocino headlands and a Sonoma winery lunch

Mendocino to Highway 128 and the Anderson Valley, then the Sonoma Valley and Sonoma

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Sonoma
• Environ 3.5 h de route

Après-midi

From there it is US 101 south through Sonoma County to the Sonoma Valley, and a long, late lunch at a winery, with a tasting of its wines. In the late afternoon we walk around Sonoma Plaza, the town's old Mexican-era square, where the Bear Flag Revolt began in 1846, and visit Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823 as the last of California's 21 missions.

Soir

Your evening ends at a farewell dinner together, a short walk from the hotel.

Compris

• Mendocino Headlands walk with your guide
• Highway 128 through the Navarro River redwoods and the Anderson Valley
• Winery lunch with a tasting in the Sonoma Valley
• Sonoma Plaza walk
• Mission San Francisco Solano (Sonoma State Historic Park) entry
• Farewell dinner in Sonoma

Across the Golden Gate to San Francisco

Sonoma to the Golden Gate Bridge, then San Francisco International Airport (SFO) or central San Francisco

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 2 h de route

Matin

From there we walk across the bridge on its east sidewalk, about 2.7 km, with Alcatraz, the city skyline and the bay on one side and the open Pacific on the other; on a foggy morning the towers disappear above you. The van meets us at the Golden Gate Bridge Welcome Center at the south end, in the Presidio. Then it is about 30 minutes to San Francisco International Airport (SFO), where we drop the group at about 1 pm, and your guide checks your flight before saying goodbye. Book a flight leaving after about 3:30 pm. If you are staying on in San Francisco, we can leave you at a central hotel instead; our California Highway 1 trip starts here.

Compris

• Walk across the Golden Gate Bridge with your guide
• Drop-off at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) or a central San Francisco hotel