Help me plan my looping road trip from San Diego to Alberta, Canada and back

[SDmtnbkr]

hey everyone, I'm planning on doing a road trip from San Diego up to Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada leaving at the end of next week with my girlfriend! Yeah I'm pretty bad at planning and haven't really thought to much about the route until right now. Been busy with school and getting my truck road trip worthy.

I have to cover distance while seeing places so I'm using the format of 1 driving day, 1 hiking/sight seeing/exploring day, with extra days for Christmas with family and friends on NYE. We will be living out of the Runner in the sleeping platform/rear cargo box I'm building.

My first few legs will be up the coast, Death Valley, Yosemite, Big Sur, Redwood Forest (8hr leg), then either Bend, OR, or straight shot to Olypia, WA for Christmas with my family that lives there. After Christmas we will be heading straight for Lake Louise. I think best case scenario will be 2 driving days, maybe 3 if the weather is bad. We will be there until New Year's Day and will leave that day.

From here I have until the 9th at 5pm to be in San Diego, so the 9th can be a driving day. We just visited Zion and I drove 9hrs home (lunch stop in Vegas) to make it to school on time at 5:30pm.

I'm thinking my first stop after Lake Louise would be Glacier National Park, then idk. I want to come down through Idaho into Utah and maybe hit Moab ISPs it's not to far outta the way?

Any input? I'm wide open to ideas or modifications. My '02 T4r is stock 4x4 and I am buying brand new 265/70/17 (sequoia wheels) Duratrac's just for the trip. My gf and I lived out of a van for a month in New Zealand, so we're no stranger to life on the road, although i think it may have been much more acceptable in NZ. Might need to do some stealth camping to get by.

Here's my sleeping platform/rear cargo box in progress for pictures sake!

 

[meRockboost]

Don't skip the Oregon coast. Just moved from Astoria and miss Oregon a lot.

 

[MeefZah]

Yeah... you can take Glacier off your list. It's December! LOL.

You really can't go wrong with taking Rt 1 up to it's termination with Rt 101, then 101 north up through the Redwoods. It's too bad you weren't a month earlier, you could have taken Usal Road and done the Lost Coast, but Usal is closed for the rainy season now. You can still access the south end, off of Rt 1, and there is a nice campsite at Usal Beach. Moving north, Fern Canyon is pretty cool (they shot Jurassic Park there) and just off of 101 north of Orick.

If you are going to Bend, cut over 199, which was snow covered a few days ago but passable. You can loop through the Stout Grove off of 199 to see some cool Reedwoods via dirt road. Zig zag around Grants Pass and Gold River and go through Crater Lake on your way, although you will be hitting snow and I'm not 100% Crater Lake is going to be open.

It's down to the 30s and wet at night here at sea level (Eureka Ca) and sleeping in the truck can get a little cold unless you want to leave it idling all night. The higher elevations will see snow and just last week we had a girl stranded on South Fork Mountain, which is about 5500 feet, due to heavy snowfall.

If you end up in Eureka overnight, I'd encourage you not to stealth camp anywhere in the city or within a few miles of it, we have a shitload of issues with homeless and it's highly likely someone will steal shit off your truck while you sleep. There's good and safe camping in the Redwoods near Garberville / Honeydew 50 miles south of Eureka and anywhere north of Trinidad.

In my signature there's a few links to trips I have taken on the cost, organized by date and name / location. They might give you some ideas, too. Dunno.

If you need anything up in this area, PM me.

 

[SDmtnbkr]

Yeah... you can take Glacier off your list. It's December! LOL.

You really can't go wrong with taking Rt 1 up to it's termination with Rt 101, then 101 north up through the Redwoods. It's too bad you weren't a month earlier, you could have taken Usal Road and done the Lost Coast, but Usal is closed for the rainy season now. You can still access the south end, off of Rt 1, and there is a nice campsite at Usal Beach. Moving north, Fern Canyon is pretty cool (they shot Jurassic Park there) and just off of 101 north of Orick.

If you are going to Bend, cut over 199, which was snow covered a few days ago but passable. You can loop through the Stout Grove off of 199 to see some cool Reedwoods via dirt road. Zig zag around Grants Pass and Gold River and go through Crater Lake on your way, although you will be hitting snow and I'm not 100% Crater Lake is going to be open.

It's down to the 30s and wet at night here at sea level (Eureka Ca) and sleeping in the truck can get a little cold unless you want to leave it idling all night. The higher elevations will see snow and just last week we had a girl stranded on South Fork Mountain, which is about 5500 feet, due to heavy snowfall.

If you end up in Eureka overnight, I'd encourage you not to stealth camp anywhere in the city or within a few miles of it, we have a shitload of issues with homeless and it's highly likely someone will steal shit off your truck while you sleep. There's good and safe camping in the Redwoods near Garberville / Honeydew 50 miles south of Eureka and anywhere north of Trinidad.

In my signature there's a few links to trips I have taken on the cost, organized by date and name / location. They might give you some ideas, too. Dunno.

If you need anything up in this area, PM me.

Hey thanks a lot, definitely some good tips! We have Western Mountaineering 20deg down bags, that are really like 15deg bags, along with an additional down sleeping system, so we're good down close to zero temps. So we're good to go in the truck. We will also have a good 3 season MSR tent, I case we need a smaller space to keep warm. So we have options.

I just looked up all the info for Glacier Park yesterday, they have 1 camping spot open year round and you don't need any permit, you can just car camp in their lot basically. There's also at least one good hike open, weather permitting, so we're gonna take a stab at it. We're no stranger snowy mountain hikes, even though we live in SoCal. I'm more concerned about the roads As we cross back into the states in Montana and all the way to Utah. I grew up driving in the snow in the Midwest, but that was a long time ago.

 

[MeefZah]

Hey thanks a lot, definitely some good tips! We have Western Mountaineering 20deg down bags, that are really like 15deg bags, along with an additional down sleeping system, so we're good down close to zero temps. So we're good to go in the truck. We will also have a good 3 season MSR tent, I case we need a smaller space to keep warm. So we have options.

I just looked up all the info for Glacier Park yesterday, they have 1 camping spot open year round and you don't need any permit, you can just car camp in their lot basically. There's also at least one good hike open, weather permitting, so we're gonna take a stab at it. We're no stranger snowy mountain hikes, even though we live in SoCal. I'm more concerned about the roads As we cross back into the states in Montana and all the way to Utah. I grew up driving in the snow in the Midwest, but that was a long time ago.

Have fun. I'm a Midwesterner as well, but those snows don't hold a candle to western US snows. You know they shut interstates and shit down, right? I'm sure Going to the Sun will be closed, so that curtails Glacier access.

 

[lakerman]

It's cold

-35 c here in Alberta tonight

 

[SDmtnbkr]

-35 c here in Alberta tonight

Yeah we're staying with a friend in Lake Louise!

 

[jccity6]

X2 Oregon coast. Oregon State parks are off the hook too.