Road trips are the best. My wife and I love them. Our honeymoon was basically a road trip around Italy. We’ve also driven across the southern portion of Ireland, all around Portugal, through the midwest states, from Las Vegas to Seattle, and other trips I can’t recall at the moment. There’s rarely a better way to really get to know the texture and feel of a region.

So earlier this year, when we learned about a family wedding near Los Angeles in August, we tinkered with ideas of making a vacation out of it. That eventually turned into a sprawling, somewhat bonkers plan to drive through deserts, up mountains, into the woods, and along the coast.

In the span of twelve days, we drove more than 2,600 miles; ventured from sea level to nearly 10,000 feet in elevation; and saw some of the most beautiful sights this country has to offer. And that was the goal. The whole point of a road trip like this is to see things — lots and lots of different things. That might not be everybody’s cup of tea, and that’s fine. Some folks might think we are nuts for spending so little time at some amazing locations.

In the end, a vacation is an opportunity to get away from the regular cadence of life. Different people want different things. Hell, sometimes we want different things. In the past, we’ve taken vacations where all we do is sit by the ocean and read books.

This time, we wanted to witness the natural beauty of California and Oregon. And we wanted to see it all. My wife called it a “sampler platter” vacation: We nibbled and tasted from an array of different places.

As we drove from one location to another, my wife encouraged me to write about the trip. “You’re a writer,” she said. “Why not write about the trip?” I’ve always hesitated to write about our trips. After all, I’m not a travel writer.

Then I remembered that I was not an author until I wrote a novel. So why not try my hand at jotting down memories from an amazing vacation? Maybe others will want to copy some or all of our itinerary. For those interested in a more substantial meal (as opposed to this sampler platter), maybe these posts will help them decide where to hunker down.

As for planning, we started with a wonderful book we bought many years ago: National Geographic’s Guide to Scenic Highways & Byways: The 275 Best Drives in the U.S. (We have the third edition, but the link is to the newer fifth edition, which has 300 drives.) It’s a great resource for anyone who likes road trips. We also relied on several other travelers that had helpful tips and ideas based on their own experiences. I want to shout out a couple that were particularly helpful as we plotted our course:

• California Through My Lens (especially about Highway 395)
• Adventures of A+K (both their blog and YouTube Channel)

With so much to discuss about this road trip, I decided to write a separate post on each day of the journey. Each post will have specifics about what we did, as well as photos. To get started, I’ll lay the groundwork with a few details of how we got to California and started our journey.

Day 0

On a sunny Saturday morning, we left our home in Maryland and flew into John Wayne Airport in Orange County. We landed around noon, and I walked to the parking area to get our rental car. For this trip, we rented a 2022 Honda Accord Hybrid. We knew we would be driving a lot, so we wanted to be as environmentally-friendly as possible while still being able to make good time as we traveled. I was happy to see that over the course of the trip, the car averaged more than 44 miles per gallon.

It was our first time using Turo to rent a car, and the process was great. The car waited for us in the airport parking lot. I got a message through the app with the exact location (parking lot, parking space number) and a code to the lockbox hanging on the window containing the key. At the end of the trip, I simply returned the car to the airport parking lot, put the lockbox back on the window, and sent the information to the owner.

Given we only had the afternoon, we left the Los Angeles area (and its ridiculous amount of traffic) and headed to the city of Ridgecrest, located on the southern end of California’s famed Highway 395. We stayed in a SpringHill Suites, which was lovely. Perhaps it is because we were tired by the time the sun went down, but the bed was particularly comfortable and gave us a great night sleep.

The next morning, we woke up early and set off on our adventure.

Below is an abbreviated outline of the journey, with links to each specific day (as I finish them).

ULTIMATE CALIFORNIA & OREGON ROAD TRIP ITINERARY

• Day 1: Highway 395, Manzanar, and The Lakes
  • We started the day at Alabama Hills; visited the Manzanar National Historic Site, one of the internment camps where America imprisoned Japanese-Americans during World War II; and ended the day with views of Mammoth Lake, June Lake, and Mono Lake.
• Day 2: Sierra Nevadas: Sonora & Ebbetts Pass
  • We drove through the Sierra Nevada Mountains — across two passes full of sweeping views and amazing roads.
• Day 3: Lake Tahoe, Lassen Park, and Mount Shasta
  • We took a cruise on Lake Tahoe and drove through incredible scenery at Lassen Volcanic National Park.
• Day 4: Crater Lake
  • We drove almost the entire Rim Trail at Oregon’s Crater Lake.
• Day 5: Oregon Wine Country
  • Oregon’s Umpqua Valley has some great wine!
• Day 6: Bandon and the Oregon Coast
  • The southern Oregon coast is breathtaking, from Bandon down to Trinidad, California.
• Day 7: Lost Coast and Shelter Cove
  • One of the most incredible drives in the country is from Eureka, California, to the small town of Shelter Cove.
• Day 8: Northern California Coast and Mendocino
  • Big trees and more unbelievable coastlines.
• Day 9: Sonoma Wine Country
  • We skipped Napa in favor of neighboring Sonoma, where we found what might be our favorite winery in the world.
• Day 10-12: Solvang
  • After more than 2,000 miles of driving, we relaxed in Solvang, the Danish Capital of America, in California’s Santa Ynez Valley.