Alohacyberian

"suraj" <> wrote in message
news:bnc3fp$3r6$...
    > Thanks for the information. We planned on this one. our original plan was
to go
    > one way on amtrak and then the return way drive. hence wanted the details.

If you take Interstate 5 (I-5) from Seattle to Portland, and then cut over to
the ocean and drive the coast highway, U.S. Route 101, the rest of the way,
your chances of encountering snow are extremely slim. It doesn't snow every
year in Western Washington. KM

Mimi

"alohacyberian" <> wrote in message
news:Lvlmb.192178$...
    > "suraj" <> wrote in message
    > news:bnc3fp$3r6$...
    > >
    > > Thanks for the information. We planned on this one. our original plan
was
    > to go
    > > one way on amtrak and then the return way drive. hence wanted the
details.
    > >
    > If you take Interstate 5 (I-5) from Seattle to Portland, and then cut over
to
    > the ocean and drive the coast highway, U.S. Route 101, the rest of the
way,
    > your chances of encountering snow are extremely slim. It doesn't snow
every
    > year in Western Washington. KM

Caveat: there's serious snow about once every three or four years on the
lowlands. It snows in the mountains a lot every year. Interstate 5, the main
route, avoids mountains except in southern Oregon/very northern California.
It almost never snows on the coast, but I remember going through snow
driving from Cannon Beach to Portland in March. So you gotta watch out for
the Coast Range mountains also.

Marianne

Kay Lancaster

On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 09:50:20 -0600, Hatunen <> wrote:
    >>>
    >>> 1. is it safe to drive from seattle to san diego during winter?
    >>An alternative route might be US Highway 1 or 101 -- beautiful and
    >>sometimes quite treacherous. Same sorts of problems, though it's more
    >>likely to be mudslides rather than snowstorms closing the road.
    >
    > And it can be quite dreadful rainstorm weather along US-101 (US-1
    > lies along the east coast).

Thanks, Dave, mental collapse was imminent when I was writing -- I was
thinking California 1. <g>

    > California Hwy-1 is incredibly scenic
    > but not a good choice in rainy weather, but US-101 is pretty good
    > although there can be snowy conditions at some higher points, and

FWIW, I'm just back from a quick trip from Portland to San Diego...
we left driving last Friday about 1 pm, drove pretty steadily to
Corning, California (on I-5, somewhere in the big middle between
Mt. Shasta and Sacramento), then went on to San Diego the next day
from there, about 12 hours of steady driving. That's not the fun
way to do it. <g> (I'm a botanist by training... I have been known
to consider making 10 miles a day by car a nice pace for travel
<vbg>. Still, even my husband, Mr. DriveAllDay, found the trip
moderately tiresome at the pace we set last weekend.

Sat in a San Diego restaurant Sunday morning, watching the smoke plume
from the first big fire get closer and closer. Spent the next few
days holed up in a hotel with an elderly asthmatic, playing endless games
of Scrabble, and flew back Weds to get her out of the smoke, leaving
my husband to drive himself back from San Diego to Portland this coming
weekend.

Given the size of the fires, and having lived in S. Cal in the mid
1970's, I would not be surprised to see lots of mudslides in the area
when the winter rains come -- another issue to consider for someone
planning a trip there this winter.

FWIW, I expected major airport hassles from TSA, considering we came
back on last-minute, one way tickets, I was carrying a computer with a
flakey battery and a nebulizer (a must for bad asthmatics in bad air!).
We were (I suspect) automatically selected for checked luggage x-ray,
and the fellows doing curbside checkin handled all that for me as soon
as they realized that I had my hands full with my companion's medical problems.

TSA screening was thorough but the screeners were very pleasant, and we got the
secondary screening at the gate (lucky us!)... one of the same screeners
from the checkpoint we'd been through an hour before. Again, polite,
efficient, and special attention paid to the comfort and well being of
my asthmatic companion while still doing as good a job as they had done
on the primary screening. The air trip could have been a real nightmare,
but everything went very smoothly from my perspective. And 3 hours
on the plane was much easier than 20+ hours on the road.

My thanks to the San Diego staff of both TSA and Southwest for their
professionalism, and to the skycaps doing curbside checkins.

Kay Lancaster

Kay Lancaster

On 24 Oct 2003 20:53:13 GMT, suraj <> wrote:
    > isn't any availability for standard bedrooms on amtrak for startlight. now
    > thinking go one way on air and return driving. i love driving and have very
    > less experience driving in snow. but want to.

I'm still concerned about "letting you learn" on the Siskiyou summit area
of I-5. The grades are quite steep, to the point that they have a number
of "runaway vehicle ramps" for when your brakes fail (because they've
overheated from overuse). It's the highest elevation on I-5, about
4300 ft, and one of the "fun things" that can catch you if you're unwary
is that snow on the roadside can melt during the day, and refreeze in a
thin sheet of almost invisible ice at night, which often hangs on into the
next day. Driving it when the road is dry is not so much of a challenge,
but downhill curves on sheet ice can be quite thrilling. I'm not finding a
good photo of what Siskiyou Summit looks like in the winter, but here are
photos of Government Camp on Mt. Hood (east of Portland, visitable all
winter) at 3900 ft:
http://www.stonehenge.com/merlyn/Pic...3-10/?start=20

(BTW, if your proposal to go to Mt. Ranier and Mt. St. Helens is
because you want to get up on a mountain in winter, Mt. Hood is
easier driving to visit, though you'll still need to at least carry
chains most likely. Lots of ski resorts up there, most with pretty
good food. For a pretty trip, when you get back down to Gresham, OR,
drive out east a few miles more and visit some of the waterfalls, like
Multnomah Falls. Timberline Lodge on Mt. Hood is at about 6300 ft,
if I recall correctly, and you can get a good (if somewhat expensive)
meal there, and even book a ride on one of the snowcats if skiing or
snowboarding isn't your thing.
http://www.timberlinelodge.com/Photo...lbum_Lodge.asp
The main lodge was built during the Great Depression in the 1930's as
a WPA project to give people jobs -- the detail of the building
is wonderful, as is the decorative art. Mt. Hood's last volcanic
activity was in 1865, so it's not quite as recent in its surface
geology as Mt. St. Helens, but similar. Some of the Columbia River
gorge waterfalls are here:
http://www.oregonscenics.com/mountai...waterfalls.htm

http://www.timberlinelodge.com/Photo...lbum_Lodge.asp

    >
    > how difficult is it to travel 2 days in the coach? (non bedroom seats) those
    > are available.

Haven't done it. Have you explored the possibility of, say, breaking the train
trip into several segments, and renting a car to tour the area around your
local area, then getting back on the train or plane after a good night's sleep?
Renting a car one way can be pretty pricey. Southwest and Alaska airlines
both do some pretty cheap short hop fares on the west coast.

Kay

Jstauf

We've had a lot of snow in SW Washington and NW Oregon these past few
days. CHECK road reports. With things as they are, driving to St.
Helens would be most hazardous. You would definately need chains - a
good, solid, two-lane highway, but not for the novice winter driver!