Road Trip From Los Angeles to Seattle

Hey Tundra mates, just looking for recommendations where we can do a 1 night camp in Oregon on our route from SoCal to Seattle. We’re just looking to break up the drive. Camping by a stream/ river will be awesome so we can get some fishing in; BLM preferred. We have offroad capable rigs but not looking for intense rock crawling. I very much appreciate any suggestions.

Photo of my rig for overlanding reference…

 

I would take 97 off of 5 and head over to Crater Lake. It is a small detour but, if you have the time, it is nicer than driving all the way up I5. When you leave, you might consider continuing up 97 to hwy 82 and come into Seattle from the backside.

 

^ Good Choice. Shasta Lake is also amazing and is closer to halfway if you want to stop in Cali.

 

If you do want to come up the coast of California, I would recommend taking Hwy 199 from Crescent City to Grants Pass. It is a beautiful drive through the forest but then you have to drive all of the way up Hwy 5.

 

I don't know how many times you've done this drive, but if you do end up taking the 5 over the border - drop to the speed limit before you cross, cause those Oregon Troopers love sitting, and waiting for someone with a California plate to come across a few MPH over the limit. Had one follow us for an hour from the border before the peeled away.

 

Keep in mind that there are some serious fires going on near the Kali border and southern Orygun. Several new fires broke out north of Medford up thru east of Eugene. You will want to avoid camping in these areas. I recommend driving up the 5 to Medford and hit the 101 and drive up the Orygun coast. Plenty of fishing and places to camp.

 

Don't forget about Weed as well. Myself and several others got popped by a team of CHP's. It looked like they had every officer out there that day working the speed trap.

 

Yep. I got a speeding ticket near Weed on the 5 in 75. Never paid it...ha!

 

from LA to OR, I would take the 395 all the way to Tahoe area. Very scenic.

 

First time so thanks for the heads up.

 

How does that work exactly? I thought they eventually issue a bench warrant for unpaid tickets.

 

46 years ago.

 

Traffic tickets are simple “infractions “ so they don’t transfer state to state. It’s a non-issue if you are certain that you won’t be going back to that state sooner than 5-7 years; at which point it just goes away.

Some states do consider some speeding tickets (based on speed) as a misdemeanor. This is a little more complicated and a bench warrant may be issued against you. Warrants do show up on every state. It’s doubtful you’ll get extradited from state to state for a traffic warrant but it’ll just give the police more reason to give you are hard time.