Late fall/winter travel in the NW

[Bobbie54]

I haven't been on here long but this comes up enough I thought I'd share my thoughts after heading to N. Cal for thanksgiving.

Be flexible with travel plans! In the week I'm traveling various places have or will be getting anywhere from zero rainfall to 3" in a day. I'm not fond of driving in a downpour and really not fond of it on the coast (and it could be snow in the passes.). I built an extra travel day into both ends of the trip to allow for staying put in a storm but actually ended up on the way going a bit farther than planned to get ahead of a storm.

Remember days are short. Shorter than in the south. Dark at or shortly after 4 and not light until after 8 am on the shortest days. My change of plans had me arriving at a campground after dark. Backing into an unfamiliar site (and Oregon's are narrower than most I've camped in in Washington) in the dark wasn't easy. Bring along a few small lanterns to mark your "runway" in case this happens to you. (I'm buying a set of those little ones the next time I see them on Amazon.) Reservations weren't a problem but might be on a weekend night, but where I stayed some of the sites were flooded.

Don't just look at rain- look at wind. You can if you must drive in rain. You do not want to tow in high side winds. (Or into the wind, either- that may actually be worse.) Same for snow and ice. Back to being flexible! I drove to and from Washington for Christmas for most of 30 years and never actually drove on snow except once. Carry chains as sometimes they are required even when you won't have to put them on.

There is an upside, too- fewer crowds, clean air, cool temperatures. If you do sit out a storm on the coast you'll probably remember it for a long time- crashing waves, roaring winds, cozy trailer. I hardly had to deal with any traffic heading south on Monday. Probably won't be so lucky if I'm returning on Sunday!