cool stuff to see along I-5?

a couple of friends and i are going on a road trip to L.A. for new years. we're driving from vancouver, BC and we'd like to stop and see some interesting things along the way. any suggestions?

all the lovely roadkill?

The beautiful skyline of Lakewood Washington.

Mount St.Helens , Crater Lake , Portland , Cannon Beach (off 101) , San Fran..off the top o' my head..have fun!..oh shit..nix crater lake it's closed till next june..sorry

I'd like to second Crater Lake.




Oh, New Year's. Nevermind.

I saw Crater Lake once...it's beautiful up there!!!

SF's about an hour and a half off of I-5, but yes, that's about the only interesting thing you're going to run into between the California border and LA. The Central Valley is basically neverending hell.

There's a really cool Chuck-E-Cheese in Redding that I used to stop in when I was a kid on my way to visit my aunt in Oregon. And... uh... there's always the fun of driving through Coalinga and snickering because it sounds like a dirty word but isn't. That's about as good as I can do ya.

yah crater lake looks amazing, too bad it's closed. i'll have to make another trip.

here will be your scenery on your lovely 9 hour tour of the I-5 through california:


at least the legal speed limit is 70.

if its your first california trip, i would recommend pulling off the I-5 around Kettleman City towards Paso Robles so you could see the central coast (Pismo, Arroyo Grande, SLO). its much better on the eyes and has some beautiful beaches and amazing spots to eat.

Be careful of Coalinga, at one exit, is an amazing steak house, at the other one, is all the cows for this steak house, and it smells bad. real bad.

There is, of course, not far away from I-5 on the way into SF an absolute must see landmark:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

The Pleasanton sign in BEAUTIFUL downtown Pleasanton. Don't forget to check out the Historic Kottinger Barn on your way down main street!

Mount St Helens is erupting. That should be a site to see.

Subrosa said:
There is, of course, not far away from I-5 on the way into SF an absolute must see landmark:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

The Pleasanton sign in BEAUTIFUL downtown Pleasanton. Don't forget to check out the Historic Kottinger Barn on your way down main street!

haha thats classic.
you know, after you work up a giant appetite touring the Historic Kottinger Barn, you can mosey over to get a double double from the famous califonrian burger joint In-n-Out.

Stay on the 99 as much as you can, if you want to see anything other than cows. I mean, you'll still see a fair amount of cows, but at least there's some other stuff, too. It will take longer, but if it's a road trip that doesn't really matter, right?

do what she says..

Would that be cow shit by any chance?

Are there still hitchhiking serial killers on I-5? They could an amusing change of pace.

I-5 is the "get there" route.
Swing west to the coast. take the 101 or 1 whenever you can. Those are the "getting there is half the fun" routes.

So, aside from the coastline, you may as well be in Iowa. Is that what you're saying? Because aside from your mention of coast, you easily could be describing central Iowa--right down to the steakhouse and the steak cows across the way, even.

(Smelly or not, you get awesome steak that way, having the cows just out in the backyard.)

awesome, thanks for all the info everyone.

Come down the 101 instead.

well its just like that in the valley, which is the route that I-5 runs down. like maxx said above, its just a non-stop straight shot through california. west is mountain ranges then the coast. east is the sierra nevada mountain range.

it is so choice. if you have the time i highly recommend driving through the bay and then down the 101.

oh, also the oregon vortex

I have done the Seattle to LA and back portion of I-5 many times....the coolest thing I found was a Burger King with free Wifi somewhere in southern Oregon. There was also a gas station in Oregon with a cute girl who pumped my gas.

That's about it.