West Coast to Canada

[Steve-O Man]

Hi all! Looking for ideas. Trip planned for early May, probably 4 maybe 5 weeks. Leaving central valley, ca and want to do maybe 6-9 days along Oregon coast then up into Washington. Interested in Vancouver Island. Anyone gone and have suggestions; leave trailer at park in Wa. do ferry stay in hotel on island 1-2 days? Take trailer over stay in rv park? What ferry to take....seems like many to choose from. What is difference in ferries and advantages/disadvantages. Like to then head east spend few days either in Vancouver or just a short commute outside. Any ideas greatly appreciated. RV parks ok but prefer State or Fed. campgrounds, not opposed to boondocking either. Thanks, Steve

[crumgater]

Start parks in Oregon and Washington are all awesome. Online reservations with pictures of the sites can help you pick one you 'should' be able to get in and out of. I say should... you can't always see where the trees are that will get in your way. We had a great site piked out at Fort Stevens State Park, but could not get in the site due to too many trees in the wrong places (we had a 34' 5th wheel at the time). The Ranger put us in the 'overflow' spot, which was an easy park job... not much privacy, but still a nice site.

Not sure about camping/RV'ing on Vancouver Island. If you take the ferry, be sure to time it for High Tide to avoid bottoming out when getting on/off the boat. And also be prepared for a $150-200 ferry trip, each way (depending on total length).

Victoria is a great place to spend some time.

You could head to Forks or Sequim for some RV'ing around the Olympic Penninsula, and then take the Ferry from Port Angeles right into Victoria.

[koko]

We went to Oregon and Washington in May. We really like the redwoods, and Bandon and Lincoln City, OR are great areas to explore beaches. There are also a lot of wineries. One of our many stops was in Astoria, OR. We stayed at the KOA across from Fort Stevens State Park. From there we were only about 115 miles from Port Angeles, WA. We stayed there for a week, because we wanted to visit Olympic National Park (a real treasure - takes several days to see it all). We took the ferry over to Victoria, leaving the camper in Port Angeles. We made it a day trip - bad idea. We should have stayed there for at least a couple of days. It's really expensive to take a camper on the ferry. There are lots of towns like Port Angeles where you can catch the ferry, including Anacordes. If you like National Parks, North Cascades is a real beauty right outside of Burlington.

[bankr63]

Spend a bit of time watching season 3 of Keep Your Daydream on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEh...t8McryMf_DHLZQ

Season 3 is pretty much the trip you describe, with some fantastic videography of the sights, and good suggestions for things to do/see and places to stay. I've been following them since the beginning a couple of years ago and it is a very enjoyable channel.

[PlayersZ28]

Make sure you leave your guns and drugs at home if you want to cross the border

[Kim Gass]

And your pepper spray unless it has a pic of a bear on it

[GrumpyDad]

I've been out to Vancouver Island many times, but only once with a trailer. When I went the Washington state ferry to Sidney BC was about half the price compared to the BC ferries from Vancouver.
There's some great camping on Vancouver Island, but the roads there are mostly all small and winding, so it's not great fun to drive a long combination through.

As for spending time in Vancouver city, myself I wouldn't. Unless you really love cities. Quite busy.