May | 2013 | Road Trips – American west

And Yahoo has some thoughts about that:

http://travel.yahoo.com/blogs/compass/best-summer-road-trips-182303509.html

Among Yahoo recommendations:

Acadia and Schoodic Peninsula byways (Maine)

“The Maine coast is lovely at any time of year, but its swimming holes, lighthouses and tide pools are most inviting in summer. Its biggest draw is Acadia National Park, the first national park east of the Mississippi River.”

——— This isn’t ‘west coast’, but I can vouch for the Maine coast anyway, personal experience. I grew up in Maine, visited the coast many, many times. It’s been 40 years since I lived there, but i can be pretty sure the coast is just as awesomely scenic as it was then. When i grew up in the 50’s, the interstate hi-ways didn’t exist, it was a long drive on 2 lane blacktop. Probably the southern coast is alot more cluttered and visited than it used to be back then.
But I’ll betcha the same is true of Maine as it is of California, where I live now – the further you go from urban enroachment, the nicer it will be.
Sooo.. in this case, don’t ‘go west, young man!’ – ‘go north, the further the better!’.

Oregon Coast

“It would be hard to pinpoint one section of the coast as the best, so why try? See it all. Highway 101 runs from Oregon’s northern border to its southern end, hugging the shoreline much of the way. The often-winding route is dotted with a string of well-tended state parks, each offering a different combination of hikes, tide pools, giant trees, sandy beaches and sometimes surfing. Many of them also offer RV, tent or even yurt camping spots (reserve ahead in summer).”

———— I can vouch for the Oregon coast, also!

10 unsung beach towns on the West Coast
Sunset.com
Updated 11:32 a.m., Thursday, August 30, 2012

http://www.sfgate.com/travel/article/10-unsung-beach-towns-on-the-West-Coast-3824716.php

Beauty of the North Oregon Pacific Coast – YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWFWcXFszyM
The Magnificent Oregon Coast
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5uEgGYsa6w

I’d seen a good bit of the Ca. coast on several trips in the late 90’s, and in 2003 decided i wanted to go further north to Oregon. I’d seen some photos of the coast, and of The Umqua Dunes and wanted to see more.
I took Rte 5 all the way to Medford, which looks like a high desert kinda place, it’s spared much of the rain that gets wrung out of storms by the coastal mountain ranges. Mt Shasta is the great looming landmark as you head north in Ca., and loom it definitely does, you can see it many many miles away. I didn’t keep track, but it’s probably visible 50 – 75 miles away, a bright snowy white.
I stayed on Rte 5 til just short of Roseburg, then took Rte 42 to the coast, Coos Bay.
Ca. Rte 101 continues into Oregon, and follows the coast, that was my route.
And when you’re there, you feel like you are cut off from the rest of the world, there’s just that road, and little else, all the towns are small, the coast is rugged as hell, and the trees own the landscape. My furthest point north was Umqua Dunes, i traveled south from there, back to CA.
The Umqua Dunes is more sand than I had ever seen, and i’ve been to Cape Cod, and the N. Carolina outer banks. And Miami FLA, too.