Loop itinerary · Pacific Northwest
The Fog Loop
Seattle to Portland the long way — rainforest, shipwreck coast, and the towns that TV made strange.
- Fly in
- Seattle (SEA)
- Fly out
- Portland (PDX)
- Days
- 7
- Distance
- 780 mi
- Best season
- June–September
- Budget
- $$
A softer loop than the desert, and a stranger one. This route runs the Olympic Peninsula counter-clockwise, drops down the Washington coast, and finishes in Portland by way of the estuary towns that a generation of television turned into folklore.
Seven days, no day longer than three hours of driving, and a permanent chance of rain. Pack for it and the weather becomes the point.
The car we'd book for this route
A mid-size SUV handles the graded dirt approaches without pushing you into a truck rental. Compare rates across agencies at both airports before you commit — one-way loop drop-offs are usually cheaper than they look.
Compare rental ratesSnoqualmie Falls
Washington · Twin Peaks
Start where the fiction started. The falls and the lodge above them opened the title sequence of the strangest show ever put on network television, and the cherry pie down the road is not an accident.
Twenty minutes of viewing platform, an hour if you walk down to the river.
Where to sleep along the way
Small-town rooms on this route sell out months ahead in high season. Book refundable rates early, then trade up if plans shift.
See stays on the routeHoh Rain Forest
Washington
Moss hanging in sheets, light arriving green, sound going strange and close. The Hoh is the quietest place on this route and one of the quietest in the country.
The Hall of Mosses loop takes under an hour. Go early — the road in is long and the car park closes when it fills.
Cover before you leave home
Long driving days, remote medical access, and non-refundable park permits are exactly what travel insurance is for. Buy it the same week you book the flights.
Get a quoteRuby Beach
Washington
Sea stacks, bleached driftwood the size of boats, and fog that arrives sideways. Time the tide table before you commit to the walk south along the sand.
Astoria
Oregon · The Goonies, Kindergarten Cop
A working river town of hills, Victorian houses and a four-mile bridge into Washington. It has been the backdrop for more childhood films than anywhere its size has a right to be.
Drive the residential streets, climb the column, then eat on the pier while the container ships slide past.
More loops
The Dreamway dispatch
One loop, one strange place, once a month.
Route plans with real logistics, filming locations worth the detour, and the odd landmark nobody has written about yet. No filler, no listicles.