Seattle to Redwoods National Park: Route, Stops & Timing

Planning Your Route from Seattle to Redwoods National Park

There are two broad ways to make this drive, and the right one depends on how much time you have and whether you’d rather save hours or collect scenery.

The Direct I-5 Corridor

Interstate 5 is the backbone of this trip. It runs south from Seattle through Olympia, Portland, Eugene, and Grants Pass before you cut west near the California border toward Crescent City. This route stays inland, moves quickly, and is the one most drivers choose when time is tight or when winter weather makes coastal roads less predictable.

The Scenic Highway 101 Alternative

If you have an extra day or two, trading I-5 for U.S. Highway 101 along the Oregon Coast turns the drive into the main event rather than just a means to an end. You’ll trade speed for sea stacks, lighthouses, and small fishing towns, rejoining a more direct path as you near the California state line. Many road trippers mix the two: I-5 going down, 101 coming back, or a hybrid that dips onto the coast for a day before returning inland.

How Long You’ll Need

Drive-Only Timeline

If you treated this as a straight delivery run with no stops, you’d be looking at roughly 12 to 13 hours behind the wheel on the I-5 route, longer on the coastal alternative given its curves and lower speed limits. Few people drive it that way, and for good reason.

Suggested Trip Length

Spreading the drive over two to four days gives you room to actually see the places you’re passing rather than just passing them. A two-day version gets you to the redwoods with one overnight stop, typically around Portland or the southern Oregon Coast. A four-day version leaves space for a full day on the coast, a night in the Willamette Valley, and unhurried time inside the park itself once you arrive.

Best Stops Along the Way

Oregon Highlights

Oregon offers a lot of reasons to slow down. The Columbia River Gorge sits just south of Portland with waterfalls visible from pullouts along the highway. Farther south, the Oregon Dunes stretch for miles along the coast if you’ve opted for the 101 route. Inland travelers passing through the Willamette Valley will find a string of small towns worth a short break between longer driving stretches.

Northern California Approach

As you cross into California, Crescent City marks the gateway to redwood country. This is also where the landscape changes quickly, dense coastal fog giving way to towering old-growth forest within just a few miles of driving.

What to Expect in Redwoods National Park

Redwoods National Park, along with the adjoining state parks that share its name and management, is less a single stop than a corridor of forest you drive through. The Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway runs parallel to Highway 101 and offers one of the most accessible ways to see old-growth trees without leaving pavement. Trails of every length branch off from pullouts, from short loops to multi-hour hikes beneath the canopy.

Where to Stay and Eat

Lodging and dining options cluster around Crescent City and the small towns along Highway 101, ranging from basic motels to campgrounds inside the park boundaries. Reserving a place to stay ahead of time is worth doing in summer, when both the park and the coastal towns around it see their heaviest traffic.

Let Journey Builder Plan the Logistics

A trip like this one touches three states, two route options, and a long list of possible stops, which is exactly the kind of planning that benefits from a little help. Journey Builder goes from a vague idea to a trip you can take: it builds the route automatically with distance and drive time for every leg, ranks the towns along the way so you know which stops are truly on your path versus a detour, and lets you choose fastest highways or a route with fewer of them. Once you’ve picked your stops, its auto-scheduler turns everything into a day-by-day plan built around your wake-up time, bedtime, drive times, and pace, usually in a couple of minutes.

Other Road Trips Worth Exploring

If Seattle to Redwoods National Park isn’t the only drive on your list, our guide to the Los Angeles to Seattle Drive covers much of this same corridor from the opposite direction. Travelers drawn north instead of south might prefer Seattle to Banff Canada for mountain scenery of a different kind. For more national park road trips, see our guides to Missoula to Glacier National Park, the Grand Canyon National Park South Rim in Arizona, or a stop at Lake Park, Georgia on a longer cross-country run.