December PNW/Interior West Ideas
I want to take a road trip to dodge some of the holiday stress and sloppy weather Seattle gets this time of year. I can take up to one week. This isn't a great time to visit most of the top-tier destinations in the region, so I'm digging for possibilities.
I seek out outdoorsy activities and natural beauty, and new cities are fun for a day (although I don't want to go anywhere that's a hectic mass of humanity during the holidays). I'm not into downhill skiing/snowboarding. My backpacking gear is comfortable down to about 15 degrees, and I have the budget to book motels when it gets colder than that. I have snowshoes and crampons and other winter hiking gear, but I'm traveling solo without a beacon so I'd prefer to save alpine and backcountry places for later.
These are the types of places I'd be planning around during better times of the year. (I've already explored most places within several hours of Seattle, as well as much of California and the Southwest highlights)
- Glacier Natl Park, MT
- Craters of the Moon Natl Mon, ID
- Yellowstone/Grand Teton Natl Park, WY
- John Day Fossil Beds, OR
- Bend, OR
- Oregon Coast, OR
- Tofino, BC
- Great Basin Natl Park, NV
- Bonneville Salt Flats, UT
- Dinosaur Natl Mon, UT
Any of these worth seeing in December? Where else would be good to visit?
Posted Nov 16, 2018, 8:16 PM UTC
I'd stick to the drier (or potentially drier) areas. And watch the weather; stuff is kinda uncrowded then so you can re-adjust without having to worry about reserving a site. The thing is, as I'm sure is true in the PNW, that getting to trailheads can be a PITA cuz of road closures. But in a place like Great Basin more likely you could park up at the end of plowed road, if maybe not overnight.
Bend, the John Day area, and around there is fantastic. But it can be godawful cold out there in the high desert...it just seems colder for some reason. But a terrific area, and you could combine it with a loop back to the OR Coast, which is actually sometimes nicer in winter between storms than in summer in a windy cold fog. And Bend is a nice city to hole up in if weather doesn't cooperate; one of the best outdoor towns in the west. Lotsa beer.
Tofino's nice, but can be really wet and stormy, worse than Seattle.
And the salt flats aren't the place to go if wet. Like in winter.