Before we started our epic USA West Coast Road Trip, we made a 2 night pit stop in Hollywood. We explored the classic walk of fame, and then the Griffith Observatory to see the famous sign and stunning views.

The next day we spent at Universal Studios Hollywood which was really good fun. The new Jurassic Park water ride in the dark was so scary, the very excitable little girl next to me passed out. The 4D Universal Studio Tour ride was pretty epic, and the Animal Actors show was thoroughly entertaining – they even had guinea pig actors.

After Hollywood, we headed South to Orange County visit friends. We stayed at our friend’s, Nick and Carla’s, in Huntington Beach. How cute is their doggy, Teddy. He absolutely loves cuddles.

We met another friend, Ulises who lives nearby in Long Beach. We’ve gamed with him online for years, but had yet to meet up with him in person. We went for a delicious brunch and Leon had a deep fried sourdough ham and cheese sandwich powdered with sugar and a side of jam. Only in America!

We spent the rest of the day in a cool bowling and arcade combo, and hired one of those 4 person bicycle buggies and cycled along Huntington Beach. We finished the day with some 10/10 sushi from Ozen (America does some really good sushi places by the way).

Then it was the start of our epic USA West Coast drive. We decided we would drive the West Coast in two parts.

• Firstly, we would do 2 weeks driving up slightly inland, through the mountains, hitting the national parks (then we would do our 2 weeks in Canada).
• Then after Canada, we would drive back down the west coast, but on the pacific west coast highway.

I had so much pinned on my Google Maps to see and do, this made the most sense. It was also much cheaper if we were to drop the campervan off in Los Angeles, where we picked it up from. The previous people were late dropping off the van, so we ended up leaving the Traveller’s Autobarn rental place at 7pm, not 10am as planned.

Meet Bertie, our new home for the next 6 weeks. Having a solar panel roof meant we can go totally off grid and wild camp, no hook ups required.

In February, in our very first week of travels in Egypt, we met a lovely couple, Dave and Lauren, who are also travelling around the world (although their trip is 2 years long). Dave helps to run a cannabis farm in Carpinteria, California, and said that when we are in California in July, we should go and see his brother, Mike, for a tour around the facility. That would be pretty crazy, we thought. Something culturally very different compared to our own.

Fast forward 5 months. Well, I had never even see 1 plant before, let alone 14 acres of plants. With it being illegal in England, it was a entirely different world. I felt myself whispering as we were walking around. Scared to take photos to take first, but I plucked up the courage to ask eventually. “Of course you can take photos Amy, it’s totally legal here” Mike said laughing at me.

We toured us around the entire place, and showed us the ins and outs like the irrigation control system, the room for the new cuttings, the assessment and recycling of the run off water. It was very interesting tour, Leon even said to Mike he should do them professionally, as it’s something other tourists would be keen to see.

After the tour, Mike and his colleague helped us plan our entire West Coast Route part 1, all the way up to the US / Canadian border. Hours of planning and mobile data were saved. We were so grateful because we are travelling faster than we are able to plan, so recommendations are greatly appreciated. 

We stocked the camper van up with food from Walmart and then walked around Venice and it’s lovely canals. We were very jealous of all the beautiful little homes lining the canals.

We visited at Hinano Café (where Jim Morrison, The Door’s frontman used to hang out) and had beer and burgers for dinner before checking out the beautiful palm-studded beach and the cute VENICE neon lit sign which hangs over a road in the centre.

After Venice, our first boon-docking (what American’s call wild/dispersed camping) experience was at Keysville by a river. We had some drinks, cooked tacos, and watched the sun go down.

The drive through US was already so beautiful, we often stopped for pit stops and photos along the way.

After that we headed to Sequoia National Forest, and trekked the The Trail of 100 Giants, to walk amongst the majestic Sequoia trees, the largest trees in the world.

The Sequoia National Forest has the greatest concentration of giant sequoia groves compared to anywhere else. Their colossal size made them very difficult to photograph, but hopefully we’ve given you some idea of scale.

Imagine being in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the Sierra Nevada mountains, soaking in 40 degree hot springs. That’s what you get when you visit “Wild Willies”. It’s totally free, there’s nobody charging for entry.

We arrived just before sunset, soaked for hours, drank ice cold beers, chatted to locals and got tips for our trip until it was pitch black and the stars were out. You can also camp for free in the car park too, which was super handy. What a hidden gem.

Next up was Yosemite National Park is so vast, it needs to have it’s own blog entry: click here to read it.

After Yosemite, We made a quick pit stop at the beautiful Lake Tahoe along the way.

Lake Tahoe is large fresh water lake, and at 1600ft deep, it’s one of the deepest in the North America. It’s also one of the purest. This huge lake is simply stunning, and the backdrop of the snow-capped mountains was the cherry on top.

We ended up camping in Reno that night, Las Vegas’ little sister. We camped in a free car park in the middle of the city, not very glamorous, but finding nice camping spots in cities is impossible. We checked out the casinos, got some free drinks (which never happened in Vegas!), and broke even on Blackjack after a risky last bet before retiring to bed. Leon was especially excited to see the Reno sign and hang out in the city, as it was the setting for one of his favourite American shows ‘Reno 911’.

Lassen Volcanic Park was next on the list. We invested in “America, The Beautiful” National Parks pass – as long as you visit at least 3 national parks, you’ve done yourself a favour and saved money. A stunning park, we even saw a family of bears up close here crossing the road. We found the perfect picnic spot, pictured below.

We checked out the stinky Sulphur Works area of the park too: a real life bog of eternal stench.

Then it was north up to Mount Shasta, an ice topped active volcano surrounded by miles of forest.

We drove up Mount Shasta as far as we could. Here we had one of my favourite wild camping spots, Mount Shasta Bunny Flat trailhead camp. It was pretty much right on top of the mountain. We got some epic drone footage of us driving up the windy roads, just you wait for Leon’s video! Though you will be waiting a while.

This was our camping spot:

And this was our view:

We then headed to Crater Lake National Park. Known for its clarity, purity, and blue colour, Crater Lake was formed in a caldera, in the basin of an erupted volcano. The water consists of snowmelt and rainwater, and at 1,943ft (592m) it’s the deepest freshwater lake in the US. There are plenty of hikes around, but I was feeling poorly that day, so we just toured around in Bertie.

Our wild campsite that night was really cool. We were in the middle of nowhere, so the stars were beautiful at night.

We hiked up the nearby rocky peak for stunning 360 degree views of forests and mountains. This camping spot would have been a 10/10, but the bugs here were AWFUL. The kind that repeatedly attack your face and are undeterred by copious amounts of bug spray.

We continued driving north, and made a quick pit stop at Salt Creek Waterfall, Oregon’s second highest waterfall at 286 ft. We went for a lovely hike around the waterfall.

We then headed up to Eugene in Oregon to visit Issac (another gaming friend who we hadn’t met in person until that day). We camped in his front yard, and got to know his lovely family and his adorable cat, Josie. They were so lovely and welcoming, we had a much needed shower, washed all our clothes, and were treated to delicious American food. American’s have some of the best food and snacks around!

We were lucky to be there on 4th July for the celebrations. We went and bought a ton of fireworks and put on a fantastic show in the evening.

One evening, Issac took us to Eugene’s annual Pro-Rodeo show. It was the most American experience I could possibly think of, cowboys riding bucking bulls, cowgirls racing around barrels, young Rodeo beauty queens being paraded around in pick up trucks. The host was an incredibly entertaining and very camp guy, dressed head to toe in pink. He had some absolute moves!

Another day we checked out Springfield (the original Springfield that inspired Matt Groening), went to the cinema, and checked out a local market in Eugene. Here we bought some cool outfits ready for Shambhala music festival in Canada.

And probably my favourite day in Oregon: we spent drinking and rating wines at two local wineries.

I still dream about the wine we had at Sweet Cheeks winery, it was simply divine.

After a fantastic long weekend at Issac’s, we headed east to Bend; we did some hiking here up to a view point, before checking out Sunriver Brewing Company, a local brewery recommended in my Lonely Planet. The beer and food was delicious.

Next on the list was Smith Rock State Park. Here you can go caving, hiking, mountain biking, slacklining, and of course – rock climbing. It’s an adventure-lovers paradise. We hiked and stared in awe at the impressive rock climbers in the hot midday sun. To top off the day, we kept hearing what sounded like a movie sound effect bird screeching, only to find out that these were the calls of the iconic American Bald Eagle, who have been nesting here for over 10 years, and are no longer endangered. We watched the eagles soaring through the park, a very American experience.

Further north we went to camp at White River West Sno-Park, next to the towering volcanic mountain Mount Hood. Shame it was pretty cloudy though. It’s crazy how you can go from desert to snow in USA in the same day.

Before we crossed the border, our last USA stop was Mount Rainier National Park. My second favourite national park after Yosemite. Even the views along the way were breathtaking.

We did some hiking trails, the snow was just beginning to melt and spring flowers were beginning to come through. The 360 degree views were stunning.

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It’s funny, out of our whole round the world trip, driving the west coast was the part I was looking forward to the least. But do you what, it ended up being my favourite. The diversity of the landscapes in USA is amazing, no wonder so many Americans don’t own passports. It’s a shame that natural beauty isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when people think of America, but it really should be.

There was nothing in the world better than waking up in the wilderness in the morning, enjoying a cup of tea snuggled up in the bed, the camper van back doors open with views onto the most beautiful nature. Enjoying cosy evenings under the stars, with campfires and s’mores, red wine and a tasty dinner in our fairy lit camper van. The wild camping spots on this route were just ridiculously good, we didn’t pay for a single campsite.

The dispersed camping we found, with help from Campendium and The Dyrt, was unbeatable. Almost all had fire pits, some have picnic benches, and eco toilets. The whole wild camping experience, with the national parks, was really was an absolutely, unforgettable treat.

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