Anaheim to Santa Barbara, to Portland

[chai]

We're planning our trip for the first week of December (in park 1st-5th).

We drive from Portland, OR. We've done it many times, and we typically stick to I-5 the whole time.

This year we're thinking about driving up to Santa Barbara for a day/night, then continuing home.

Give me a route idea here, to get me from Santa Barbara back onto I-5. Please! Are there any weather concerns in December?

Or should we continue north along the coastal route? I'm not jazzed about driving into San Francisco...can you tell we are not typically adventuresome?

 

[GrandBob]

From Santa Barbara, take US101 north all the way to San Jose. In south San Jose, get onto I-680 north (may say east), toward Walnut Creek. I-680 ends in Cordelia, and dumps directly onto I-80 east. Take I-80 east for 10-15 miles, and in Vacaville take I-505 north. This ends by dumping directly onto I-5 north, near the town of Dunnigan.

Sounds more complex than it is. It's only so many road changes to take the shortest ways around the SF Bay area and Sacramento. Take a look on the map -- you're basically going north the whole way.

HTH,
Bob

ETA - The biggest weather concern, which I'm sure you're already familiar with, is the Siskiyou pass on the California/Oregon border. Gets closed in heavy snowstorms.