Scenic Routes to Reno

[Sd_fan2119]

Hey everyone,
My brother and I have a road trip planned from Portland-Reno next month, and looking at the routes, assuming the passes are fairly clear, we were planning to go the popular way, via OR-58, US-97 and OR-39/CA-139 through K-Falls and Susanville. However, I was curious about an alternate route that takes I-5 down to Mt. Shasta and over to Reno via CA-89 and 44. From a scenery perspective, would it be worth taking this route, or just stay with the first one?

[polarscribe]

I would say yes - 89 is a really nice drive through the southern Cascades and into the northern Sierras, although you may get stuck behind a logging truck or two.

Then again, 139 is pretty nice too, in a "middle of freaking nowhere most deserted California state highway anywhere" way. The northeastern corner of California is the state's Rub al Khali.

Honestly, you can't really go wrong either way. There aren't many "bad" state highways in the northeastern part of the state, they're all pretty scenic in their own way.

[Sd_fan2119]

I agree you can't go wrong with the solid scenery on the first route- I'm not a big fan of the 2 lane highways with a lot of curves as 58 and much of 139 have, but they also offer more easy viewpoints as opposed to going I-5, and going past all the lakes is nice. I was mainly curious about the 44/89 part as this is the area I've never traveled. We'll just have to check out the pass conditions and decide.