I-5

[SadJoel]

Ok so I wanna know your experiences from the I-5

[Max Rockatansky]

Grapevine Canyon and the Sacramento River Canyon are nice but almost the rest of it in California is incredibly dull. 

[oscar]

Ok so I wanna know your experiences from the I-5

What about yours?

As someone with family in southern California, and went to college in northern California (so I traveled on I-5 quite a lot when I lived out there), I agree with Max that I-5 in California is mostly boring, or worse. To rub salt in the wound, on the most boring part in the Central Valley (except the smelly part near stockyards) between Grapevine and Stockton, where you'd really want to turn on the warp drive, slow truck traffic usually keeps you well under triple-digit speeds.

[Alps]

it's a long road i've driven part of and it has cars and US 99 is better

[sparker]

Being a Glendale native, got used to not-too-pretty stretches of I-5 real early on.  There are some other scenic stretches in CA -- it's actually quite nice through Camp Pendleton (mainly the only section south of Castaic where there aren't massive artifacts of Western Civilization), but once north of the Wheeler Ridge 99 split, it pretty much sucks all the way to above Tracy.  Nice and green from there to Woodland, but the suckiness resumes shortly thereafter (although recently Willows has become CA's artisan cheese capital), with things not picking up until about Cottonwood, at which point it becomes more than tolerable again (IMO) all the way to Tacoma (yeah, I even like the Willamette Valley). 

But, as I have iterated more than once, if I have to drive through the Valley, CA 99 is my first choice (with CA 43 or CA 65 being reasonable alternates in the south valley, and multi-county J7 from Merced north); I'll only do the Westside section of I-5 if I'm terribly time-constrained on the way down to L.A. or back.  Only saving grace there:  the Kettleman City In-n-Out!

[nexus73]

Central Valley I-5 looks better at night when going 80 MPH...LOL!

Rick

[triplemultiplex]

The airport to La Jolla in Sandy Eggo during moderate traffic.
That's all I've got.

[OCGuy81]

San Diego to LA isn't too bad, especially when you're close to the ocean.OC and LA is just your typical, very busy stretch of freeway.

Grapevine is a PITA.

I agree with the Central Valley being awful, unless you're a fan of blah landscapes and powerlines.

Sacramento to Redding isn't much better.

Redding to Medford. My favorite stretch of interstate anywhere. Its beautiful, especially near Shasta.

Southern Oregon. Twisty, but pretty scenic.

Eugene to Portland. ZzzzzZ.... ZzzzzzzZ

Portland. Ugh! Substandard stretch of interstate. Awful.

Portland to Tacoma. Kind of boring, but leaps and bounds better than the Central Valley in California or Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Tacoma. Perpetual state of construction.

Seattle. Gridlock.

Seattle to Canada. Pretty beautiful, albeit pretty busy.

[heynow415]

Besides the heavy truck traffic in the Grapevine-Tracy segment restricting the throttle, the tule fogs that can occur in the winter (which also affect 99) drives me to 101, even though it is longer.  Agree with other comments that the only real interesting parts are Grapevine Canyon and north of Redding.  South of Redding to Tracy can be more interesting depending on the time of year (orchards in bloom, field crops maturing).  Harris Ranch is nasty year-round, though a hot summer day is by far the worst.

[SkyPesos]

it's fine, I prefer the equivalent ryzen 5

[Max Rockatansky]

it's fine, I prefer the equivalent ryzen 5

Wut?

[RZF]

Speaking from my experience in between Downtown San Diego and CA-138 in the Grapevine:

Very "modern" freeway (huge medians, new BGSs, various single purpose lanes, 5+ lanes in one direction) until about Solana Beach
Typical suburban freeway until Camp Pendleton
Beautiful, untouched scenery from Camp Pendleton to Orange County
Back to a "modern" state until I-405 through pretty, ritzy South OC
Typical suburban freeway until the OC/LA County line
Then the fun begins. Under construction practically since I've been alive, CalTrans trucks everywhere until the ELA interchange
Gridlocked traffic, small freeway from ELA to CA-110
Suburban and sorta-wide (in some spots) freeway until Castaic
Then throughout the Grapevine it's just built different. Slow trucks in the 2 far right lanes, a constant climb, and bad weather from November through March shuts it down. Sometimes a wildfire shuts it down. Nonetheless, beautiful untouched mountainous scenery.

[SadJoel]

Ok so I wanna know your experiences from the I-5

What about yours?

As someone with family in southern California, and went to college in northern California (so I traveled on I-5 quite a lot when I lived out there), I agree with Max that I-5 in California is mostly boring, or worse. To rub salt in the wound, on the most boring part in the Central Valley (except the smelly part near stockyards) between Grapevine and Stockton, where you'd really want to turn on the warp drive, slow truck traffic usually keeps you well under triple-digit speeds.

Well I live in SoCal and Pretty much drive on I-5 everyday, as I go through orange county

[SeriesE]

Out of the segments I've been on (San Diego to Sacramento), my favorite urban segment is the part from CA-55 to Buena Park. It's wide and clean looking with decent roadside decorations.

[sparker]

Out of the segments I've been on (San Diego to Sacramento), my favorite urban segment is the part from CA-55 to Buena Park. It's wide and clean looking with decent roadside decorations.

The portion from CA 22/57 to the L.A. county line was rebuilt in the early 2000's; the section through central Santa Ana between 55 and 22/57 was done a few years after that (including the overhead express lanes).  Seeing as how the original was a perpetually crowded 6 lanes dating from the late '50's, the revamping was long overdue.  It's one of the better rebuilds D12 has done, although they had to eat a lot of adjoining property to do so (but they left Disneyland alone, of course!).

[kkt]

Air conditioner died one August driving south, around Willows.  God that was awful.
My trips have almost all been Seatte to S.F. Bay Area, so it's been decades since I've been on I-5 south of the 505 cutoff.

To add a little to OCGuy:
Seattle - gridlock
Seattle to Marysville - heavy
Marysville to Burlington - fields, occassional views of mountains, kinda nice
Burlington to Bellingham - mountainous area, very pretty
Bellingham - plenty of substandard merge lanes
Bellingham to Canadian border - pretty

[SeriesE]

Out of the segments I've been on (San Diego to Sacramento), my favorite urban segment is the part from CA-55 to Buena Park. It's wide and clean looking with decent roadside decorations.

The portion from CA 22/57 to the L.A. county line was rebuilt in the early 2000's; the section through central Santa Ana between 55 and 22/57 was done a few years after that (including the overhead express lanes).  Seeing as how the original was a perpetually crowded 6 lanes dating from the late '50's, the revamping was long overdue.  It's one of the better rebuilds D12 has done, although they had to eat a lot of adjoining property to do so (but they left Disneyland alone, of course!).

The inside shoulder for this section also appears to be wider than 12 feet so if the time comes, a new lane can be added by restriping.

[nexus73]

San Diego to LA isn't too bad, especially when you're close to the ocean.OC and LA is just your typical, very busy stretch of freeway.

Grapevine is a PITA.

I agree with the Central Valley being awful, unless you're a fan of blah landscapes and powerlines.

Sacramento to Redding isn't much better.

Redding to Medford. My favorite stretch of interstate anywhere. Its beautiful, especially near Shasta.

Southern Oregon. Twisty, but pretty scenic.

Eugene to Portland. ZzzzzZ.... ZzzzzzzZ

Portland. Ugh! Substandard stretch of interstate. Awful.

Portland to Tacoma. Kind of boring, but leaps and bounds better than the Central Valley in California or Willamette Valley in Oregon.

Tacoma. Perpetual state of construction.

Seattle. Gridlock.

Seattle to Canada. Pretty beautiful, albeit pretty busy.

That is the best summation of I-5 I have ever read.  Having driven it from border to border, it is easy to agree with you.

What I would like to see: Someone doing the same for I-95/US1 as I have never been on any part of it.

Rick

[Occidental Tourist]

it's fine, I prefer the equivalent ryzen 5

Over I-7 or I-9 though?

[SadJoel]

it's a long road i've driven part of and it has cars and US 99 is better

which part of the I-5 have you been to?

[sparker]

Re the Willamette Valley portion of I-5:  It conceivably could be broken down into several sections of interest.  From Eugene north to Albany, it is something of a snooze, similar to the northern Sacramento Valley in CA.  Albany to Salem is a bit more interesting, with Ankeny Hill being a nice topographical change from the valley floor.  Salem itself isn't terribly pretty, although it's better after the 1990's upgrade.  Salem to the Willamette River bridge in Wilsonville goes through nice farm country (the lawn sod capital of the world!); some nice seasonal berry vendors near the interchanges, particularly Woodburn/OR 214.  And the underpowered city section of I-5 doesn't begin until north of Tigard; Wilsonville-Tigard is more exurban, extending through rolling hills.  The whole thing, even the decidedly boring section north of Eugene, is much more tolerable than Wheeler Ridge-Tracy in CA!

[OCGuy81]

Re the Willamette Valley portion of I-5:  It conceivably could be broken down into several sections of interest.  From Eugene north to Albany, it is something of a snooze, similar to the northern Sacramento Valley in CA.  Albany to Salem is a bit more interesting, with Ankeny Hill being a nice topographical change from the valley floor.  Salem itself isn't terribly pretty, although it's better after the 1990's upgrade.  Salem to the Willamette River bridge in Wilsonville goes through nice farm country (the lawn sod capital of the world!); some nice seasonal berry vendors near the interchanges, particularly Woodburn/OR 214.  And the underpowered city section of I-5 doesn't begin until north of Tigard; Wilsonville-Tigard is more exurban, extending through rolling hills.  The whole thing, even the decidedly boring section north of Eugene, is much more tolerable than Wheeler Ridge-Tracy in CA!

I totally agree that it's much better than 5 in the Central Valley. Compared to the rest of Oregon's interstate system (84 through the Gorge is beautiful) it's a bit lackluster

[Bickendan]

I can't comment on Tijuana to Irvine, or Seattle to Blaine for lack of multiple trips, but surprisingly, Wheeler Ridge to Stockton and Sacramento, as well as Eugene to Wilsonville 'goes by' faster than Salmon Creek to Longview (or Tumwater, depending on the trip) for me. Salmon Creek on north is certainly much more scenic, however. 

[sparker]

Re the Willamette Valley portion of I-5:  It conceivably could be broken down into several sections of interest.  From Eugene north to Albany, it is something of a snooze, similar to the northern Sacramento Valley in CA.  Albany to Salem is a bit more interesting, with Ankeny Hill being a nice topographical change from the valley floor.  Salem itself isn't terribly pretty, although it's better after the 1990's upgrade.  Salem to the Willamette River bridge in Wilsonville goes through nice farm country (the lawn sod capital of the world!); some nice seasonal berry vendors near the interchanges, particularly Woodburn/OR 214.  And the underpowered city section of I-5 doesn't begin until north of Tigard; Wilsonville-Tigard is more exurban, extending through rolling hills.  The whole thing, even the decidedly boring section north of Eugene, is much more tolerable than Wheeler Ridge-Tracy in CA!

I totally agree that it's much better than 5 in the Central Valley. Compared to the rest of Oregon's interstate system (84 through the Gorge is beautiful) it's a bit lackluster

It's all relative.  At least, compared to CA's I-5 valley segments, it's pretty green, even in summer!  Actually, after wrenching the steering wheel around NB on 5 (particularly downhill from Siskiyou Summit and from Grants Pass to Canyonville), the Willamette Valley has, at least driving-wise, been something of a welcome respite (from the late '80's until about 2004 I drove I-5 about 4-5 times per year, although with non-winter trips I more often than not detoured NB over US 97 and OR 58). 

[OCGuy81]

I should add one important note if I-5 from Eugene to Salem.

IT NEEDS THREE LANES!!

A lot of truck traffic on that stretch and for a "rural"  stretch it can get congested.