San Fran to Vegas - Mid March???

Hi,

My girlfriend and I will be travelling to San Fran from Ireland, landing there on the 29 Feb. Our plan is to travel to Lake Tahoe from San Fran for a couple of days and then travel down to Yosemite, we would probably arrive in Yosemite around March 7th/8th I know we will have to enter Yosemite from the west, but we are concerned now, that we will not be able to exit Yosemite on the east side and carry on to Vegas (via Death Valley) is this true? Have we made a big mistake in trying to do this at this time? This will be our first trip to the states.

Thanks for any help

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

Yes, you will have to access Yosemite from the West, as Tioga Pass across the Sierras, is closed in March. What I would do is go from SF to Yosemite first, and then go north to cross the Sierra and go to Tahoe. From there you could easily visit Death Valley on your way to Las Vegas.

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I know we will have to enter Yosemite from the west, but we are concerned now, that we will not be able to exit Yosemite on the east side

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Just out of curiosity how did you know that you had to enter the park from the West, but not know that the East entrance (and exit) would be closed?

Thanks for your reply, the information is very helpful. If we were to go to Yosemite form SF and then onto Lake Tahoe what would be the best route to take from Tahoe to Las Vegas through Death Valley?

On another forum we had read we would have to enter Yosemite form east. But I thought it was route 395 that was closed and this is why Yosemite was unaccessable from west., But now realise it is the 120.

Thanks again for your help. This forum is great have picked up some good tips.

US-50 or I-80 are probably going to be your only options for crossing the Sierra to get to Tahoe at that time of year. I think going north on CA-49 to US-50 at Pacerville would be the option that I would probably take.

Hi,

We are travelling from Ireland on a trip soon, and we have worked out the following itinery. The reason we are stopping in Sacramento is to hopefully do some rafting, but this may not be possible with the weather.

We are just looking for some opinions as to what people think of our plan, and do they see any flaws???

29/02/08 San Fran
01/03/08 San Fran
02/03/08 San Fran
03/03/08 San Fran - Yosemite / 3Hrs – East on the 120
04/03/08 Yosemite - Sacramento / 2.5 Hours to Placerville, north on the 49
05/03/08 Sacramento - Lake Tahoe / 1.5 to Tahoo, east on the 50
06/03/08 Lake Tahoe (South)
07/03/08 Lake Tahoe
08/03/08 Lake Tahoe - Death Valley / 8 Hrs South on the 89, then onto the 395 to Lone Pine
09/03/08 Death Valley - Las Vegas / 4Hrs through Death Valley on the 190 to Vegas
10/03/08 Las Vegas
11/03/08 Las Vegas
12/03/08 Las Vegas - Grand Canyon / 6Hrs on the 40, stop at hoover dam
13/03/08 Grand Canyon - Barstow / 7 Hrs on the 40
14/03/08 Barstow - San Diego / 3 Hrs
15/03/08 San Diego
16/03/08 San Diego
17/03/08 San Diego
18/03/08 San Diego
19/03/08 San Diego - LA / 2hrs
20/03/08 LA
21/03/08 LA - Dublin Ireland :(

We'll be in Las Vegas on 9th and 10th March ....so I'll probably run into you there! ;)

The major area of concern is the Grand Canyon portion. I think you might want to add a bit more time there. At the very least, get up very early on the day you're leaving Vegas so you have some time in the park later that afternoon. And you might plan your departure late the next day but that would get you into Barstow quite late that evening. I hope you can add an extra day in there so you don't feel rushed at this amazing natural wonder.

You might try for a tad more time at Death Valley as well.

Hi Everyone,

just a quick update on our trip, all is going well, we are in Tahoe at the moment and will be leaving for death valley in the morning.

We are just wondering where we could actually stay in Death Valley on our way to Vegas, we have looked up the lodgings on the internet (e.g. furnace creek) and all seems to be booked for tomorrow night (03/07). Does anyone have a recommendation of where to stay in Death Valley, or anywhere along the 136/190, before we move on to Vegas. We would like to get close to Vegas on our first days travelling. I reckon it will take us 4 hours to get from tahoe to lone pine, so don't mind squeezing in another couple of hours driving to get into DV.

Thanks in advance for any help

If you can't get lodging in the park (all options are listed at https://www.nps.gov/deva/planyourvisit/lodging.htm ) the closest options are Lone Pine, CA and Pahrump, NV.

Also note that your itinerary has you taking 89 S from Lake Tahoe to 395 S which is not currently possible as Monitor Pass is currently closed. Depending on where you are starting from in Lake Tahoe, you would take either US-50 or NV-207 (Kingsbury Grade). 50 takes you through S end of Carson City and both take you through Minden and Gardnerville. Gas in these places will be $1 or 2 less than anywhere enroute until you get to Pahrump.

Hi tseeb.

Nice to see you here but unfortunately this thread is from 2008 and long since completed

Dave.