1 month RV winter road trip..ambitious?

Hi everyone,

Just found this site and i have been looking through the threads and the tips and advices have been really wonderful. I am travelling with my family (9 members including two kids) for a month long coast to coast trip in an RV in two weeks. The RV is a 2011 fully loaded 40' coachmen diesel pusher so there's a lot of space to accomodate us all. I have driven a 28' before but this will be the first time i will be driving a 40'...i dont forsee any great challenge driving on the open road but the winter conditions might make it a little more challenging.

We are intending to visit lake tahoe,yosemite and grand canyon and i was hoping to get some advice and directions i.e. which roads to take and which to avoid enroute to these places..also, i would really appreciate it if you guys could add in little bits of 'local favourites' along the way..the coasts seem to take care of themselves in the sense there's a lot to do and see...its the in between that i am not sure of...also, if anyone has any suggestions/advice/recommendations abt RV parks in the places i mention, it will be greatly appreciated.

We land in Los Angeles and will stay two nights before we collect the RV. We will end the trip in Florida where we will be returning the RV. The places we intend to go to, keep in mind, its not really confirmed and we can always give a particular place a miss if time does not allow:

This is the route i have come up with so far:

-Los angeles
-San Francisco
-Sacramento
-Lake Tahoe
-Yosemite
-Death Valley
-Las Vegas
-Grand Canyon
-Roswell
-Dallas
-New Orleans
-Washington DC
-Atlantic City
-New york
-Niagara falls
-Miami

After which i return the RV. Will really appreciate any sort of input regardless of how detailed it is...

Thanks

Welcome!

In the winter, you are going to have a logistical problem with that routing. There is no way to get across the Sierras between Lake Tahoe and Death Valley - the mountain passes will be closed by snow for the winter. This is going to make it a bit difficult to fit in Tahoe, Yosemite, and DV. The only access to Yosemite is from the west. You will also need tire chains, Yosemite strongly recommends that you carry them in the winter regardless of what the current conditions are.

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

My main concern would travelling with 9 people in an RV. Has this RV got sleeping arrangements for 9 ? If not, it will almost certainly not have seat belts for 9 and would be breaking the law for passengers travelling without them in many states.

Your trip is certainly doable in a Month but with that amount of people travelling, I can't help but wonder if you will spend to much time in the 'box' and not enough quality time away from it. In very rough terms, your trip as it is will end up being around 6500 miles, or a little over 1600 miles per week. In an RV this size, you are looking at 4 full days a week of driving which doesn't seem to bad but, if you look at it another way, 2 days in LA, 2 day's to/in San Fran, 2 days to and in Yosemite, 3 days to and visiting Tahoe and Death valley and 2 days in Vegas, you have 11 days gone and you are still only a few hours from LA.

*If you were to take the coast Rd to San Fran you would need at least one overnight stop and add another day, it's twisty and slow going and will be quite a challenge with a 40 ft RV.

For the reasons given by glc, I would skip Sacramento and head to Yosemite> Tahoe and then Death valley, but keep an eye on conditions while travelling.

So personally I would say a little too ambitous and I would at least consider cutting a straighter path and perhaps head through Colorado etc towards Chicago and to New York, or keep to a Southerly route to New Orleans and to Miami but doing it all while tightly packed might start testing patience and fraying tempers within the group.

RV parks: San Fran has a limited number of sites, one I have heard of but not stayed at is 'Candlesticks RV park.' It sounds a bit cramped and has more of a 'parking lot' feel to it but if you are there for just a night or 2, it does offer free transport to the City [or at least did so] and that is one place you don't want to head in a 40 ft rig.

In Yosemite are the 3 "Pines" campgrounds in the valley but you will need to check on the NPS site as I think you might be beyond the size limit, and the same for 'Mather campground' at the Grand canyon. 'Yosemite Pines' is located a short way from Yosemite in Groveland and would be a viable option but one warning CA 120 gets kind of 'interesting' around the 'Priests grade' section and I 'm not sure I would want to tackle it if there is ice and snow on the ground. ** Do not take the 'Old priests Grade' as a short cut !! I think it is well signed with weight restrictions anyway but stick to CA120.

Stovepipe Wells or Furnace creek would be recommended for Death valley RV parking and in Las Vegas the Oasis RV resort is really nice.