San Jose to Grand Canyon 16-day trip plan

Hi,

I find this forum is tremendous helpful on planning my summer trip. After reading many of similar threads, below is my trip plan. I am looking forward to your input/suggestions/comments :-).
July 16: leaving san jose, driving to Yosemite, stay in valley for 16&17
July 18: after lunch, driving to Barstow via 395 for the night
July 19: driving to Zion Canyon (bypass Las Vegas), stay for the night
July 20: Driving to GC, stay in the park for 20&21
July 22: Driving to LV, stay for the night
July 23:Driving to San Diego, stay for 23&24
July 25: Driving to Long Beach for a 4-day Mexico Cruise, departing at 5:30pm, back 8AM of 29th
July 29: Driving to LA, stay for the night
July 30: Driving to Heart Castle in the afternoon, need to find a place to say(where is a good place?)
July 31: Driving home via Camel, 17 miles/Monterery

This is a rough draft, i wonder if i am driving too aggressively? Also need advice on where to go for each day..

we are pretty familiar with Yosemite/LA/SD area, been to LV many times so not so into SV. For all
other areas, still pretty new to us.

Also for driving route, i wonder if there is any particular route I should avoid?

Thanks for your time on reading. Thanks in advance for your reply:-)

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

A couple of things that stand out to me is going all the way South to Barstow and then back up to Zion. Is there a reason for going to Barstow ? You will also be driving right by Vegas to get to Zion, but then you are adding miles by going there betwen GC and SD.

Other than those and the fact that you will have very little time in Zion NP [which is wonderful] which could be helped without going so far South from Yosemite, you have a very nice trip planned.

To get to Zion from Yosemite without going through LV, go over Tioga Pass and continue on CA-120 to US-6. Take that to Warm Springs, then NV-375 (The E.T. Highway) to US-93. Take that south to NV-168 to I-15 (Alternate - take 93 north to NV-319/UT-56 to Cedar City). Your only real overnight option would be Tonopah, there are 3 hotels listed there on hotels.com.

For lodging near Hearst Castle, the most economical choices would be in San Simeon. Cambria is a lot nicer town to stay in, but also more costly.

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Originally Posted by adv4fun

July 18: after lunch, driving to Barstow via 395 for the night

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I'm think you might mean Bishop here? Barstow would make sense if you were "going around" via Bakersfield, but it isn't on 395 and there would really be no way to Bypass Vegas between Barstow and Zion. Plus since this is a July trip, I'd hope you were planning to go over Tioga Pass.

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Originally Posted by Southwest Dave

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

A couple of things that stand out to me is going all the way South to Barstow and then back up to Zion. Is there a reason for going to Barstow ? You will also be driving right by Vegas to get to Zion, but then you are adding miles by going there betwen GC and SD.

Other than those and the fact that you will have very little time in Zion NP [which is wonderful] which could be helped without going so far South from Yosemite, you have a very nice trip planned.

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The reason to going south all the ways to Barstow is because we want to have sight-seeing along 395. Originally we planned to cross death valley but felt it's too hot to cross in July. So we changed the route. If we choose to take another route, what's the better option? We could stay in LV for 1 night on the way to Zion. Also could add another night in Zion.

Thanks for your suggestion. Yeah, maybe Tioga Pass is a better option. We will take that.

True.. will take Tioga pass instead. thx for your input :-)

You are correct in thinking that Death valley will be hot, but there would be no reason not to drive across this amazing landscape. You could stop in Lone Pine the night and drive across early in the day before it gets hot and continue to Zion. In my opinion it will be far more rewarding than going down to Barstow and less miles. I would leave Yosemite valley before lunch so that you have time to enjoy the Tioga pass [CA120] which is a big part of the Yosemite experience. From Lone Pine you can cross DV on 190 and if you wanted to go direct to Zion you could head around the Northern tip of LV via CA127/NV373 to US 95 from Death valley junction, or if you were to stop in Vegas to save the detour from GC to SD, take State line/Ash Meadows rd/Bell Vista Ave to Pahrump from DV junction and 160 to Vegas.

If you really don't want to cross DV, glc's recommended route through Tonopah etc is an interesting desert drive.

Thanks Dave for your suggestion of crossing DV.

After looking at statistics of July temp in DV, the average is 120F, lowest is around 95F(around 3-4AM?). Around 6AM, it's going to be above 100F. I am a little worried that it won't be as enjoying as I want to be :-). What if AC is not working (most likely won't happen), but if it does, it's going to be life-threating.. Flat-tire seems quite common? might not be worthy of taking the risk? Maybe i am a little too conservative? Though I really want to experience DV landscape ...

I will definitely take Tioga pass. Thanks a lot for suggesting the route from GC to SD which is the area I am not confident at all. also not familiar with LV to Zion, Zion to GC route..

I really think you are worried way too much about Death Valley. First of all, you've got some numbers that aren't quite right. The average high is 115 in July while the average low is 86. Second, you need to remember that Death Valley is the hottest of the hot, but the entire area is a very hot desert. Barstow, for example has an average July high of 103, Las Vegas' average July high is 106. And of course, these are averages, what you actually see could be 20 degrees higher or lower!

If you decide not to go to Death Valley, then I still can't see why you'd go all the way down to Barstow. That's adding a good 100 extra miles vs. crossing Nevada via US-6 as suggested above, or even heading east at Big Pine and then down towards Vegas via Beatty.

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Originally Posted by adv4fun

What if AC is not working.......

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You'll know before you go, and get it fixed. It would have to be a real co-incidence if it stopped working right there. It is not as if it takes days to drive through Death Valley.

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Originally Posted by adv4fun

Flat-tire seems quite common?

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I don't think so. The roads are paved, and so long as you stay on them the chances are as great as anywhere else you drive. And even if it were to happen, it is not as if you are days away from help. (That only happens to those who go off the paved roads ill-prepared.) Death Valley has traffic going through it all the time.

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Originally Posted by adv4fun

Maybe i am a little too conservative?

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Yes you are, but so was I. It took until my third visit to the Southwest, before I was game to visit. All the horror stories I had read, terrified me.

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Originally Posted by adv4fun

Though I really want to experience DV landscape.

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Go ahead and do it, and afterwards, you will have a great chuckle and wonder why you worried. I know, I did.

That place is amazing!

Lifey

Thanks your guys so much for sharing .. it's very important to me.. Yes, I think I have been worried too much about DV :-).

Afterall, I decide to take the DV route after reading you guys' response. It only takes a couple of hours to cross, we can leave at 6AM in the morning from Lone Pine. It seems hotel is expensive at Lone pine(only one i found is Comfort Inn which charges $160/night). Any suggestion on a cheaper hotel at Lone pine?

Try the BW Plus Frontier Motel.

Bw Plus Frontier Motel
36.59881, -118.06002
Star rating not available
1008 S Main, Lone Pine, CA, 93545 United States 866-539-0036

Another - and possibly better - option may be to stay in Bishop. There are several hotels there, and I see rates starting around $60. It's only an hour from Lone Pine.

I know it's a bit of a cliche', but 'it's a dry heat'.

110 degrees with close to zero humidity is a lot more comfortable than 80 degrees with high humidity.

Just make sure you buy a couple quarts/gallons of water along the way, stay on the paved roads, and in the highly unlikely event of a breakdown, STAY WITH YOUR VEHICLE.

Most people get in trouble, both in DV and in the piney woods, when they strike out on their own in stead of waiting for help.

I've passed through the valley in the summer... it's not that bad. In fact one summer they were running an ultra-marathon through the valley when we were there. Now THOSE people were crazy!

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Originally Posted by CalOldBlue

In fact one summer they were running an ultra-marathon through the valley when we were there. Now THOSE people were crazy!

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That is a while ago, I remember that. Steve Monaghetti ran in it. Was widely publicised. It was from reading about that, that I got my (misguided) fear of Death Valley.

Thanks all for your reply. It becomes clear that we are going to take DV route. Now the question is where we should stay for 18th night after yosemite before Zion. I am trying to stay one night between Yosemite and Zion. Since I want to get to Zion earlier on 19th so we spend more time at Zion. Below are some options I have:
1> Stay at Bishop or Lone Pine, the drawback is that it's a long drive on the 19th, I may get to Zion in the afternoon
2> Stay at LV. Then questions is what's the good time to enter DV on 18th so we could avoid the highest heat in DV? is 5PM still too hot and have enough time to cross DV before dark? If staying in LV on 18th, is it safe to drive in the evening from DV to LV?
3> Stay somewhere closer to DV right after crossing DV before getting to LV? where?

Any thoughts ?

I have stayed in Beatty, right by DV. The beaut part was being able to go into DV after dark, and really experience the stars, without any interference from city lighting. This was a few years ago. There was a choice of half a dozen or so establishments.

I would look at staying in either Beatty or Pahrump. Pahrump would get you closer to Zion. There's an unnumbered shortcut from Death Valley Junction (190/127) to Pahrump (State Line Road/Ash Meadows Road/Bell Vista Ave). It's paved and posted at 55 mph as I remember.

If you leave Yosemite valley after lunch as ealier planned, then I would stop in Lone Pine or Panamint Springs, it will be evening by the time you get there. If you leave the valley early and take a little time to enjoy Tioga pass, you could then make it across Death valley to the towns mentioned above and have time to stop at viewpoints etc.

Have you given any more thought to stopping in Vegas on the way to Zion so that you don't have to add miles going back to Vegas after Grand canyon on route to Sand Diego ?

It'll be a long day to Vegas, but it will maximise your time in Zion if that is your goal.

Yes, I think I should stretch a little more to reach LV at 18th. What's a good time to enter DV if we plan to get to Vegas at the night? I wonder if 5PM is still hot to cross LV? or we should actually just enter whenever we are ready after enjoying Tioga pass/mono lake etc?I may be OK to cross DV even around 3PM, right? with AC any way ;-).

The hottest time of day in DV is 4pm, and July is the hottest month.

The weather as we know is unpredictable. Yes, it will be hot, but how hot and at what time of day it will be at it's hottest when you travel is a question that can't be answered now. I would enjoy your day, relax and at what ever time you reach Death valley continue your journey through. Some days there is very little diference in temps from 11am to 11pm. The coolest part of the day is when the sun has been down the longest and before it rises, in other words you won't normally find anywhere near the daily minimum temps unless you are travelling at 4am.

As said previously, relax and enjoy yourself, if you break down stay with the car and drink lots of water, it won't be long before someone comes through so do not wander. I would be surprised if you had to wait an hour, and you are more likely to break down with the demands on a vehicle in the heat and the 'hustle and bustle' of stop/start City traffic then you are taking a gentle cruise through Death valley.

Really, anytime in the late afternoon (3-5) is going to be the hottest time of the day. Simply put, the longer the sun has been out, the more the heat has been building up, and it doesn't really stop building until the sun starts going down. If you want the best odds of being there when then weather is most comfortable, you'd want to be there first thing in the morning.

That's not to say you can't go through in the afternoon, or that any time is "too hot," but what you are talking about will typically put you there during the hottest part of the day. That might not even be a horrible thing, because there is something to be said about just having the experience of being in that kind of heat.

Of course, if I'm reading your plan right, it now sounds like you are planning to drive Across Tioga Pass and all the way to Vegas this day? If that's true, your time in DV is going to be extremely limited anyway, so it shouldn't make much difference.