SF to Yosemite To Death Valley To LA to SF

Hello RTA!

I am planning a road trip around 22nd of March 2017.
Planning to drive from

San Francisco to Yosemite
Reach, next two days explore park, fourth morning leave.
Spend three nights there.
(I believe I can enter from Arch Rock Entrance or Big Oak Flat Entrance. Maybe take a detour and try the Southern Entrance. Any advice on where to stay, as close to the Park (or inside) as possible. Wanted to stay at Yosemite Valley Lodge but it seems there is no availability.)
Nearby Yosemite are some small old Gold Rush era towns. Any recommendations on visiting any such places?

Then Yosemite to Death Valley.
Spend two nights there.
Anything near DV?

Then DV to LA
Spend maybe 3 nights (want to set up some work related meetings as well)

Then come back to SF.


Any advice on best routes (scenic), and best places to eat/sleep in?
Anything else that I should keep in mind?

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

I think you're going to have to adjust your plans, because of road closures.

The first is that Tioga Pass, which takes you over the Sierras through Yosemite is closed for the season, so there is no direct way to get from Yosemite to Death Valley. The fastest/most direct route at this time of year is to go around via the Bakersfield area which is basically a full day drive. Otherwise, you have to go up and around via Lake Tahoe, which takes even longer.

Second, Big Oak Flat Road is also closed right now due to storm damage, so you can not get to the Yosemite Valley via that route - which means you can't enter the park from the Groveland area. You'll have to enter the park via Mariposa or Oakhurst. It is also worth noting that you are required to carry chains in your car when visiting the park at this time of year.

Lodging withing Yosemite typically fills up months in advance, so it's not surprising that you haven't found a room available within the park. The closest places with lodging are generally also in Mariposa and Oakhurst. Keep in mind, both of those places are about a 45 minute to an hour drive from the Yosemite Valley, so keep that into account while planning your stay.

Also, you will not be able to take the PCH (CA-1) from LA to SF. There's a failed bridge at Big Sur which will not be replaced any time soon. If you want a good alternative to I-5, take US-101. It's not much slower and is more scenic.

If you are going to Bakersfield, you can leave Yosemite via the southern entrance (CA-41), go to Fresno, then take CA-99. For scenery, you can take CA-178 out of Bakersfield to get to DV, it's not any slower than CA-58.

Thanks a lot guys! Will look these directions up. Any little cozy and quaint tucked away places at DV that anyone can recommend?

Lodgings are scarce in DV (if that's what you mean by places) but you do have options at Panamint Springs, Stovepipe Wells and Furnace creek

All lodgings are sold out. Am still looking, would really want to visit this iconic landscape. Any lodging suggestions for nearby towns to DV?

If you're going to visit a National Park on short notice, you're almost always going to have to stay outside the park and commute in. For most of Death Valley, Beatty, Nevada is probably the closest place with a wide variety of lodging options. Otherwise, you might look at some of the towns to the west on US-395 like Ridgecrest or Lone Pine.

Thanks! I booked at Lone Pine. Looks like an interesting town, and with a history of film making (we are film makers ourselves) looks very interesting.

Has anyone done Bakersfield to Lone Pine via 178 (next to Isabella Lake) route? Looks like a scenic route... (answered by @GLC in a previous post)

(Would have booked much in advance but were waiting for certain confirmations for the travel. )

If you have time available you should drive out to the Alabama Hills from Lone Pine which was home to many film locations. The Mobus Arch trail is a nice walk with views of Mt Whitney.

CA178 is a pleasant enough route and your best option in my opinion.

Thanks @SouthwestDave!

I am calculating time taken to drive based on Google Maps' estimates (adding about two hours for our breaks, as we both love to stop and take pictures whenever possible).

For example, Fish Camp CA to Lone Pine, is shown as 323 miles and 5.25 hours on Maps. I am assuming it would take 7 hours. Is that a fair time? I hope I don't underestimate the times required.

My journeys are SF to Fish Camp
Fish camp to Lone Pine
Lone Pine to LA
LA back to SF

- Thinking of renting a car from Alamo. Mostly because they are slightly more affordable than Avis and also because they responded faster than Avis and Hertz to my email queries (I still haven't heard from Avis and Hertz). Anything to keep in mind/be aware of while renting a car? I want to buy insurance as well.

Your drives are all doable but you are right to add plenty of time to Google estimates that are just not 'real world'. A computer thinks us mere humans can drive at the speed limit all day without facing traffic congestion and construction delays never mind having to fill with fuel, use the bathroom, eat and actually rest. Fort example Fish camp to Lone Pine will take closer to 6.5 hours with the brief stops mentioned above, plus any extra time if you plan to sight see. LA is LA and once you hit the area there is no telling how much time it may take to get across the city especially in peak periods, but you are in good shape.

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Originally Posted by theloststory

- Thinking of renting a car from Alamo. Mostly because they are slightly more affordable than Avis and also because they responded faster than Avis and Hertz to my email queries (I still haven't heard from Avis and Hertz). Anything to keep in mind/be aware of while renting a car? I want to buy insurance as well.

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I've been happy with Alamo when I've used them. When I've used them, they've had a kiosk to check in available, which can be faster than waiting in line, and they let you pick any car they have, in the class of car you've reserved, which is nice.

I would make sure you figure out what insurance you want and need before you start out on this trip. Buying insurance at the rental counter is usually the most expensive way to do it, and you can easily be pressured into buying coverage you don't need. Typically, between your personal insurance for the car you own and your credit card, you really don't need any extra insurance. If you do need extra insurance, you might want to look around at 3rd parties that offer insurance on rental cars that might be cheaper than through the rental company.

Hi everyone! Thanks for all the wonderful advice! I successfully completed my trip and am back home in Mumbai.

I rented a Ford Explorer 2017 and loved it. The inbuilt Navigation Software was awesome. Is it Garmin? It was pretty thirsty though, consuming about 19.5 miles to the gallon. I wanted to drive a Grand Cherokee but it wasn't available on my dates.

We drove from SF to Death Valley to LA to Yosemite to Sequoia National Park to SF again (had to push Yosemite because of weather). I used the routes suggested by the car navigation. The trip was kind of hectic and I didn't have enough time or good working internet to find alternate, more scenic routes, though I would have loved to.

In Death Valley we stayed at Lone Pine and loved it. We drove up to Alabama Hills on Whiteny Portal Road and it was awesome.

What I found kind of weird was I couldn't find a tyre inflators with a built in pressure meter. Back home in India, we have digital machines (all of them) where you can preset your required tyre PSI and it fills only that much and auto shuts. I couldn't find that in the US.

Thanks again for all the help! These are awesome forums.

Thanks for stopping back and letting us know how things went.

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Originally Posted by theloststory

I used the routes suggested by the car navigation. The trip was kind of hectic and I didn't have enough time or good working internet to find alternate, more scenic routes, though I would have loved to.

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I'm glad everything worked out, but next time, hopefully you look at real (paper, no internet required) maps when plotting out your adventure. Blindly doing what a GPS tells you to do can quickly cause you to run into problems - especially when you're dealing with trips around mountains in winter!

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What I found kind of weird was I couldn't find a tyre inflators with a built in pressure meter. Back home in India, we have digital machines (all of them) where you can preset your required tyre PSI and it fills only that much and auto shuts. I couldn't find that in the US.

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I've seen them around at a few places, but they aren't very common. Air pumps aren't exactly a high profit area for gas stations, so as long as what they've got is working, they aren't really motivated to update them!

Reopening an old thread, but I wanted to share pictures from gorgeous Lone Pine.

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