Planning a September road trip

[James Shaw]

Hi everyone

I am new to this site and I am wanting advice in relation to a road trip myself and my nephew wish to take in September this year, nothing is planned as yet but was thinking of flying into Vegas from UK then travelling through Death Valley, Yosemite, Sacramento, San Francisco, Highway 1 to LA, then back to Vegas.

If anyone has any recommendations regarding the above wish list on where to stay, what to see along route it would be most appreciated.

We thought of spending around 16 days doing this but again nothing confirmed yet.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this and I look forward to reading your posts.

James Shaw

[AZBuck]

Welcome aboard the RoadTrip America Forums!

To start with, I am curious as to why you chose the places you chose, how much input your nephew had, and what it is you hope to get out of this trip. Knowing any or all of those things will greatly help us help you.

At first glance, I would make one change to your itinerary, and that is to leave Death Valley until your return leg from Los Angeles to Las Vegas. This will change your route but will minimize the amount of road you're driving twice. To do this Tioga Pass will have to be open. While that shouldn't be a problem in September, doing it early in your trip will help assure that it is open.

So, from Las Vegas, you'd head up US-95 to Tonopah, then use US-6 and CA-120 (partially duplexed with US-395 to Lee Vining and Mono Lake. CA-120 west from there will take you over Tioga Pass and into Yosemite National Park. From there your itinerary to Sacramento, San Francisco, and Los Angeles can proceed as you outlined. As I implied earlier, without knowing what you and your nephew are looking for it's hard to recommend things in major metropolitan areas where there is so much to do.

One thing I would say is that CA-1 is a gorgeous road and draws a lot of tourists, surfers and beach bums. This is especially true of the areas just south of San Francisco and north of Los Angeles. But the stretch between roughly Monterey and Santa Barbara is much less crowded. That may figure into your planning.

Your final leg then would be CA-14 north out of Los Angeles through Lancaster and continuing north until you join US-395. At Olancha take CA-190 east through Death Valley. This road becomes NV-374 when it crosses the state line and will take you to Beaty where US-95 south will let you complete your loop back to Las Vegas.

There is the odd 'short-cut' here and there along this basic route, but some of the roads are of 'B' road quality with few if any traveler services. If you like adventure and will have a good GPS (sat-nav) we can point you to a few.

More generally, two other things you should look into are whether a National Parks Pass would make sense, and whether any of the National Parks you plan to visit have age-appropriate Junior Ranger activities that interest your nephew.

AZBuck

[Southwest Dave]

Hi. As you are doing a loop trip it doesn't matter where your start and end point is, so look for the best flight and rental deals combined. We (being from the UK) find that flying in and out of LA offers the best value. You could possibly include some of the amazing NP's of southern Utah, Zion and Bryce canyon for example and of course there is the Grand canyon. Search around the RTA site for ideas and as you start to build your trip we can help with any questions you may have.
Enjoy the planning!

[DonnaR57]

Once you get your plans made, you will have to get your reservation to enter Yosemite. Yes, you read that correctly: Yosemite is one of the over-loved parks where you need reservations just to get in the gate! So get the reservation in place, and let everything else work around that. Yes, even in September!

This is not the only US national park making reservations mandatory; there are several.


Donna