las vegas to san francisco in april

[Eleanor]

My family and I are planning to drive from las vegas to san francisco mid april, with two overnight stops, so three days driving. We want to do the scenic route through death valley and on to yosemite. The route we had planned was to take the I15 from las vegas to baker, then the 127 to death valley junction and then west on the 190 to the 395 and up to yosemite. We had intended to go west through yosemite and on to san francisco, but reading your advice on similar queries has alerted me to the fact that the tioga pass will be closed, making it a little more complicated! We still want to take the 395 through owens valley, but if we go past yosemite and take the 108 west will the sonora pass be open, and is it a nice drive? Any advice is greatly appreciated, similarly, are there any difficulties driving through death valley at that time of year that we might not have anticipated?

Hwy 108, Sonora Pass and Hwy 4, Ebbetts Pass are both closed for the winter. Depending on the amount of snow they do start plowing those highways in April but there's no telling when they will open.

You can check here for when they open:

http://www.dot.ca.gov/cgi-bin/roads.cgi

[Martin Riddell]

My family and I have have a similar question. We are flying in to SF and I was hoping to take an RV to Yosemite, Death Valley and then to LA. With the winter closure of the 120 the only toute I can see is Fresno, Bakersfield, Ridgecrest. Seems fairly obvious but just want to make sure I am not missing anything obvious. Is this the only option?

[UK]

Eleanor,

I recommend visitors to my site this link
http://www.caltrans.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/clsdates.htm
If that does not give you the info you want, you can soon find it from that page.

Have a great trip.

UK

http://www.uk-2-usa.com

What time of the year will you be going? Hwy 120 can open as early as mid-May to July 1st. I would check first.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/now/conditions.htm

No matter what time of the year you will need reservations to camp in Yosemite Valley and I highly recommend staying in the valley. You can park the RV and ride the free shuttle buses around.

http://www.nps.gov/yose/trip/camping.htm

You might also want to make reservations for Death Valley.

Utahtea