San Fran - Grand Canyon

[Hizzle]

I would like to plan a road trip this December for 3 weeks. I would like to do the following route but I'm not sure if the weather will permit etc. Any advice appreciated!

San Fran - Yosemite - Death Valley - Las Vegas - Grand Canyon

December is the best time for us to travel so if this route isn't possible can anyone suggest a possible route??

Thanks in advance!

H

[Mark Sedenquist]

Three weeks is a reasonable time frame for your trip, however, the road over the Sierras from Yosemite (Tioga Pass) is closed that time of the year. For plenty of advice about alternative routes, use the gray search button (select for all topics) and look for references for "Tioga Pass" --

[Damon]

Hi,

I have done this road trip last year (April-May) and the Tioga Pass was closed then so would recommend hitting Yosemite on the way back through. From San Francisco take the I80 east to Sacramento and then on to South Lake Tahoe (amazing snowboarding) and is one of the most beautiful places you will see. Then travel across to Virginia City for the old gold rush town and then down to Mammoth Lakes, this can be done in about 4 hours. From Mammoth Lakes to Death Valley, again another 4 hours. Death Valley to Las Vegas is only about 2 hours and then Vegas to Grand Canyon about 4 1/2 hours. Back to Vegas over night and then it's a long drive up to Oakhurst (just outside Yosemite), this took us about 9 hours but was quite a nice drive. After touring Yosemite you can then travel west to Santa Cruz and then drive along the coast to San Francisco, this is a lovely drive and I would highly recommend it. We did all this in 2 weeks spending two days roughly in each place.

Hope this helps.