Vegas - Death Valley - Sequoia - Anaheim

[lizard]

Hey guys,

this summer I'm going on a (road) trip around the USA with my best friend. We will start in Miami, onwards to the Keys, fly to Nashville, see Memphis and Graceland (by car) and we'll go on through Louisiana to New Orleans. From there, we will fly to San Francisco and we will take the Green Tortoise bus tour to Yellowstone and the bend of national parks in Utah/Arizona. We will leave the bus in Las Vegas. After staying in Vegas for three nights, we will visit Death Valley and from here on it's not very clear what we should do...

We were thinking about renting a car in Las Vegas on August 2nd and drive up to Death Valley. We will quickly visit Furnace Creek and then head to Artist point and Badwater. At the end of the day, we will drive to Death Valley Junction to stay at Amargosa's or to a hotel in Tecopa. Is it save to camp there, in Tecopa? With the snakes and stuff..?

Next day, we will get up very early, when it's still dark outside, to visit Zabriskie Point just before and during sunrise (around what time will that be, more or less?). From there we will probably visit Furnace Creek again or take a better look at it if we've skipped it the day before. Then we'll be going to see Ubehebe Crater and Scotty's Castle. We'll head back to see the sand dunes and Stovepipe Wells. We are planning to be at Stovepipes before sunset, so we can see the sun setting near the beautiful sand dunes. Is this a good way to see the entire park? And are the mentioned times, indeed the best times to see the sights?

We will stay in a hotel just outside the park, near the Sequoia Park, but I saw that there are no good roads from Death Valley to Sequoia Park and also Google shows us nothing but a road around the entire sequoia park... is there another option? We have to be in Anaheim that evening, around 8/9. Is this possible? Going from Death Valley to Sequoia to Anaheim in about 12 hours? If not, is there any other stuff worth making a detour from DV to Anaheim?

I really hope one of you can help us with this :)

Regards,

Desiree (Netherlands)

[lizard]

I'm sorry, I already read somewhere at the forum that it is not possible to drive directly into sequoia national park from death valley!

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

The problem with your plan is that Sequoia National Park is on the opposite side of the Sierra Nevada mountains as Death Valley. While they appear close "as the crow flies," It is nearly a full day drive from DV to Sequoia all by itself, going the fastest route via Lake Isabella/Bakersfield. That means You certainly couldn't make it back to Anaheim that same day.

If you just want to see some big trees, what you might be able to do is try to stay around Lake Isabella on day two. Spend a little time in the Sequoia National Monument and tour the "trail of 100 giants" (near Johnsondale) and still make it back to Anaheim in one day. You'd probably have to leave DV before sunset, to make that work, but you could probably arraign your trip to be at the sand dunes for sunset on your first day in DV.

Based on the size of your trip and the number of flights, I'm assuming you've got a pretty healthy budget for this trip, so I would recommend you look closely at spending the night right in Death Valley, like Furnance Creek or Stovepipe Wells.