Hi everyone!

I have to say that I've found very useful information on previous forums, but we still need some orientation...

We are coming to Vegas on May (first two weeks) and then we continue to San Francisco. We have a tight schedule since we are traveling with a group and we have to be in San Francisco for a specific date. Nonetheless, we are really trying to fit in a brief visit to Death Valley and Sequoia National Park on our way to San San Francisco. We just have two days and one night to do so (and we are already pushing it!), so we are trying to make the most of it. We already know it is a long way and there's a lot to see in both parks, but we would be happy if we can make it to some highlights of Death Valley and some hours in Giants Forest and a visit to General Sherman Tree in Sequoia Park, and then SF... Hopefully we can make it through a nice scenic route and stay in a small typical town in between. We want to have a taste of the area, expecting to be able to go back in the future and include Yosemite plus others...

So, I have so questions that hopefully someone can help me answer...

1) Which would be the best shortest route through Death Valley? And by that I mean a route that allows us to see one or two of the not to miss spots, but still keep it as short as possible. We do know that in order to see the spots we will have to make detours, but again... we don't have the ideal time line, so trying to make the best of it.

2) With that idea, what would be the best place to spend the night? We'd like to sleep as close as possible to Sequoia, in order to start early on the second day...

3) Considering the choices of places to sleep, we would like a real time estimate, since we are getting very different information when it comes to that.

Btw, we had to rule out the possibility of Yosemite, because we can't be sure of whether Tioga Pass will be open around May 9th or 10th... So, we figured that the next best option considering the group's interest was Sequoia...

Thanks in advance!!