From San Francisco to Las Vegas via Sequoia and Death Valley

[garibaldi]

Dear all,
We are a family of four (46, 45, 12, 10). This is the trip we planned:

- august 5 - 7: SF
- august 8: from SF to Sequoia (visiting part of it)
- august 9: from Sequoia (or nearby) to Furnace Creek (visiting part of the DV)
- august 10: from Furnace Creek to LV (visiting some other point of the DV)
- august 10 - 11: LV (and then we will go on toward GC, Arizona and Utah).

Unfortunately we cannot add other days to SF, and days in LV are fixed too. We already saw Yosemite, so this time we would skip it and visit Sequoia.
We plan to leave Sequoia the morning after, making an intermediate stop (Lake Isabella?) at half way to DV, so to enter DV when its (a little...:-)) less hot.

How do you find our program? Do you think that leaving from SF in the morning will leave us enough time to visit Sequoia (at least Giant forest section)?
It's a good option sleeping in the park?
At what time of the afternoon should be better entering into the DV, in order to avoid hottest hours and arriving to Furnace Creek enough before sunset?

Any advice or comment will be really appreciated! Thank you very much
Roberto

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I think your trip with the time you have available will work OK. This link shows some of the lodging options inside and out of the park. If your budget can manage staying inside the park, I would definitely recommend it, especially on your tight schedule.

The weather is unpredictable, but you can be assured that Death Valley will either be very HOT, or HOTTER !! Having looked at data, it would seem that once you hit 11am to 12 noon and the Midday sun, temps start topping the 100's [115f not unusual] and it can be 7 to 8 pm before it starts to drop back below 100f and eventually to a 'mere' 85f. The coolest part of the day is early morning between 6 and up to 10am when once again things warm up again rather rapidly. Make sure you have sun protection and carry plenty of water.

[garibaldi]

Hi Dave,

Thank you so much for your reply and useful advice. I will go through the lodging options and check for the best solution.
Do you have any advice about the best route from Sequoia to Death Valley, and any place along the track that would worth a short stop or visit? We thaught about Lake Isabella, but we don't know how the road and the place are.

Do you also know where I could find info about sunset hours at the beginning of August in that area, so to plan the driving trip avoiding the risk of being along the road when night falls.

Anyone's further advice or comment would be really welcome!
Thank you very much

[sputnik]

There may be better links, but I've always used http://www.sunrisesunset.com/ calendars to get an idea for when sunset and sunrise will be for a particular month. There are other better sites, but this was the only one I found that had smaller towns and cities in them, for example Bishop CA for Death Valley

[Southwest Dave]

There are options between Sequoia and DV, but not really a single 'best route'. The road through Lake Isabella is fine but there are also options going through that way. If you exit Sequoia through Three rivers to Exeter you can take CA 65 South through the miles of Lemon Groves to CA155 to Wofford Heights and around Lake Isabella to CA 178, or you could continue South to Bakersfield on 65 [or take CA99 to Bakersfield] to CA178 and up through Kern canyon. I think either of these options are worth the little extra time compared to the option of taking the faster CA58 to CA14.

There is another very scenic option through the Sequoia National forest that goes through Johnsondale and down the Kern river highway into Kernville to Isabella, but it's slow going and I think would be a bit much with your limited time.

Here's another link for DV daylight hours.