Honeymoon Road Trip - San Fran to San Fran via......

[elkie1278]

Hi all,

This is my first post on this forum so please be gentle with me :-)

Having narrowed down and narrowed down and narrowed down some more we have decided to have our honeymoon in California/South West US driving from San Francisco to San Francisco in the space of around 3 weeks.

Originally the plan was to go San Fran (2 nights) - Yosemite (2 nights) - Death Valley (1 night) - Zion NP (2 nights) - Lake Powell (2 nights) - Grand Canyon (3 nights) - Joshua NP (1 night) - Santa Barbara (1 night) - Carmel (1 night) - San Francisco (2 nights) over the course of 20 nights in June (the above only covers 17 nights but gives us a bit of leeway), BUT, the more I look at it the more I realise how huge this area of country is and how many miles we're going to have to cover. Having read in another post how it would be better to do the LA to San Fran stint North to South I might choose to do this in reverse now but my questions still remain:

- Is this an achievable route? Balancing the "seeing things" with "relaxing and enjoying"
- Have I chosen the best things to see in the best way? If any of those things were to be removed or swapped which would they be?
- Is this a good time of year to go and see these things?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

[Midwest Michael]

Welcome to the RTA Forum!

It looks to me like you've done a great job in your planning and I think you've done an excellent job of striking a balance between seeing a lot, without doing too much.

There are a couple minor things I would consider.

First, reversing the trip as you mentioned would have 2 potential upsides. First, you'd have the advantage of driving on the coast side of the PCH, the other is that you will increase your odds of Tioga Pass being open. The pass through Yosemite typically opens in May or June, and this has been a mild winter so far, but the later into June you'd arrive there, the greater the odds that it will have reopened for the summer.

I'd also look at adding Bryce Canyon to your plans, either using some of the extra days or possibly by taking a day away from Grand Canyon or Lake Powell. You might also look at spending a night in Vegas or look at Monument Valley with your extra time, but all of that would just be gravy on top of an already good plan.

[elkie1278]

Thank you - great to have some confirmation that I'm not trying to do much (as usual) :-)

[Southwest Dave]

Great job ! Although I would also recomend changing things up a little between Zion and Grand canyon and spend a night at Bryce canyon and include a side trip to Monument Valley. If for example, you wnet from Lake Powell to Monument Valley you could stop a night in Kayenta or the pretty cool 'Cameron Trading post' which would leave you just a short drive to the GC South rim entering via Desert View Drive. Bryce canyon has 'Rubys Inn' right by the entrance to the park and Springdale is a wonderful little town on the doorstep of Zion NP.

If you want to stay in, or close by to National Parks I would start checking availability, it could be a little late already for staying in some of the parks. Try and leave a couple of nights at the end of your trip to enjoy the wonderful City of San Fran snd reflect on your trip. I would highly recommend booking an Alcatraz tour in advance. This is the only official booking office where you don't have to pay agents fee or combine it with other tours.

[elkie1278]

Thanks both. Really helpful suggestions I'm going to investigate a little further.

One part of the journey I'm not entirely sure of at the moment is the Santa Barbara to Grand Canyon section. Is Joshua Tree NP the best place to stop? What alternatives are there? I've heard of people stopping at Jerome, Sedona or Prescott
which doesn't seem to split the journey up much and then there's the option of going to Vegas or somewhere along the road past Mojave National Preserve. Any suggestions would be welcomed.

[Southwest Dave]

You will find that the Sedona area is a destination in itself, rather than an ideal location for an overnight stop. You could ceetainly head to Joshua Tree NP to break the journey, perhaps stopping around Twenty Nine Palms. As Vegas isn't in you current itinerary it is certainly an option, although you could overnight there when travelling from DV to Zion NP.

You could stop around Kingman, Laughlin ot Lake Havasu, [home to London Bridge] or further west in Barstow where nearby is Calico Ghost town. With any of these options you could certainly drive through part of the Mojave as well. There is no right or wrong answers, just good options that might come down to the time you leave GC and the time you want to arrive in SB. You also have the chance to drive along part of route 66 through Seligman or even consider heading to the Hoover Dam.

It's all good, sorry that's not much help !! lol

[elkie1278]

Ha ha....thanks Southwest Dave - I think the part drive of Route 66 might win the day so I might work on that basis.

You've been exceedingly helpful. Thank you so much. :-)

[Southwest Dave]

Keep asking questions as and when you need to.

You are in for a great trip and a memorable Honeymoon, Congratulations by the way !! I hope you will also drop by and treat us to a Roadtrip report afterwards !

Dave.

[elkie1278]

Thanks Dave. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions between now and then and I will definitely add a Roadtrip report. I'm planning on putting together a blog to chart planning progress and the actual trip so I'll keep you posted.

Thanks again,
Kirsty

[Lifemagician]

... and I will definitely add a Roadtrip report. I'm planning on putting together a blog to chart planning progress and the actual trip so I'll keep you posted.

Kirsty, why not consider this thread as your blog, and direct your friends here, to see how the planning is all coming together. If the url to this thread is too long to handle, consider converting it into a tiny url.

During, or after your trip, you can post a complete log of what you did, where you went, what you saw, etc. along with pictures, in our special RoadTrip Field Report Forum.

It is by far the best way to make sure your experiences are read by future roadtrippers. No knowing how much they will learn from it.

Lifey