San Fran, Big Sur, Sequoia, Yosemite, Mono, Tahoe, Vegas

[AdventureZoe]

Hi Everyone!

I'm planning a 3 weeks trip in July/Aug 2014 in a 35ft RV - we're Mum, Dad, 2 kids from England. This is our 2nd RV Trip. Would you please be helpful enough to review my planned itinerary and offer comments - particularly great scenic drives from place to place :)

We're 2 days in San Fran, then down PCH to Big Sur, then across to Sequoia via Three Rivers - thought we'd take the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road? But unsure which way from here and is there anywhere we can stop overnight to break up the Journey in this area? I think it may be too far to drive from Big Sur to Three Rivers on the same day?

Then Sequoia to Kings Canyon - then up to Yosemite (Is Fresno the best place to stop overnight? Anywhere more scenic?) Over Tioga Pass to Lee Vining – to see Mono Lake.

We’d then like to go up to Tahoe on the 395, but have to return back past Mono Lake again to go down to Mamouth Lakes area, and then across Death Valley on the 190 to Vegas. I didn't really want to retrace our steps - unless there are 2 quite different routes we can take up and down to South Tahoe? I had considered going via Grover Hot Springs on the way up? Not sure if I'd get to them in the RV?
Any guidance / advice would be very welcome. Also if there are any great sights I've missed out that would be a shame to miss?
Thanks x

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to the RTA forums !

I haven't driven it, but I'm fairly sure the Nacimiento-Fergusson Road is no place for an RV, and I'm pretty adventurous. I think your best bet would be to continue down to Cambria and enjoy more of the coast highway.

You will also have to check on the status of the 'Generals Highway' when you travel. It's the road from Three Rivers through Sequoia NP which is a slow twisty road with lenght restrictions. I have driven it in a 30ft RV 'out of season' and it wasn't to bad, although it was a work out. It will be a lot busier in July and August and the narrow sections will prove , shall we say, "interesting". More importantly they have [temporarily ?] reduced the legal lenght requirement you need to travel it, I'm not sure what this is at the moment, you would have to check on the nps site. If it were closed you can still get into the park from the Kings canyon entry point found on 180 from Fresno. [Advisory used to be around 24ft in lenght with a legal limit of 40ft, which is currently set at 22ft for the GH between Hospital Rock and the Giants forest.]]

It's also more than likely that you will not be permitted to drive across Death Valley in an RV rental. Most companies forbid it during the summer months and you would be in breach of your contract if that were the case.

With an RV the best places to camp are in the National parks themselves, unless you want resort type facilities that is. National park RV sites are limited and would need to be booked asap after the booking window opens.

Have you considered driving a complete loop ? You could head down to Cambria and across to Vegas [with time to spend a night or 2 at the Grand canyon if you wanted] and then to Sequoia, Yosemite and over Tioga Pass to Mono Lake and up to Tahoe before returning to San Francisco.

Depending on the pace that you like to travel at, if you included Grand canyon, other places you could consider would be Monument Valley and a couple of National parks of Southern Utah, Zion and Bryce canyon.