Last minute RV trip leaving Easter Friday

[Kmarshall]

Hi RTA,
Please help plan our last minute RV trip!
We are leaving this Friday (Easter) for 13 nights departing from and arriving back in Dublin, California in a 39' RV. We are from Australia and have two small children (1yo and 3yo).
We would like to see Yosemite, Death Valley, Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Masa Verde, Crater Lake, Yellowstone (unfortunately closed), Trees of Mystery and MT Rushmore (too far). My husband also loves anything country and western - music, movies, people and places.
With small children we can't travel for too long each day and if we enjoy a place enough we would like to stay a day or two to go for leisurely walks, bike rides and swimming (weather permitting). If snow is present up north we're packing the sled.
Any help with our itinerary, recommondations on things to see, do, where to camp would be greatly appreciated. We've been pondering/researching this for a few days and we're running out of time to plan what will be an epic trip before heading home to Australia.

[Southwest Dave]

Hello and welcome to RTA !

Yellowstone and Crater Lake will be very limited access and would be best left on the 'to do' list. I would look towards the National parks of southern Utah along with Yosemite and the Grand canyon and Mesa Verde etc. Although 13 days is a nice amount of time its easy to try and cram to much in. The Tioga pass that crosses the Sierras from Yosemite to Death valley is closed at present and if it remains that way you would have to drive around the mountains either north or south. .NPs in Utah include Zion and Bryce canyon, Capitol Reef, Arches and Canyonlands. You could visit some or all of these and then drive to Mesa Verde and Four corners then through Monument valley to Grand canyon.

The best places to camp are inside the parks if you can find available sites for that size rig.

[AZBuck]

I agree with Dave about the places that simply aren't available to you this early in the season (Crater Lake and Yellowstone) and agree that it is always tempting to try to squeeze too much into the time available. That is especially true when you're so far from home, have put out considerable time, effort and money to get here, and don't know when or if you'll ever get back. But I do think you have more time than he might be giving you credit for. What I'd look at is a trip that went Bay Area, Yosemite, Las Vegas, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Page (Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon), the Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Petrified Forest, Salt River Canyon, Tucson, Joshua Tree National Park, Pacific Coast Highway, Carmel/Monterey, and back to Dublin. Such a basic routing would have you on the road for the equivalent of 6-7 days allowing you to spend at least half of your travel time out of the RV experiencing the sites you've traveled so far to get to, and would keep you out of large cities for the most part so that you can make the best use of your RV. As always the final choice of route and attractions is up to you, but we'll do everything we can over the next few days to help you make an informed decision.

AZBuck

[glc]

I would reverse the direction, go down the coast first, so the scenic pullouts will be on your side of the road. This will also increase the odds of Tioga Pass being open.