philjo1

My husband and I are going to CA for my 40th birthday, and I'd like some suggestions for our travel itinerary. We're flying into Sacramento and will be in CA for 7 days in mid-November. We definitely want to see Yosemite and the sequoias, and I think we'll go to Lake Tahoe, too. Also, my husband has never seen the Pacific, so I'd like to work that into the trip. Can anyone give me a recommended route? Thanks!

jet519

Date: 10/11/2004, 06:06 pm

Message: It sounds like you are primarily interested in the beautiful scenery; mountains, lakes, ocean. It would help if you say what kinds of things you want to do in those areas as well. I am not from CA but I have been out there several times and been to these places at least once or twice. I have a best friend near Sacramento and have gone to visit her for a week the past two years so we have been to Tahoe, Monterey Bay, Big Sur, wine country etc.
The first thing that I would check out is what the weather will be like in Tahoe and Yosemite. Since they are mountainous, it may be possible that snow could be an issue.

If the weather is not a concern, you can drive to Tahoe from Sacramento in probably two to three hours easily. There are several different ways you can get there; On the interstate 80 to Truckee and drive down the West side along the lake stopping along the way is one way. Or you could go the country way on Rte. 50 and even hit some of the Amador county wineries and some charming little towns by going off the beaten track. There are bed and breakfasts or inns in some of these areas in the little towns there too if you want to make it a leisurely trip to Tahoe. Personally, the two times I have been to Tahoe, I have felt that a full day and one night is plenty of time to just see the beauty of the area, take a hike, general sightseeing. You can make a day of driving around the whole thing and it is stunning.
When we went to Tahoe, then Yosemite, we went down Rte. 88/89 etc. into the Tuolumne Meadows entrance and then drove all the way down to the valley where all of the famous sights are. That could be a weather issue and you may not really want to take that much time. It is a haul of a drive. What you could do instead, is take I 80 to Tahoe, head to the South end of the lake area, spend the night, then head out on Rte. 50, do the little towns along the way to the Village area of Yosemite then on down to Mariposa grove for the Sequoias.
Depending on when you get into Sacramento, you could spend a night or two working your way through Tahoe and the trip down to Yosemite.
From Yosemite, you could head over to the coast through Merced, Gilroy, Hollister, San Juan Battista (great mission there) and then end up in the Monterey Bay area to spend the rest of the time there. I have done all of these things and it was great! You just need to get a good map and start planning the mileage, and your activites so you can figure out where to stay every night to make the most of everything. I can give lots more suggestions but this is already long enough for now!!!

curmudgeon

It is a bit of a stretch, though certainly not impossible, to do all three points. Though they don't seem that far apart, it takes the better part of a day to drive from Tahoe to Yosemite (a lot of winding mountain roads and no direct route). The east entrance to Yosemite will almost certainly be closed in Nov. You might want to just do Yosemite and the coast. There is definitely potential for rain, so it helps if you are not on a tight schedule if Yosemite is clouded in.

I would suggest Sacramento to Yosemite, to Monterey/Carmel. Depending on time, you could return to Sacramento either via the main highways, or go up the coast on highway 1 across the golden gate bridge and around through Napa.

philjo1

Thanks for the great suggestions!

As far as what our interests are: we like the outdoors (views and not-too-strenuous hiking!); good food; and learning new things or studying history (ex. museums,ghost towns ). I also like shopping We're not interested in the wineries, as we're teetotalers.

curmudgeon

Some other points you might enjoy would be some of the old gold-rush era towns in the foothills of the Sierras, such as Auburn, Columbia, Sonora etc. If you look for CA 49 on a map, you will see many of them strung along it. The "Old Town" area of Sacramento is also interesting, along with the big railroad museum nearby.

For the coast, you could do it as a day trip from Sacramento to SF or Pt Reyes. If you have more time for the coast, then a couple of days in Monterey with day trip down to Big Sur and maybe Hearst Castle.