I am planning a California road trip to see Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon in August 2018. I tried to book the trip the way Fodor's recommended: flying into San Francisco and ending in Los Angeles. However, the rooms in the park at Yosemite (Yosemite Valley Lodge) were not available for my first week of vacation so I booked five nights for my second week. Before I get too crazy booking the lodges at Kings Canyon and Sequoia, is there any reason why I couldn't just do the Fodor's road trip in reverse and fly into Los Angeles and out of San Francisco? Its summer, all the roads should be open and The Fodor's trip says you can do the whole thing (north to south in five days). I have two weeks, so I think this should work out. Any opinions?

If you are renting a car anyway, fly to or take a San Joaquin train to Fresno. You can rent and return the car at the Fresno airport. Do you want to spend time in San Francisco or Los Angeles?
You can get on a San Joaquin train in Emeryville (near San Francisco) or you can board an Amtrak bus out of Los Angeles Union station to Bakersfield transferring to the train to Fresno.
Allegiant Airlines also has flights to/from Fresno from Las Vegas if you would want to go there to fly out.

Though I love train travel, I don't think any of what Tom describes is worth the trouble, especially given the uncertainty of arrival/departure times, but mostly because it's just easier to drive. Where he does have a point, though, is regarding your plans for LA and San Francisco. If there are none, it matters not at all which direction you go or airport or airports you use. You could even cross Tioga Pass (hwy 120) on the east side of Yosemite and fly home from Reno and enjoy beautiful hwy 395.

The train makes next to no sense here. Inconvenient to/from SFO and to LAX

>>is there any reason why I couldn't just do the Fodor's road trip in reverse and fly into Los Angeles and out of San Francisco? SFO or SFO > LAX.

In summer it is really best to stay in Yosemite Valley because of traffic and parking issues. So if you can get a room at the Lodge -- definitely reverse the order.

Fresno is definitely the closest for flying in and out. If you can't find accomodations in the parks themselves try Coursegold for Yosemite and Three Rivers for Sequoia

>>try Coursegold

Actually, it's not just the same to start in SFO and end at LAX. It's significantly cheaper to rent a car at LAX than at SFO, and there's rarely a large drop-off fee for the south-to-north trip. Since you have two weeks, that's what I'd do, and then you can spend the first week along the Central Coast.

I was thinking much the same as Doug. SFO and LAX are the largest public airports in California but they are far from the easiest to get in and out of. If the OP can fly into Sacramento or Fresno and return the car where they rent it, they can save many miles of driving and a possible drop fee.
My DW will be riding the San Joaquin from Stockton to Bakersfield tomorrow. If she had chosen to fly, I would have driven her over 4 hours to PDX and she would have to rent a car from Burbank or LAX.
As it is, she calls Enterprise and they meet her at the Newhall Metro station.
Both the Merced Amtrak station and the Fresno airport (FAT) have a connection to the YARTS bus system.
I like the Sacramento airport (SMF) for the ease of getting onto I-5. I'm guessing their car rentals are usually cheaper there than from SFO or LAX.

No problem flying in to LAX and out of SFO. You'll be able to drive up the east side of the Sierra Nevada and use Tioga Pass road to enter the park..which is much less scary than driving down Tioga Pass Road on the way out! Also the line to enter is usually shorter in Tuolumne Meadows.

I've stayed in both Mammoth Mountain or Bishop when using that route. June is another possibility as is Lee Vining. Bear in mind that many of the falls will not be running in August. And that Yosemite Valley is a ZOO during summer school holidays. There was a ridiculous amount of traffic and roadworks last July.. be sure to check the park traffic conditions. You may even want to cancel if it's really bad.

If you do go and want to drive up to Glacier Point (recommended) leave really early (even to the point of skipping breakfast) ...otherwise you will be diverted to remote parking.