Difficult question: How many hours drive - Yellowstone to LA
 

Our West coast road trip (starting Aug. 30 in LA going to Death Valley, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Seattle)will culminate in a visit to Yellowstone Park/Wyoming on Sept. 3. We need to be back in LAX by Sept 5 for our 10:30 pm flight to NY. How many hours of driving will be involved in the travel from Wyoming to LA considering the traffic, speed limits and the rest? Is the route and time frame realistic? Is the route safe? Are there dangerous ravines? Thanks and sorry for the complex question.

Whoa, do you you really think you can cover that much ground in seven days? You'll be spending most of your time in the car, with little opportunity to see the destinations themselves.
Here are just three of the distances you mention (assuming you'll do the sites in the order listed):
San Francisco to Seattle--over 800 miles (at last 12 hours not counting any stops)
Seattle to Yellowstone--over 800 miles (at least 12 hours not counting any stops)
Yellowstone to Los Angeles--over 900 miles (at least 14 hours not counting any stops.
I'd seriously reduce the number of destinations for your trip.

Pretty overwhelming. But we want to see them all and it's so tough to prioritize. We intend to stay a day and a night at Yosemite. That should be a heavenly experience. Maybe we can skip Seattle. Not sure anyway if there's something spectacular to see there,.

<b>Totally unrealistic</b> unless all you want to do is drive. Forget Seattle and Yellowstone. California and Nevada has plenty to fill up your itinerary.

If you must see Yellowstone, then forget San Francisco and Seattle. Just take the direct route through Vegas and national parks in Utah to get to Yellowstone and back.

If you stick to your current plans, yes, you'll see them all, but in good part through your car windows.
As previous noted, cut your destinations in half. To whit:
*Seattle may be a nice city, but not really worth a two-day round-trip for just a few hours' stay.
*And, yes, Yellowstone is spectacular, but you're look at maybe four days or driving back and forth for a very brief stay in which you'll see very little of this wonderful park.
&quot;Unrealistic&quot; is definitely the right word for your current plans.

Wow. Way too much driving. I would skip Seattle, Death Valley, Yellowstone. What kind sof things do you like to do? Nightlife? Museums?

In 7 days I would focus on at the most, LA, SF, and the coast in between.

Do have any idea of how far these places are from each other. You are looking at a total of over 3,600 miles in 7 days. That means you are going to drive over 500 miles a day so 8 /12 hours of EACH and EVERY day will be JUST driving! This doesn't take into consideration site seeing, pit stops and eatting so you won't have time for a day in Yosemite let alone anywhere else.

I would drop Seattle and Yellowstone. Yellowstone alone needs at least 3 days to see all there is to see in this park.

Utahtea

To answser your orginial question. It's 1007 miles from West Yellowstone to L.A. Most of it will be on Interstate 15 which is a pretty fast and safe drive.

NOW for the BIGGY. You have to be back in Los Angeles on Monday, Sept. 5th which is the last day of the Labor Day Weekend so all bets are off on how long it will take you to drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles. I have seen bumper to bumper traffic on a regular Sunday from Barstow to Los Angeles which is 114 miles. It will be a lot worse on a holiday weekend.

BTW, You will also run into traffic in the Salt Lake City area and Las Vegas area which will slow you down.

Utahtea

whew, thanks for the input guys. Our itinerary will undergo major changes.

Keep us posted. I'd love to hear your trip report when you get back!

Utahtea