Hello dear Fodor's advisors,
I am planning to drive to Lake Tahoe from Pasadena, CA. It is a 10 hour drive. I am wondering if there is a wonderful something in the middle of the way to cut my trip in two-5-hour- trips so we can enjoy more the trip.

When are you doing this trip? I think the drive is more like 8 hours if the weather is clear.

You always could stop at Yosemite if coming up Hwy 99. Or if you drive up 395, you could spend the night in Bishop or Mammoth Lakes. There's lots of great scenery in the Eastern Sierra too.

Pasadena > Yosemite > Tahoe (via hwy 49/88) will easily take 11 hours. It is nearly 550 miles. Yosemite would be the logical stop.

If you drive straight up the Central Valley it is only about 8 hours and there is no nice place to stop until you get all the way to Sacramento - so I'd just press on.

And if you go 395 it is about 9-ish hours (w/ clear roads). I'd maybe stop in Lone Pine or Bishop.

For a short stop I think I'd opt for Sequoia over Yosemite, especially if you've never seen the giant Sequoia trees.

Stopping in Sequoia/Kings Canyon really doesn't make much sense. The drive from there to Tahoe (the 'fast'/ugly route up hwy 99) is 350-ish miles and would take nearly 7 hours. It is simply not a convenient midway detour on the way to Tahoe.

Janis, if the OP is taking hwy 5 or 99 the detour to Sequoia isn't bad, certainly worth the effort IMO if one has never seen the trees.

Yes - stopping at Sequioa is not a bad detour from 99 or I-5.

But my point was that AFTER Sequoia they'd still have about 7 hours left to Tahoe. They were trying to cut the daily drive times -- not increase them. That is why I suggested stopping at Kings Canyon/Sequoia won't accomplish what they want. Yosemite would - just barely - since the drive from there to Tahoe will be significantly shorter.

Driving straight through to Tahoe w/o stopping over wouldn't take that much longer than Sequoia to Tahoe.