help with route
 

Hi,

My boyfriend and I have planned a 3 a roadtrip to west coast USA, we have 21 days and we will go in November. We have a wishlist of places we want to see. Although, we are struggling with planning this trip:
- How many days to stay everywhere
- The route we will drive (because of the weather, we don't know if everything is possible because of the roads we need to drive)

We thought the route below would be the best option. Please give us your advice.

LA/Santa Monica/Universal
Las Vegas/Hooverdam
Zion
Bryce
Page/Horseshoe Bend/Antelope Canyon
Las Vegas
(Via) Death Valley/ (Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite (Valley) (we question ourselves if this route would be possible because of the weather in November?)
San Francisco/Alcatraz
Exeter
LA/Santa Monica

Thanks in advance!

Why are you staying in Exeter? Friends or relatives? It is a tiny town in the San Joaquin Valley, population about 10,000. Nearby Visalia would have more lodging options if you have to travel that route for some reason.
Why not drive a combination of the Highway 1 and 101? Part of Hwy 1 will be closed due to a mudslide but you can detour over to the Hwy 101 east of Monterey.
Check and see if Tioga Pass eastern entrance into Yosemite is open or not and just have a Plan B.

In Exeter we will visit family.

Jamie99 beat me too it . . . Exeter????

>>(Via) Death Valley/ (Mammoth Lakes/Yosemite (Valley) (we question ourselves if this route would be possible because of the weather in November?)<<

You can't really pre-plan this bit because you won't know until Nov if Tioga Pass is open or not. Most likely not. But visiting Yosemite demands pre-booking as far ahead as possible. So that is a real dilemna . So the way to manage it is to approach YNP from the west/San Francisco side. You do not want to drive from Vegas to either SF or Yosemite around through Bakersfield.

So - at that time of year you really have two different trips -- LV and the Arizona/Utah Parks - and SF/YNP/the coast. Los Angeles could fit in w/ either loop.

Have you already booked your flights in/out of LA? If not, I'd consider flying open jaw in to either SF or LA and home from the other. You could fly into LA and do the Vegas/parks and drop the car. Fly to SF and do a loop of YNP/Monterey/SF and fly home.

OR . . . in to SF and home from Las Vegas. Fly into SF > YNP > Monterey and down the coast (w/ the detour around Big Sur) LA > Vegas > the Utah/AZ parks, fly home from LV.

We were posting at the same time -- knew there had to be a reason :)

That complicates things a bit -- so now you really do need to drive around through Bakersfield . . .

We already booked our flight to LA.. Maybe we need to decide either the west coast or the National Parks and las Vegas route..

Click on your name to see responses to your previous post.

Oh jeeze -- did you read any of the responses on your first thread?


http://www.fodors.com/community/unit...me-i-guess.cfm

sorry haven't seen it ! Thank you guys!

Would the route be possible if we do it like this:
Los Angeles -> LasVegas 4h
Las Vegas -> Page 4,5 h
Page -> bryce -> zion
Zion -> Las Vegas
Las Vegas --> Bakersfield (4,5h) or Exeter (5,5 h)
Exeter -> Oakhurst or Yosemite Valley
Yosemite -> San Fran
SF -> LA

Please clarify -- on this thread you say 21 days but on the other thread it really only looked like 2.5 weeks. What are your actual dates?

Just time for a quick comment right now -- re: >>Las Vegas --> Bakersfield (4,5h) or Exeter (5,5 h)<< No reason to stop in Bakersfield. Just press on to Exeter.

We arrive 30 october 14:45 local time LA and we leave 20th of november in the afternoon. So 22 days total.

>> So 22 days total.<<

Well - 20 usable days. You won't have a car and be checked in until late afternoon on the 30th and you need to turn you car in at least 3 hours before your flight out of LAX so you can't do much of anything on the 20th.

So just throwing ideas against the wall: W/ say 3 days in LA, 2 days in Vegas, Zion, Bryce, Exeter, Yosemite, SF, and the coast drive and one day at Page - that totals 17 days and then adding in the driving between you could just about squeeze that all in. It will be very rushed but doable.

Okay many thanks! So it would be doable. Great to hear!
Because of the unpredictable weather (which makes our trip hard to plan, we want to book our hotels in advance).. would you recommend us to drive from Las Vegas via Death Valley and via Tioga Pass to Yosemite (take the risk). Or would you recommend us to drive from Las Vegas to Exeter and then to Yosemite. Thanks in advance!

>>would you recommend us to drive from Las Vegas via Death Valley and via Tioga Pass to Yosemite (take the risk). Or would you recommend us to drive from Las Vegas to Exeter and then to Yosemite. Thanks in advance!<<

You really need to plan on going from Vegas > Exeter > Yosemite. Yosemite is almost always accessible from the west side - If there is snow the lowest altitude route into the park is 140 in from Merced. So book your time in Yosemite after your stop in Exeter.

Stay in Yosemite Valley if there is availability. If there isn't, then book (cancelable) in El Portal at Yosemite View Lodge or Cedar Lodge (Yosemite View is MUCH better but also costs more). They are both on Hwy 140. Then once you have a room -- keep trying for a cancellation in the Valley.

Thank you very much!! We will do so.
Any other tips how long to stay in which national parks?

>>Any other tips how long to stay in which national parks?<<

Unfortunately -- you don't really have too much flexibility re length of stays since your time is limited and you want to cover a lot of territory. You could get away w/ one night in Bryce so that would give you an extra day to add somewhere else. That could either be a day trip to Death Valley from Las Vegas - or add it to the Monterey area on your drive down the coast, or to your time in San Francisco. Or ????

You definitely want at least 2 nights in Yosemite since the drive from Exeter will take 3.5 to 4 hours via 140, and can take longer, so 2 nights will really only give you about 1.5 days in the park.