kellycrevac

We are planning a mid-June trip with 3 adults (1 is 74 yo and most likely his last big trip) and a 15 yo. We will fly to CA from GA planning to start in SF and drive to the Redwood National Park. This is sort of my dads dream trip to see a bunch of sites he has never seen. He wants to see big Sequoias or Redwoods. I thought the Redwood drive would be the most scenic.
He then wants to include the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone to see the Geysers. We plan to fly from SF to one of those destinations then from where ever we end up, we would fly to the next destination.
We will rent a vehicle to travel while we are in each area. Our plan is to drive each day about 4-6 hours, no more, then spend the night somewhere.
I need advice on the following:
1. Is the Redwood National Forest the best option between that or the Sequoia National Forest?
2. Where should we stop and stay along that route?
3. How many days for this part of the trip, 2, then depart to next area on the 3rd day?
4. My thoughts are that we would then fly to Billings Montana, Yellowstone. Spend 3-4 days covering different sections of Yellowstone. We would spend the night at the end of each day.
Does that sound plausible?
5. Options of where to stay if we stick with the above plan.
6. What city would I fly out of leaving Yellowstone if I plan to then go to Las Vegas? I noticed Idaho is a really pricey airport option.
7. Las Vegas to the Grand Canyon, How many days for that?
8 Then back to Vegas and fly home.
Please give me suggestions and input from anyone that has undertaken anything like this. I am at a bit of a lose on planning all of this.

november_moon

1. Is the Redwood National Forest the best option between that or the Sequoia National Forest?

Coastal redwoods and giant sequoias are different trees in completely different eco systems. Both are wonderful, just different.

Coastal redwoods grow in the coastal mountains from Big Sur to the south to about the CA/OR border. These trees are the tallest in the world and grow in damp forests with a lot of ferns and broad leaf trees - very jurassic. Much of the original forests were logged to build places like SF, but you have old growth groves in various places in the Santa Cruz mountains, some areas just north of SF, and then in Humboldt county to the north.

Giant Sequoias grow up in the Sierras at higher elevations. These are the most massive trees in the world and grow in dryer, more open forests, mixed with pine trees and other evergreens. The largest accessible groves of these trees are in Kings Canyon and Sequoia national parks. Calaveras Big Trees state park is another good place to see them.

2. Where should we stop and stay along that route?

It really depends on where you decide to go. If you visit coastal redwoods closer to SF, then you can see them as a day trip from SF, or do an overnight close to wherever you decide to stay. If you go up to Humboldt Redwoods state park, Garberville is a good choice, and if you go farther north up to Jed Smith or Prairie Creek state parks, Trinidad and Crescent City are good options. For giant sequoias, I would try to stay in Kings Canyon or Sequoia national parks if possible to be closest to the trees. For Calaveras Big Trees, there are some nice towns along Hwy 4 - my favorite in that area is probably Murphys.


3. How many days for this part of the trip, 2, then depart to next area on the 3rd day?

Again, it depends on how far you are going, but if you see the coastal redwoods close to SF, that can be a day trip or an overnight - if you are going up to the north coast or inland to the Sierras, I would stay at least 2 nights.

jamie99

Las Vegas to Grand Canyon is a 4.5-5 hour drive each way, so better to stay overnight, you will need to start working on reservations now. Please do not fall for the advertised trips from LV to "Grand Canyon" via helicopter as they do not fly to the National Park but to tourist trap "Grand Canyon West" on the Indian reservation.
You can also see redwoods from San Francisco without driving to the National Park (long drive) at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park near Santa Cruz and also Big Basin.
Hopefully you are spending at least 3 days in San Francisco.

Gardyloo

I would strongly suggest starting in the south and working your way north, in order to give the weather some time to improve. The California coast can be foggy and gray in June, and by July the Southwest - Vegas, Grand Canyon etc. - can be getting very hot.

Note jamie99's comments about the redwoods. There are groves near Monterey Bay, at Big Sur, even just over the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County. The big groves in Humboldt and Del Norte counties are a day's drive from SF.

tomfuller

Please learn the difference between National Forests and National Parks. There are many Coast Redwoods south of San Francisco that are not in National Parks.
The Coast Redwoods are taller but not quite as big in diameter as the Giant Sequoias. The Sequoias are in the Sierras far inland.
Allegiant has at least one flight a week from Oakland to Bozeman MT where you can rent a car to go to Yellowstone.
Return the car to Bozeman and then fly Allegiant to Las Vegas. You might want to drive from Las Vegas to Hoover Dam and see it before driving onward to Kingman AZ.
The South Rim should be reachable from Kingman.
http://www.allegiantair.com/interactive-routemap

tomfuller

Excuse my error. Flight 1020 is from Oakland to Missoula on Sundays and Thursdays leaving shortly after noon. It arrives a little after 3PM Mountain time.
They also fly to Kalispell if you wanted to see Glacier NP.