At the end of April we have an event in Santa Ynez. In past years we have flown to LA, SF and SB. This year we want to arrive a week early and visit Sequoia NP, Yosemite and possibly Death Valley. We will rent a car. I’m thinking it’s best to fly to SB and head north and east and do a loop back. Thoughts? Hotel ideas? Must see? Thanks for your help.
If you try to see Death Valley you will do a lot of driving. The Tioga Road across Yosemite’s high country will be closed. You may have to go to interstate 80 to cross and then head south. You would then cross back near Mojave (highway 58?). That is a LOT of miles.
For both Yosemite and Sequioa check the weather. Although not too likely given the drought, you may need to carry chains. Be prepared for cold temps.
For Yosemite, if accomodations in the park are sold out, the Yosemite View Lodge in El Portal is a good substitute. It’s very close to the park entrance and many rooms come with balconies overlooking the Merced River.
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We’ve stayed at the Evergreen Lodge which is about a 15 minute drive from the Yosemite entrance. We hiked part of the John Muir trail and went to see both El Capitan and Half Dome from different areas of the park as my husband loves to take pictures. We have entered the park via Tioga Pass before, but it was in the fall.
Make sure to visit Glacier and Taft Point. Taft Point was our last short hike of the day and we had an amazing drive down from there with a fire red sunset.
We tent-camped in Sequoia (summer) so no lodging recommendation, but we did like the hike to the waterfall. Saw lots of marmots!
We have stayed in Visalia when we went to Sequoia always during the fall or even early winter. Last time we were there and hiked to the waterfall and met people who were hiking back that warned us a bear was in the area. Fortunately we didn’t see the bear that day!
The Glacier Point Road may not be open yet by April. But I would recommend the Mirror Lake trail, the trail to Vernal Falls and the loop trail around the Valley.
If you stay in either park at night, make sure your car has no food, no food wrappers, no scented items in it at all. There are bear boxes for storing those items. Once I’d seen a car destroyed by a bear, I became really, really obsessive about this.
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Wow, thank you. I would never have thought about food in the car, and usually keep crackers or granola bar for emergencies.
The bears in the Sierra are very smart. Rangers tell people to remove even empty grocery bags and coolers from their vehicles Years ago, the car parked next to mine was absolutely destroyed by a bear. They had left a can of peaches in the car. All the cars windows were broken, the pillars were bent and the roof pushed up. And to add insult to injury the ranger wrote them a ticket.
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Headed to Mammoth to ski this weekend and the Airbnb host already sent a reminder that the bears are awake and to make sure there is no food in our car. We are experienced with what the Sierra bears can do as we have seen the destruction many times when we are in the mountains.
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Also if the hotels inside Yosemite park are booked, keep trying, things open up.
The rangers even told us to remove our children’s car seats.
I loved Yosemite. I went with two friends (one had lived in CA) and we brought our youngest kids who were seniors in high school. We went in April and stayed in a rental just outside the park and did day hikes–Mirror Lake, Bridal Veil Falls, Vernal Falls. The kids did Half-Dome one day and we spent a day in San Francisco before we flew back to MA. My D still talks about the trip!
I tagged along with my H (who was going to a conference in Las Vegas). I wasn’t particularly interested in doing anything in Las Vegas, and the concierge at the hotel where we stayed recommended I take a tour to Death Valley (it’s 130 miles away). We did get a chance to go outside and walk around, but didn’t really hike. I took tons of photos. The scenery was incredible and I’d go back in a heartbeat. A friend of my H’s who teaches geology said that his colleagues say Yosemite is a geologist’s porn!
Plane tickets and rental car done. I preferred to fly into SFO and out of LAX and drive one way through the parks but it’s a lot more expensive that way. We will go in and out of LAX. We have things we enjoy in LA so it will work out. Now to review your hotel suggestions. Thanks again for the tips.
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