California vacation

Tweeter wrote:
We'll be headed to California for a month in July - looking for places to visit & stay while touring the state. Will be traveling In a 42 ft motor home - if there are any highways we should avoid would appreciate your thoughts. Our plans for sure are to see Yosemite & the Redwoods - if there are any specific places to see around these two parks your suggestions are welcome. Thanks Good Sam friends!

You won't be doing a lot of touring in just one month, but with one of our trips and with proceeding north up US395, along the Sierra Nevada mountain range, we veered off for a night inside Death Valley NP. Further north we entered Yosemite and went out the west side of the park into the wine country, north of San Francisco. Eventually got on 101 and then off for a spell, by following the Avenue of the Giants Highway through the Redwood forest. All this in a 36ft gasser and should probably caution you about the descent coming out of Yosemite, heading west if you should decide to go that way. Quite an experience with the steep downhill twist and turns at 25mph, but then again it didn't last for very long and we then found a nice lakeside campground in Oakdale, for spending the night.
On another trip, we spent a whole month, in summer, hugging the coast line, between San Diego and Petaluma. Will never do that again, while school is out and it was a constant daily battle with finding a place to stay each night, which were mostly state parks and beach campgrounds. Learned every trick in the book, including lottery playing for a campsite. The locals reserve every site available, a year ahead of time, so one can only hope for cancellations and a few walk in sites that are left open. What's worse, they use Reserve America, where a two day advance notice is required and even though there might be sites available for the next day or even the same day. At one park, there was a permanent engraved log on a fence, saying... NO VACANCY...and while being there with a rare reservation, we saw sites that were supposedly taken, sit empty for two nights.

Go to Dunmovin. Population 1 on 395 by China Lake.

If you opt for the 395, stop at the Film Museum. Especially if you like old movies, lotsa stuff on display, a few autos from those times, including the car Bogie drove in "High Sierra".

To Avoid: Stay away from the cities with the motorhome. Do all your city touring in the car.
Yosemite: We like Yosemite/Maraposa KOA, very large sites, Yosemite like atmosphere about 30 miles outside the park entrance. Indoor heated pool, just very nice.
For the Redwoods, consider Benbow Valley KOA for a basecamp in Garberville. It used to be Benbow Valley Resort and became a lovely KOA. Full 18 hole golf course attached (I don't play, but it's pretty). Really fine restaurant walking distance. The resort is in the heart of the historic Redwood area, often viewed in the old documentaries and Disney programs. Drive through tree, Mystery forest, Redwood RV, etc. This area is best toured in the car. Between the two there are many places to tour. You could head up highway 49 (gold rush country) and stop at the many quant towns. Sacramento has a really fantastic RailRoad museum in old Sac. Vacaville is a great basecamp to visit Napa and wine country. We stay at The Vineyard RV park when in that neighborhood. If you head up highway 99 instead of 49 you pass through Lodi, also wine country, no resort RV parks in that area that I am aware of. If you do want a stop at San Francisco consider Petaluma KOA, a real gem in the KOA franchise, just over the Golden Gate from the harbor tourist area. Enjoy, and Happy Trails.

time2roll wrote:

2gypsies wrote:
Hwy 395 is a beautiful easy drive for your motorhome. It gets you out of the heavy traffic on the western side of the mountains. Take it up to I-80 to get over to Sacramento and north of San Francisco and then take Hwy 101 (not 1) north.

395 is great... Just do not short cut over Sonora Pass CA-108 26 percent grade or CA-4 Ebbett's Pass 24 percent grade.

If you like Ghost Towns, Bodie is off the 395. Very interesting and a great way to spend a day.
Another area we love is hwy 1 north of Monterey. Thru Santa Cruz and up to Half Moon Bay.
Keep in mind most State Park camp sites are booked out 6 months in advance. Although some have lotteries for open sites daily.

I live in Nevada but travel in California all the time. I try to stay on the east side of the Sierra. California is crowded at at times, especially in July and even more especially in Yosemite. The NPS and the California State Parks have a lot of rules.

I enjoy the more out of the way places that are not so famous. National Forests, big lakes, Lassen NP and places no one has ever heard of.

If I remember correctly hwy 140 between Merced and Yosemite NP does not allow 40' or over due to the aging bridge. That bridge has one-way-at-a-time crossing (with traffic lights).

This morning's paper has a high wind warning in the next few days here on the left coast.

You can stay at the Alameda County Fairgrounds in Pleasanton and either drive into San Francisco or take BART to the city. If you can't get into a CG near Yosemite, you can stay at the Mariposa County Fairgrounds and it's an hour drive to Yosemite or you can get a bus in Mariposa to Yosemite and ground transportation is free in the park. I don't think Mariposa fairgrounds takes reservations, first come first served.

If you go north to the redwoods look at Benbow rv park on Hgy 101.

Gonzo42, couldn't you just see a 42' DB with a towed on Lombard street, do they even make tow trucks big enough to pull that back up out of the first turn. We love SF and one of the most beautiful photos I have taken was when we turned left at the bottom of Lombard St and where the road drops off back to the bay, it was soft grey/white fog SF is so famous for. It looked like the whole world disappeared.

POIs in SF should include Buena Vista in the evening for an Irish Coffee and Scoma's on Pier 47 just west of the Fisherman's Wharf Marina for great food and a really old class SF restaurant.