Alabama Folks California Bound

58 is a good road. Most of it is 4 lane highway. A few sections are two lane. There is a pretty good pass before Bakersfield, but I see quite a few motorhomes and trucks on this road. If you don't want to go all the way to 99, you could consider 65 just outside Bakersfield. Others might recommend other routes.

Hwy 58 will take you into Bakersfield, good road, but a long downgrade from Tehachapi into Bakersfield. We've come that way many times.

A couple things to watch for. Just outside Mojave is a bone yard of sorts for all the unused airline aircraft. Hundreds of planes, from 747s on down all stored in the desert. Watch for it. As you continue west into Tehachapi there's a Loves that has the cheapest fuel prices @ exit 151.

Further west is the town of Keene, Exit 139. There's a market there with a post office across the street. Park your rig at the market and take the toad to visit the Tehachapi Loop. Whether you're a railroad fan or not it's well worth the effort and time it takes to visit it. With about 40 trains per day, you won't have to wait too long to see one come by. The Tehachapi Loop is a railroad 'spiral', meaning the tracks spiral up because of the long grade. As the engines pull the cars up the hill they will cross over themselves as they make their way up the hill. The only one of it's kind in the world and an engineering feat of it's day. It was designed and built back in 1874 and is still in use today. There are great viewing places all along the road and it's well marked. Pull off the road and walk about 40 yards along a well marked path to an overlook.

On Hwy 58 just before Bakersfield there's a campground if you're planning on staying near there. It's called Orange Grove RV Park at Exit 119. The park is set in an orange grove and feel free to pick as much citrus as you like. Nice park.

Have fun, but take some time to visit things along the way. If you want to continue west to Hwy 101, take the Hwy 46 exit towards Paso Robles. This is the road James Dean was killed on and there's a memorial to him at the intersection of 46 and 41. Enjoy your trip....Dennis

Tehachapi Loop
Orange Grove RV Park
James Dean Memorial Junction

Nothing for you to worry about concerning the highways. Keep an eye out for the winds, especially in the afternoon, as you travel through the deserts.

And I hope you will visit Yosemite since you will be next door.

Those Sequoia trees are impossible to describe. Something you just have to see with your own eyes to believe.

That's a great route. Here is an appetizer -- and to get a sense of scale, see the person (DW) in the lower center area:

Executive wrote:
Hwy 58 will take you into Bakersfield, good road, but a long downgrade from Tehachapi into Bakersfield. We've come that way many times.

A couple things to watch for. Just outside Mojave is a bone yard of sorts for all the unused airline aircraft. Hundreds of planes, from 747s on down all stored in the desert. Watch for it. As you continue west into Tehachapi there's a Loves that has the cheapest fuel prices @ exit 151.

Further west is the town of Keene, Exit 139. There's a market there with a post office across the street. Park your rig at the market and take the toad to visit the Tehachapi Loop. Whether you're a railroad fan or not it's well worth the effort and time it takes to visit it. With about 40 trains per day, you won't have to wait too long to see one come by. The Tehachapi Loop is a railroad 'spiral', meaning the tracks spiral up because of the long grade. As the engines pull the cars up the hill they will cross over themselves as they make their way up the hill. The only one of it's kind in the world and an engineering feat of it's day. It was designed and built back in 1874 and is still in use today. There are great viewing places all along the road and it's well marked. Pull off the road and walk about 40 yards along a well marked path to an overlook.

On Hwy 58 just before Bakersfield there's a campground if you're planning on staying near there. It's called Orange Grove RV Park at Exit 119. The park is set in an orange grove and feel free to pick as much citrus as you like. Nice park.

Have fun, but take some time to visit things along the way. If you want to continue west to Hwy 101, take the Hwy 46 exit towards Paso Robles. This is the road James Dean was killed on and there's a memorial to him at the intersection of 46 and 41. Enjoy your trip....Dennis

Tehachapi Loop
Orange Grove RV Park
James Dean Memorial Junction

Agree with Executive on Orange Groove RV Park being a great place to stay. Ditto for stopping at the Tehachapi Railroad. DW & I also went to town of Tehachapi & toured the rail museum, (a must see). We also stopped at the new National Veterans Memorial Cemetary (just west of Tehachapi).

We just came through this area (heading east) back in Oct 2013. We had a bad experience on Hwy 40 just before getting to Needles at the state line. This was the most horrible section of Hwy in the whole 8000 miles of our vacation through 13 states.

The road was so bad (again on east side) that we had to slow to a crawl to get across numerous bridges that were at different elevation than roadway. It busted the bottom out of one of our cabinets in our 2010 FR Blueridge 5w. Maybe the west side of I40 leaving Needles is better.

The polititians kept us from stopping at G Canyon, so we just turned north & went to Boulder City, Nevada area, (Canyon Trails RV is place to stay). We enjoyed touring H Dam. They have a nice museum in an old motel that details construction of the dam.

autorot8 wrote:
58 is a good road. Most of it is 4 lane highway. A few sections are two lane. There is a pretty good pass before Bakersfield, but I see quite a few motorhomes and trucks on this road. If you don't want to go all the way to 99, you could consider 65 just outside Bakersfield. Others might recommend other routes.

I live in Bakersfield, and have driven those roads for many years, and you will have no problems with any of them.
You are going to Three Rivers for a time and do you plan to enter Sequoia Park from there? If so DO NOT take your MH from Three Rivers into Sequoia. Your toad will be no problem, but the road is steep with many hairpin turns and NOT suitable for a MH of any length or towing a trailer. It is a beautiful few miles with spectacular overlooks but NOT for large vehicles.
Enjoy!

Thanks to all for your advise on the roads, We also appreciate the ideas of things to check out which we will definitely try to do. Last but not least we will be taking our MH only as far as Three Rivers. Touring the parks will only be by toad. Thanks to all

Fill up in Arizona before heading into California fuel will be much cheaper there.

Where you staying in Three Rivers? We have always enjoyed Sequoia RV Ranch, can't say the same for the others.