West Coast Summer 2018

[peoples1234]

I want to take the family (2 sdults, 3 kids aged 1.5, 5, and 10) to the west coast for Summer 2018. Approximately from June 10 - Aug 14, 2018. We want to do the big things like Sequoia, Mt Hood, Death Valley, etc. We also want to make it to the coast as well.

The basic plan is I will boogie from NC to Las Vegas, NV to pick up the family from their flight. From NV, I am thinking of hitting Death Valley, Sequoia, Sierra, Yosemite, and continuing north to Washington State. But I could have them fly in somewhere else (flights are cheap to Vegas) and completely change the trip structure.

My first thought is that Death Valley in June is too hot for a travel trailer, is that a good assumption?

I am not much of a planner. I like to adjust the trip as I go, and if we like a place stay a little longer or shorter if we don't. Last summer, we went all over the east coast, and with the exception of Asheville, NC around July 4th, I was always able to find a campsite reasonably well. Are there huge availability problems in state and national parks out west that would make us stay in private campgrounds most of the time (which we do not want to do unless we have to)?

I am sure I will have more questions, but if you know of anything that is a must do, please chime in!

Thanks.

[West_Coasting]

Busskipper wrote:

peoples1234 wrote:
I want to take the family (2 sdults, 3 kids aged 1.5, 5, and 10) to the west coast for Summer 2018. Approximately from June 10 - Aug 14, 2018. We want to do the big things like Sequoia, Mt Hood, Death Valley, etc. We also want to make it to the coast as well.

The basic plan is I will boogie from NC to Las Vegas, NV to pick up the family from their flight. From NV, I am thinking of hitting Death Valley, Sequoia, Sierra, Yosemite, and continuing north to Washington State. But I could have them fly in somewhere else (flights are cheap to Vegas) and completely change the trip structure.

My first thought is that Death Valley in June is too hot for a travel trailer, is that a good assumption?

I am not much of a planner. I like to adjust the trip as I go, and if we like a place stay a little longer or shorter if we don't. Last summer, we went all over the east coast, and with the exception of Asheville, NC around July 4th, I was always able to find a campsite reasonably well. Are there huge availability problems in state and national parks out west that would make us stay in private campgrounds most of the time (which we do not want to do unless we have to)?

I am sure I will have more questions, but if you know of anything that is a must do, please chime in!

Thanks.

Let me ask a couple of questions.

Been out west before? How old is everyone?

Enjoy Crowds?

Love traffic?

Do you have a Mission?

Vacation or to just "See" California/West Coast?

SOunds like the epic trip of a lifetime, BUT, IMHO California can kill the mood in a Hurry.

I'd Suggest the Rockies.

Will not be a PITA anymore.

Best of Luck,

Kings Canyon is worth the pain

-WC

[Veebyes]

If you are planning on doing any of the coast on hwy 101 or 1 be sure to do it from the north to south. The views will be slightly better driving on the ocean side of the hwy & the turnouts are much easier to turn into & get out of without crossing traffic.

We are also headed to the NW however much earlier at late April/early May, before schools are out & expecting less demand on CGs & attractions.

[huachuca]

Peoples1234, thanks for starting this and also thanks to all those who’ve replied. We’re from northeastern NC as well (Tarboro) and will be making our way out west next Spring / early Summer too. We’re pretty locked in to staying on public lands so these replies have been quite useful.

The only firm stop so far on the agenda is June 2-6 at Zion where we’ll be meeting several friends who are visiting the National Park’s in southern Utah, Hope to see you folks on the road sometime.

[2gypsies1]

Not all sites in national parks accept reservations. For instance, there are two 300-site great campgrounds in Grand Teton Nat'l Park that don't accept reservation and rarely fill. Even with our 40' motorhome we never had a problem.

[peoples1234]

Excellent everyone. I really appreciate all the input.

Plan now is for everyone but me to fly round trip so we won’t spend so much time getting there and back. I can only cover about 200 miles a day before everyone is ready to stop, so it makes the long hauls take awhile. I have looked into reservations. Many of the national parks are blocked out and you can’t reserve until the week of Dec 18th, some until Feb. So I have some busy weeks coming up trying to win the proverbial lottery so we can stay in some hot spots. If not, we will go for plan b and then plan c.

[Busskipper]

peoples1234 wrote:

Busskipper wrote:


Let me ask a couple of questions.

Been out west before? Yes, I have, but not camping. No one else in the family has been

How old is everyone? 32, 31, 10, 5, 1.5

Enjoy Crowds? Large crowds, No. But smaller crowds and other kids at camp grounds is always great.

Love traffic? No

Do you have a Mission? No

Vacation or to just "See" California/West Coast? Both, I guess. Or at least some combination.

,

Sorry - I missed the fact you answered -

SO I'll reply with a few Thoughts - Suggestions,

Stop sooner than the Coast and Explore - California is Beautiful but it is Crowded - hard to find places to Park much less camp - and if you Do Not Love Traffic - might just be a challenge in the Southern Half of the state.

I grew up there - one of my kids went to College there - I've visited only once in the RV and it was in the winter - and it was still too crowded - so we now fly in - rent a car - and fly out.

So the suggestions look over these few web sites;

Family that did this a lot - and now live in Cali.

Stan Parker's - Photo journals of the places you might just try to see.

Salt Lake and Denver also have some good fare's - Frontier if you are driving the RV with all the Cloths and they need no bags - What ever you decide I'm sure it will be Epic and We will all enjoy a travel report - take 1.000's of pictures.

Best of Luck,

[agesilaus]

Yosemite is the one place that it is absolutely worth trying very hard to get a site in the valley. The park is the absolute gem of the NPS system and there is nothing else close to it.

There are a couple of CG right outside the valley that are second best but still excellent and they may be a little easier to book.

Anything outside the valley is much less desirable since it means a long drive in and out each day.

Yellowstone is the other major park that you want to stay in the park, even more so than Yosemite since the drive is even longer. Glacier and Rocky Mountains work fine with a CG right outside the park.

We prefer staying inside parks when practical but free form traveling doesn't make that easy. I'm used to Florida State Parks which are difficult to get reservations in any time of the year but Oregon and Washington State Parks may be easier. We never even thought of checking.

We use the same style of traveling tho, find a place to camp and then use that as the base camp to explore the area. Then move on.

[4runnerguy]

I'd skip Death Valley. Maybe head straight for Sequoia and north from there.

A fun park for kids is Lava Beds NM. Lava tubes (think caves) to explore on your own. Bring headlamps and/or flashlights. First come, first served CG that we liked.

As noted, head north inland (Lassen NP, Crater Lake, Bend, Lava Lands, Newberry Crater, Mt. St. Helens), then head south back along the coast. (In the Bend area, maybe half of the campsites in Newberry Crater are non reservable. The CG's are right on the water. It's like camping on the lake shore at Crater Lake. Part and sightsee from there for a few days.)

Can you go without reservations? I suppose yes, but in some cases you won't be staying anywhere near the more popular NP's. It's a choice between being tied down and being right there vs. retaining flexibility and having to drive two or three hours every day round trip to get into the major parks like Yosemite. But for places in between, you can often find NFS CG's if you stop early and aren't travelling on the weekend. And lesser visited parks like Lassen have quite a few first come, first served CGs. Just don't show up at 6:00 p.m. on a Friday and expect to find a site. Lassen has some interesting thermal features like Yellowstone but on a smaller scale.

The flexibility that agesilaus touts is because he stays in private CG's. Public CG"s at NP's and SP's tend to book and fill for the summer.

Similarly, the SP's along the Oregon Coast get booked up in the summer. How important is it for you to be camped within walking distance of the beach? Also, the northern part of the OR coast gets really busy on weekends with crowds from Portland.

Things get really busy on the weekends. Without reservations, you might need to find a campsite by early Thursday a.m. and stay until Sunday.

But reservations don't necessarily tie you down. Consider the Oregon Coast. Pick a SP and camp for several days. Each day you can head out in a different direction and explore what you want at your whim. Tidepools one day, lighthouses the next, Tillimook Cheese factory (and ice cream) another.

Given your desire to be flexible up to a point, I'd stronly encourage reservations at Yosemite. You have to be on line at the moment the reservation window opens to have any hope of a reservation. I'd also suggest getting a reservation or two along the Oregon Coast. Check out Tillicum Beach NFS or Beachside SP to get a spot nearly on the beach. The Oregon SP's are exceptionally fine and well worth the hassle of reservations IMHO.

[GeoBoy]

We did a west coast trip last year and visited the following:
Great Basin NP - 2 days
Kings Canyon/ Sequoia NP - 3 days
Yosemite NP - 4 days
Lassen Volcanic NP - 1 day
Crater Lake NP - Beautiful - 1 day
Redwoods NP - 2 days
Then up the 101 along the Oregon Coast to Olympic NP - 1day
Olympic NP - 3 days
North Cascades NP - 1 day
West Glacier NP - 5 days
Theodore Roosevelt NP - 1 day
These times didn’t include drive time between NP’s.
Then we moseyed our way home stopping at places of our interests.

[Janss]

Will your family also be flying back from Las Vegas (or wherever)? In other words, will you be doing a loop road trip?

There is alot to see in CA, OR, and WA. And the West is very popular with RVers. Winging it is possible, with appropriate expectations. I usually call private parks for reservations the day before or the morning of my travel day. Usually works, unless the park is near a Nat'l Park or where there are very few choices. I know I probably won't get into Nat'l Parks or State Parks without prior reservations. Some parks keep a few first come first served sites (not reservable), so you might get lucky if you arrive early in the day on a weekday.

There are alot of public lands in the West. So be sure to research US Forest Service, BLM, etc for campgrounds and boondocking if you don't mind camping without hookups sometimes.

Hwy 395 in CA is a great RV route. Lots to see along 395. You can visit Yosemite from this side of Sierras from Lee Vining (in your tow vehicle). See Mono Lake there too. Advance reservations are definitely necessary at Mono Vista RV Park along 395 near the Yosemite entrance road. There are other options a little farther. Going north I like to cut over at Alturas, take 299-139-39 to Hwy 97 in OR, then continue north. Visit Lava Beds Nat'l Monument on this route.

Crater Lake, Mt. Hood, Columbia River Gorge, then up to WA (Olympic Nat'l Park?). On the way south take 101 along the OR coast then Redwoods in CA. You can take Hwy 20 (north of Ukiah) east across CA to avoid the SF Bay area. Then you can visit Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon from the west side. Finally back to Las Vegas.

I agree that I-5 and 99 are not pleasant to drive in central CA. But sometimes I just gotta do it to get from point A to point B.

Search the forum for "Oregon Coast" for plenty of reading about things to see and do.

This is just one suggestion of a general route. There are other options (as already posted) and many many sights to see.

[agesilaus]

Well that schedule I posted above involved no reservations except at Yosemite and Lassen and that was to get into a CG inside the park. Otherwise it was all drive until we felt like stopping and then calling ahead to make reservations for that night. We only were told they had no spots at that CG once in the whole trip and easily got into the next CG on the list. Having a good CG directory makes that possible we carry the 'big book' (now called the Good Sam's Travel Guide) with us for that reason. The online cg guides are OK but none has the 12500 listings that the book has.

Furthermore once you are away from DV everyplace on that schedule is somewhat cool (temp wise) and we completely avoid the CA h*ll of the central valley roads. The only city we drove thru was Sacramento on the way north to Lassen.

My advice is to AVOID I-5 (pothole city) if at all possible, I doubt that US-99 is any better. Whatever CA is spending money on, it isn't roads. Of course they are probably paying the guys who fill potholes $250,000/yr. California residents can tell you a lot more. We found northern 101 to be fine but we were only on the last 100 miles or so of that going north. The interior roads to Lassen were drivable.

[peoples1234]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. I look into flying to other places to start and also some reservations. I know I won’t get into many of summer hot spots, and that’s okay. I just have such a hard time committing to a schedule of you have to be here for x days and then make it to here for x days, etc. Takes away the adventure to me. Plus, I’m a sailor and you never get anywhere on time in a sailboat....so you get used to flexible plans.

[peoples1234]

Busskipper wrote:


Let me ask a couple of questions.

Been out west before? Yes, I have, but not camping. No one else in the family has been

How old is everyone? 32, 31, 10, 5, 1.5

Enjoy Crowds? Large crowds, no. But smaller crowds and other kids at camp grounds is always great.

Love traffic? No

Do you have a Mission? No

Vacation or to just "See" California/West Coast? Both, I guess. Or at least some combination.

,

[Busskipper]

peoples1234 wrote:
I want to take the family (2 sdults, 3 kids aged 1.5, 5, and 10) to the west coast for Summer 2018. Approximately from June 10 - Aug 14, 2018. We want to do the big things like Sequoia, Mt Hood, Death Valley, etc. We also want to make it to the coast as well.

The basic plan is I will boogie from NC to Las Vegas, NV to pick up the family from their flight. From NV, I am thinking of hitting Death Valley, Sequoia, Sierra, Yosemite, and continuing north to Washington State. But I could have them fly in somewhere else (flights are cheap to Vegas) and completely change the trip structure.

My first thought is that Death Valley in June is too hot for a travel trailer, is that a good assumption?

I am not much of a planner. I like to adjust the trip as I go, and if we like a place stay a little longer or shorter if we don't. Last summer, we went all over the east coast, and with the exception of Asheville, NC around July 4th, I was always able to find a campsite reasonably well. Are there huge availability problems in state and national parks out west that would make us stay in private campgrounds most of the time (which we do not want to do unless we have to)?

I am sure I will have more questions, but if you know of anything that is a must do, please chime in!

Thanks.

Let me ask a couple of questions.

Been out west before? How old is everyone?

Enjoy Crowds?

Love traffic?

Do you have a Mission?

Vacation or to just "See" California/West Coast?

SOunds like the epic trip of a lifetime, BUT, IMHO California can kill the mood in a Hurry.

I'd Suggest the Rockies.

Will not be a PITA anymore.

Best of Luck,