This roadtrip through California and National Parks possible? [closed]
![This roadtrip through California and National Parks possible? [closed] - Brown Rock Formation](/assets/images/this_roadtrip_through_california_and_national_parks_possible_closed_0.jpeg "This roadtrip through California and National Parks possible? [closed] - Brown Rock Formation")
I'm from europe and I want to do a roudtrip thorugh California and national parks which are closeby.
I know, that every national park and every bigger city has it's own "vibe". But to take the most out of a trip I have to ponder where I want to go and how long I should stay.
I have chosen three bigger cities:
- Los ANgeles (begin and end)
- Las Vegas
- San Francisco
The total duraiton of the trip will be about 20 days. The route by now is:
1st day: Arring in LA
2nd day: Full day in LA where we are getting our car.
3rd day: Driving to Joshua Tree National Park (Twentynine Palms, CA) and visit the NP
4th day: Driving to Williams, AZ thorugh the Route 66
5th day: Visiting to Grand Canyon, afterwards driving to Page, AZ (near Antelope Canyon)
6th day: Maybe Antelope Canyon in the morning and horseshoe Bend, then driving to Bryce Canyon sleeping in Panguitch, UT
7th day: From Brye Canyon to Zion National Park and sleeping in Springdale, UT
8th day: Visiting Zion NP afterwards driving to Las Vegas.
9th day: Full Day in Las Vegas
10th day: driving through Death Valley, sleeping in Beatty, NV
11th day: driving to Yosemite National Park, sleeping in (June Lake, CA)
12th day: driving to Lake Tahoe and sleeping in South Lake Tahoe, CA
13th day: from Lake Tahoe to San Francisco
14th day: Exploring San Francisco
15th day: Exploring San Francisco
16th day: Exploring San Francisco
17th day: Driving from SF to Monterey (looking for whales)
18th day: From Monterey to Pismo Beach (Not sure through Highway 1 or Highway 101)
19th day: Pismo Beach to LA
20th day: from LA back home with the flight
I want to get the most out of the route, so my questions are:
- Is there anything that I missed on the route?
- Is the stay in SF too long?
- Are there any insider tipps for other sleeping points?
Any reponse will appreciated Thanks in advance
Best Answer
Seems aggressive to me. That's about 4000 km and 45-50 hours of raw driving depending on whether you go for "scenic" or "fast". Distances are much larger than most Europeans are used to. Traffics is also a bit slower (lots of traffic jams, low speed limits) and the roads through the Mountains or along the Pacific coast are beautiful but slow.
The national parks are also fairly big and so trying to "do" them in half a day isn't really not doing them justice other than getting the "check mark". Consider a sequence of maybe alternating "one day drive" with "two days exploring". You won't get as many locations covered, but you may have a much better experience over all.
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![This roadtrip through California and National Parks possible? [closed] - Yosemite National Park Valley](/assets/images/this_roadtrip_through_california_and_national_parks_possible_closed_2.jpeg "This roadtrip through California and National Parks possible? [closed] - Yosemite National Park Valley")
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