Eastern California National Park Road trip
My friend Katie and I just got back from a beautiful long weekend in Eastern California visiting 4 National Parks in 5 days! We met a lot of obstacles trying to plan this trip due to the wildfires in California, causing Yosemite to temporarily close down. We got a coveted permit about a month in advance, so we were bummed when we thought we had to reschedule. Three days before we were set to go, Yosemite opened and our permit was valid! We knew there might still be smoke in some areas, but we decided to chance it.
Below is our itinerary, tips and recommendations on how to plan a road trip to see some of the most amazing National Parks in America in one long weekend.
Thursday:
We each had our flights into Las Vegas, rented a car, and drove a little over 2 hours to our first stop on this magnificent road trip - Death Valley. This is one of the hottest places on earth, so come prepared. Bring at least a gallon of water per person, per day that you plan on staying. With my Annual National Park Service pass (which pays for itself if you visit 3+ national parks in a year), we payed $8 to stay at the Furnace Creek campground for the night. Other campground options we had as backups were Stovepipe Wells ($7) or Emigrant (free). These are both close to the Mesquite Sand Dunes, but we got in too late. If camping isn’t your thing, there are two lodges near the Furnace Creek area - The Inn and The Ranch.
Here are the highlights that we hit in order while driving from Nevada. Death Valley is basically one long road with very well marked signs, so these will be hard to miss.
Zabriskie’s Point - best at sunrise or sunset
Badwater Basin - Lowest point in North America!
Furnace Creek Visitor Center
Artist’s Drive, make a stop at Artist’s Palette - aim to get here early before the sun has completely risen so you can see the beautiful colors in contrast with the shadows
Mesquite Sand Dunes - huge terrain change compared to the rest of Death Valley and worth a stop
Panamint Springs Gas Station for ice cream. You might not see this on other Death Valley must-do lists, but ice cream really hits different when it’s 110 degrees out at 11 am. We stopped at this place, signed their visitor book and got two of their famous, “best milkshakes in town.” Make a stop here and tell them you came for the world famous milkshake - it’ll make their day.
Other notes about Death Valley: it gets HOT. Like don’t-hike-after-10 am hot. Wake up early and get on the road so you can make all these stops before 10. Alternatively, you could wait until evening. Once again, bring a ton of water, you will need it. There is a spot on the road through Death Valley that tells you to turn off your AC for the next 20 miles to prevent overheating. We made it about 5 miles without AC and thought we were dying. Come prepared and do your research in advance.
Friday:
We actually did all of the Death Valley highlights on Friday morning before 10 am and then hit the road headed north for about a 4 hour drive to Yosemite. With the permit we had, we entered through the Tioga Pass Entrance. If you are looking to see another part of the park, do your research, because there are 5 entrances in Yosemite.
Note: you currently NEED a permit for hiking in Yosemite. Even day hikes. Get one well in advance using the information on their NPS page. Have it with you when you get to the entrance, along with your parking pass and your annual NPS pass if you have one.
We feel extremely lucky to have gotten the Cloud’s Rest via Sunrise Lakes permit, as it is one of the most popular hikes in Yosemite - aside from Half Dome of course. Since we got a wilderness permit, we were able to spend two days backpacking this gorgeous trail. We hiked about 4 miles from the Sunrise Lakes Trailhead to find a campsite before sunset so we could get up to Cloud’s Rest early the following day, before the smoke rose up from the valley.
We picked a nice sandy little meadow and set up camp. There was a small lake nearby for us to fill up and treat our water before making dinner and calling it a night.
Saturday:
From the meadow, we left our base camp early and hiked about 3 miles to the top before 8 am. We were the only ones up there for at least an hour. We ate breakfast and took in the views before heading back down. The smoke was pretty bad on one side of the mountain, but we got lucky enough to still be able to see Half Dome and some of the other breathtaking formations surrounding us. We eventually began our descent, packed up our base camp and hiked back out to the car, arriving around 2 pm. We had originally anticipated staying for a few nights, but the smoke was forecasted to get worse where we wanted to go, so we decided to head out and just wing the rest of the trip.
Note: The day hikers started coming in groves as we were on our way back down, so I suggest you camp overnight and get up there early if you want Cloud’s Rest to yourself.
Back in our car with no service and no plan, we decided to drive toward the south exit of the park and make stops along the way. We stopped at the Yosemite Visitor Center and were fortunate enough to see a bear and her two cubs on our way. A ranger and a crowd of people were behind a fence watching the mama move around with her babies. The ranger told us they were getting too close to the road and this is how they get comfortable with stealing human food and breaking into cars, which could harm the bear in the future. He tried to scare her away by firing an air soft gun in her direction (that he assured everyone could not hurt her or her cubs) and yelling “GO AWAY BEAR!” She didn’t care at all, she just backed up a few feet, looked annoyed and her cubs climbed into a tree, which was super cute to watch.
Eventually, we left the bears and the ranger behind and went on to see the famous El Capitan. The part we chose to stop at had a beautiful golden field across from it so we spent some time there while admiring the massive El Capitan from afar. The drive out of Yosemite is phenomenal in itself. Along the way, we encountered a teenage bear running across the road - so please, be mindful of your speed! There are signs everywhere saying, “speeding kills bears.” We stopped at a few of the viewpoints over the valley and eventually left Yosemite headed south for a 3 ½ drive toward Visalia where we stayed the night in a hotel. In hindsight, we could have chosen somewhere closer to King’s Canyon, but it was last minute and we didn’t mind the drive.
Sunday:
We woke up early and drove two hours to King’s Canyon National Park. King’s Canyon and Sequoia are separate parks, but are run by one ranger service under the same budget to save money since they are so close together. This is the only national park with virtually no roads, so 95% of it is wilderness backpacking. We unfortunately didn’t have time to backpack it, so we drove up the one road in the whole park to Grizzly Falls, turned around and came back down toward Sequoia. King’s Canyon is highly underrated and truly majestic. There are massive canyons on the drive up and a some great viewpoints to stop and take it all in.
Since King’s Canyon and Sequoia are connected, you can drive straight through the Sequoia National Forest down to Sequoia National Park. We drove to the famous Grant Tree, also coined the Nation’s Christmas Tree by Teddy Roosevelt. It’s the third biggest tree in the world! You can’t walk up to it since the area surrounding it is revegetating, but you can walk the trail to see it up close and see for yourself just how big it is. They also have a fallen sequoia on the trail that fell in the early 1900s and still looks the same as it did back then. It is now something like a cave and allows visitors to climb inside the fallen giant and see the inside of a sequoia.
Our next stop was the Big Trees Trail to learn some more about the sequoias, since the Tree Museum across the street was closed for the season due to COVID-19. However, the gift shop is open and all proceeds from it go right back into the park - so be sure to make a stop.
The Big Tree Trail has many cool photo ops with the giant trees, and you can go right up to them or give a tree a hug if you want to. The fallen sequoia that cars can drive through is down a very narrow road next to the museum and is worth a drive to.
We ended our day by driving out of Sequoia National Park to a campsite about 4 hours away, in Red Canyon State Park, that my friend found on the app The Dyrt. It’s in the desert surrounded by canyons and is first come, first served. We got there at sunset, paid the $25 fee and chose a site. It was one of the most scenic places I’ve ever camped and if you’re ever in the area, definitely check it out. The following day, we made our way back to the airport and flew home.
And that is how you can see a desert, mountains, forest, canyons and sequoias all in one trip!