HELP...California roadtrip ideas

[gkopp1999]

My wife and I recently moved to Southern California and are planning a 3 week road trip in our RV in October to explore the rest of the state. Our tentative route would take us up the coast to hit Big Sur and Monterey, then east to Sequoia National Park, Mono Lake and King's Canyon, then several days at Yosemite. I want to hit Bodie and she wants to go to Redwood National Park, so this would take us even farther North.

I guess I am looking for any other ideas/suggestions/places to visit, or any additional sites that I should definately not miss. I mainly shoot landscapes and architecture, but we also love visiting all of those quirky small towns and roadside oddities.

Thanks everyone:cool:

[Pete]

I've got a funny idea that Lonnie (thomascanty) might be able to help you with that...

[Karl C]

Highway 1 from Morro Bay to Big Sur and Monterey is an awesome drive. You might want to stop in the Napa area; a lot of good wineries there. Also check out Point Reyes National Seashore, just west of Petaluma. I've heard that area is very nice.

Have a good trip!

[Tdragone]

Welcome to Cali!
Hwy 1 is an awesome drive; but just remember in an RV it's twisty and turny.
I also agree with Pt Reyes, Bodie, Yosemite and Mono.

Pt Reyes is an awesome area if the fog hasn't socked you in. I've done MANY trips from SD to San Francisco; if you have any questions; ask!

Might want to think of getting the Nat'l park pass if you'll be hitting more than Yosemite in a year...

[JSolie]

Best advice I can give (and this is speaking from experience--I rented an RV for our road trip last year) is if you're planning on going to all those places, make sure you have a towed vehicle.

And you might want to check road grade on some of those east/west highways heading over to Yosemite...some have some pretty wicked grades for RV's.

Also, since you can't travel very fast in an RV, don't try to bite off more than you can chew in a day--we had some wicked drive days where we were trying to get to the next RV park before sundown, or before the office closes so we could get the code to use the park's showers rather than trying to have 5 people take a shower in that little storage booth in the RV

Otherwise, have fun! There are some really interesting RV parks out there, and you've got some great places planned. FWIW, Hearst Castle (just north of Morro Bay) has RV parking... ;)

[thomascanty]

If you're going to visit Bodie, you might as well continue on north a bit and see Lake Tahoe, too. Or south to Death Valley (it should be cool enough for that by October).

Or, maybe from Yosemite, you could head up Highway 49 through all of the old, tiny gold mining towns. The best two are Columbia and Coloma. There's a lot of history in those places.

Otherwise, I'd say you have a pretty good itinerary in mind already.

[gkopp1999]

Thanks for the info everyone!