If we are heading to Yosemite from LA area, we will leave in the evening, drive to Fresno, grab a cheap room, then head to the park early in the morning.

This is the missing information - unfortunately the OP has not included his/her starting point. I concur with 120 if coming directly from Bay Area. When leaving Yosemite, if time allows, one option to see different scenery is to exit to the south, head down to Fresno, rest and have dinner. Next day, take Avenue 7 in Madera County directly to I-5 and on to San Francisco.

I do a similar thing coming from the Bay Area. When I can't leave home until the evening I'll book an inexpensive room halfway there, usually in Oakdale or Merced for Yosemite (depending on which route I take). It saves me from driving the mountain roads late, late at night and arriving in the park after midnight. Instead I do the mountain drive early the next morning, making it an enjoyable part of my trip instead of a chore I struggle through while fighting off sleep.

Thanks for the info. I will be starting from Las Vegas and continuing on to Lake Tahoe before heading back to LV.

I disagree. If coming from the LA area, traffic can be miserable during the day. So I prefer to start my travel Thursday evening after dinner (I have most Fridays off), but only go a couple hours at most, it's too late for me to want go all the way (to Yosemite or to Zion or wherever) in the evening. So I leave LA when the traffic's light in the evening and get out of the LA area. Bakersfield is just 90ish minutes, and out of the L.A. traffic Friday morning if going to Yosemite. Similarly, Victorville / Hesperia is just 90ish minutes further east, and out of the l.A. traffic Friday morning if going to Las Vegas or beyond in Utah.)

Obviously, from the SF area, it's totally different cities, even if there are some cities along the way that get you just far enough out of SF in the evening to not have big traffic worries in the morning for the rest of the trip. But not being based in SF, I'm not sure which cities those would be if headed toward Yosemite.

Thanks OP for the routing.

Once you leave Vegas you'll make Bakersfield in 4-5 hours (280 miles). If you stay there you could have a traditionalso Basque dinner there. This article from Smithsonian Magazine delves into what these old places are about, and what they serve:


http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel...ine-160720458/

Well that's nice for your particular parameters but most folk who are on holiday don't have the same ones. Not everyone starts their travel after dinner on Thursday ;). Also I used to live in LA. I didn't see massive traffic during the day. Rush hour end of day yes, but not earlier. And while Bakersfield may be 90 minutes from LA it's still a heck of a long time to Yosemite. You also forgot that Sequoia is much closer to LA.

Cheers.

I've lived in LA for 30ish years. The traffic is certainly worse in many places than it was when I first moved here. And I'm a night person enough that I'm not ready to leave in the morning early enough to beat the morning rush traffic on a Friday. So if I leave Thursday night and overnight in Bakersfield, I can still be in Yosemite by early/mid afternoon Friday. If I wait to leave after morning rush hour dissipates, I've missed most of the day by the time I get to Yosemite.

Anyway, I know that my particular parameters don't work for many other people. I was just giving an example to counteract someone's claim that there was absolutely no reason for anyone to ever stop overnight in Bakersfield on the way to Yosemite.

Meanwhile, the reason I "forget" that Sequoia/Kings Canyon is much closer to LA is because it does not rank on "repeatability" to me the way that Yosemite does.

Thanks again for all the suggestions and replies to my question. I have (I think) finalised by plan; straight from Las Vegas to Visalia, two nights there, then another two nights at Mariposa before heading off to Lake Tahoe.

Thanks for the update. Enjoy your trip!

Cheers.

Fair enough.

Cheers.

This topic has come up before: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marriott-ritz-carlton-rewards/1416066-marriotts-near-national-parks.html

Avoid Bakersfield. Unless you have to be in Bakersfield, just avoid it.

You'd be better off in Sacramento or one of its suburbs if you are okay with driving two hours out of your way... honestly. Maybe even Modesto. Oh, I forgot, the Modesto CY left the flag some years ago and is now a Park Inn. It is rare to see CYs leave the flag...

Spend some time on Us-95, or us-395. Way better tan time spent on I-5 or I-80

Thanks for that tip.