The Desert Winter Run: an RV rental tour run, Jan–Mar 2026

2 easy drive days at ~300 miles a day

• Sequoia — Generals Highway between the Foothills and Giant Forest implements one of the strictest length caps in the national park system: rigs over 22 feet are explicitly advised against, and rigs over 24 feet are formally prohibited on the section between Hospital Rock and Giant Forest. (in California)
• Lassen Volcanic — Active hydrothermal areas — Bumpass Hell, Sulphur Works, Devils Kitchen — give Lassen its identity, and the park enforces strict on-trail discipline because the thin ground crust around boiling mud pots has fatal collapse history. (in California)

an easy drive day at ~300 miles a day

• Pinnacles — California condors — the largest land bird in North America with a 9.5-foot wingspan — are seen from Pinnacles' high country roughly 4 days a week per the park's volunteer logs, the densest reliable wild population south of the Big Sur cliffs. (in California)
• Humboldt Redwoods — More old-growth coast redwood than anywhere else on Earth — 17,000 acres of it, including the 51-acre Rockefeller Forest, the largest contiguous virgin redwood stand still standing. (in California)

2 easy drive days at ~300 miles a day

• Grand Canyon — Two rims, two completely different RV calendars. (in Arizona)
• Petrified Forest — No developed campground exists inside Petrified Forest — the park closes its gates at sunset, every visitor including RVers exits to the gateway towns of Holbrook or Chambers for overnight. (in Arizona)