The West Coast Summer Run: an RV rental tour run, May–Jul 2026

an easy drive day at ~300 miles a day

• 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)
• Kings Canyon — Highway 180 from Grant Grove down to Cedar Grove drops 4,700 vertical feet in 31 miles — one of the deepest paved-road descents in the national park system — and the road itself closes November through April every year regardless of snowpack. (in California)

an easy drive day at ~300 miles a day

• Red Rock Canyon (California) — Sedimentary cliffs banded red, white, and tan rise 300 feet above the desert floor at the El Paso Mountains' western edge — a film-location landmark (Jurassic Park, Westworld, hundreds of car commercials) wedged between Edwards AFB and Death Valley. (in California)
• Crystal Cove — Three miles of Orange County coastline and a 46-cottage Historic District listed on the National Register define the visit — and RV access stops at the day-use lots. (in California)

an easy drive day 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)
• Channel Islands — There is no road to Channel Islands National Park — the five islands sit 12-70 miles off the Ventura coast, and access is concessioner ferry (Island Packers) or private boat. (in California)

an easy drive day at ~300 miles a day

• 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)
• Mount Tamalpais — Panoramic Highway and Pantoll Road impose one of the strictest practical length caps in any California state park — the switchbacks above Stinson Beach physically can't accommodate rigs over 24 feet, and the State Parks system formally posts a 24-ft advisory. (in California)

an easy drive day at ~300 miles a day

• Julia Pfeiffer Burns — McWay Falls — the 80-foot tidewater fall plunging directly into the Pacific from a wave-cut bench — is the only reason most travelers stop, and the visit is structured entirely around the 0.6-mile Overlook Trail. (in California)
• Yosemite — Bear-resistant food storage is the operating premise of every RV-friendly campground in Yosemite Valley. (in California)