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We were somewhere on the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway, dropping 4,000 feet into a canyon that kept narrowing, the Kings River appearing below us like a turquoise thread, when 14 year old Savannah who had been looking out the window turned to me and said, “You know. I’m kinda glad my phone fell down the toilet because now I’m paying attention more.”
Thank goodness for small phone slip miracles and stunning nature to prove her point. Her mesmerizing beauty trumps all pokes, dings, and disappearing messages. A Majestic Mountain Loop road trip is always a great idea.
Visit California’s Majestic Mountain Loop connects Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia in a single circuit starting and ending near Fresno. The total driving distance is around 200 miles.
Three national parks in six days sounds like a lot. And it is, if you rush it. But we flew into Fresno, which puts you right in the middle of all three, and the route falls into a natural loop. No backtracking. No brutal long-haul driving days. Just a very good road trip through the Sierra Nevada with two base towns that people underestimate. Here’s how my teenager and i did it on this amazing mother daughter road trip (all inspired by her travel dreams).
The route
Fresno (fly in) → Bass Lake/Oakhurst → Yosemite (2 days) → Kings Canyon → Visalia → Sequoia → Fresno (fly out)
We actually drove to San Francisco for three days and flew out of there. Totally doable as its 3 hours from Visalia; it’s also 3 hours from LA, so you have great options.
One rental car. One loop. About 1 hour of driving on your first day, and 1 – 2.5 hours on the days you shift south and move between destinations.
Staying near the southern gate of Yosemite is what makes most sense for this Majestic Mountain Loop road trip. Otherwise, it will add a lot of extra driving time when you move from Yosemite to Kings Canyon.
Day 1: Arrive in Fresno, drive to Bass Lake
Fresno airport is blessedly small. You’re through baggage claim and into a rental car in under 20 minutes. Head northeast on Highway 41 and in about an hour you’re in the Sierra Nevada foothills, which feel nothing like the California most people picture.
Bass Lake is a reservoir community that sits 15 miles below the Yosemite south entrance. It’s calm, scenic, and completely unbothered by its proximity to one of the most visited national parks on earth. People come here to boat, swim, and paddle, to eat on the water, and to watch the light go gold across the lake in the evening. It’s the chill to the Yosemite intensity you need.
Arrive in the afternoon and spend time relaxing in your cabin or swimming at the lake. We picked up lunch from Miller’s Landing Resort where we were staying before taking a swim.
Then for dinner we drove 30 minutes to the Yosemite Mountain Sugar Pine Railroad Moonlight Special for a three-hour evening logger steam train ride through the Sierra Nevada. Enjoy dinner, a narrow-gauge logging railroad, and a live singalong around a campfire. Savannah and I enjoyed it more than we thought we would.
This first night is recovery time. Eat well in Oakhurst (the nearest town, 10 minutes away), get to bed early. Everything that matters starts tomorrow.
Where to stay: The Bass Lake area has plenty of lake cabins to rent, Millers Landing Resort and the Pines Resort. Oakhurst has standard hotel options. Either works. Oakhurst is more practical if you want to be near food and coffee in the morning without driving. And for a quicker drive into Yosemite NP. The other option, closer to the park entrance is Tenaya Lodge where I have stayed twice and loved it. It will be further away from Bass Lake, however.
Day 2: Yosemite Valley and the Mist Trail
Get up early. Get yourself through the south entrance and down into the Valley by 8am if you can manage it. Honestly, I say 7am if you’re doing the Mist Trail, or any of the longer hikes.The crowds build fast. By 10 the parking is complicated and by noon the valley floor has the energy of a theme park.
Start with the Mist Trail while you have fresh legs. It’s 3 miles round-trip to Vernal Falls, 7 if you push to Nevada Falls. The last quarter mile to Vernal Falls gets soaked in spray from the waterfall as you climb the stone steps. On a sunny morning you walk straight through a rainbow. Savannah said it was her favorite Yosemite memory.
After the hike, the rest of the valley is a slow wander. A short trail to Yosemite Falls El Capitan meadow, lying on the grass watching climbers that you can barely see. Tubing down the river. The valley floor views of Half Dome. Lunch at Curry Village (or pack a picnic). None of it feels like effort. The scale of the place does the work.
Head back to Bass Lake by mid-afternoon. Be sure to stop at Tunnel View on the way out for one of the best Yosemite views. You can also do it in the morning, but lighting is better in the afternoon.
Drive time from Bass Lake to the Valley floor: about 90 minutes each way.
Day 3: Glacier Point (and options if you have energy)
The Glacier Point Road is one of the better drives in California and most people don’t take it until they’ve already spent a day staring at Half Dome from below. Coming to Glacier Point after the valley is a different experience. You’re now at 7,200 feet, looking directly across at Half Dome, the valley spread below you. If you hiked the Mist Trail yesterday, you can probably see where you were standing.
Get there before 9am. By 10 the parking fills and the viewing area gets crowded in a way that undercuts the whole experience.
If time allows after Glacier Point, Taft Point is 2 miles away on a flat trail that ends at a granite ledge over a 3,000-foot drop with no guardrails. It’s a different kind of dizzying. Worth it if your legs are willing.
On your way back toward Oakhurst, the Mariposa Grove is a worthwhile stop: Yosemite’s grove of giant sequoias, with a 2-mile walk to the Grizzly Giant. It’s a natural bridge into what comes later in the trip when you encounter sequoias again in Sequoia National Park. The trees in Mariposa are old and enormous, and the grove is often quieter than you’d expect given the park traffic.
Alternatively, if you only wanted one day in Yosemite, you could move Glacier Point to the afternoon of the first day, and leave this day to relax at Bass Lake, or Tenaya Lodge if you choose to stay there. You can read our Bass Lake & Yosemite guide to see other options for things to do and places to eat.
Have an early night as tomorrow will be an early start.
Read More: This was my fourth visit to Yosemite National Park. Here are some more guides to help you -plan: amazing things to do in Yosemite with kids (or not), 3 day Yosemite NP itinerary, and the Half Dome Plan B.
Day 4: Kings Canyon then Visalia
Drive 2 hours from Bass Lake to the entrance of Kings Canyon National Park. It’s smaller and lessor visited than the other two parks but well worth a day of your time.
Begin with General Grant, the world’s third largest sequoia at the Grant Grove, another sequoia cluster inside the Kings Canyon section of the park. Then the road tips you into the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway and the whole character of the landscape changes.
The descent is 4,000 feet and the canyon walls close in on both sides as you drop. It’s narrow and dramatic in a way that California’s mountain driving often isn’t. At the bottom, Cedar Grove opens up into a wide, flat meadow with the Kings River running through it, turquoise from glacier melt, cold even in summer.
Enjoy seven miles of hiking along the South Fork Kings River. The trail starts at Roads End (the same trail that takes you to Mist Falls) and follows the river to Zumwalt Meadow. (see All Trails Map) Enjoy Roaring River Falls and Junction View on your drive back out (better with the afternoon light).
It will take about 2.5 hours to drive from the valley floor to Visalia. The Kings Canyon Scenic Byway takes about an hour.
Visalia gets overlooked by most people planning this route, and that’s their loss. It is the gateway town to Kings Canyon and Sequoia so makes sense to base yourself there for the next two nights.
It has a proper downtown with good restaurants. Not tourist restaurants. The kind of restaurants that exist because a city of 140,000 people needs somewhere to eat on a Saturday night. This area is also one of the biggest agricultural areas in the country, so you can expect food made from fresh, local produce. We had one of our best meals of the trip here, the carne en su jugo at El Tarasco.
Where to stay: The city also has reasonably priced hotels that haven’t decided they can charge national park rates just because they’re within driving distance. We stayed at the Comfort Suites Visalia – Convention Center in Downtown and liked it. I have penciled in the boutique Darling Hotel for my next stay!
Day 5: Sequoia National Park
Start early again – you really want to beat those crowds – and head straight to Moro Rock It’s a 350-step climb up a granite dome to a 360-degree view of the Great Western Divide. Because of its narrowness just one shuttle bus load will feel like a ride line at Disney. This is the view people don’t anticipate. They come for the trees, and they leave talking about this. The mountains go further than you can see.
From there, head to the next busiest attraction. We escaped the middle of the day crowds, but it was slowly building. Even then we skipped waiting in the line for the General Sherman tree photo next to the sign. I can only imagine how painful that would have been by the afternoon.
The most important thing to know about General Sherman is that the number (52,508 cubic feet of volume, making it the world’s largest living tree) means nothing until you’re standing next to it.
It’s a half mile walk down from the trailhead parking. The tree doesn’t try to impress you. It just exists at a scale that takes a moment to process. We stood there longer than I expected to.
If you have afternoon energy left: the Congress Trail loops through a dense collection of sequoias from the Sherman Tree trailhead. Mostly flat, under 2 miles. The sequoias here come at you in groups. The names are all slightly absurd (The Senate, The House) but the trees themselves earn it. We share other hike ideas in our guide to Visalia, Kings Canyon & Sequoia NP.
Return to Visalia for the night. It’s about a 90-minute drive. The scenic road from the entrance gates up to the main part of Sequoia is quite stunning (winding so go slow).
Wrap up an amazing Sierra Nevada road trip with sunset views looking back over it from Elderwood Restaurant, the rooftop restaurant at the Darling Hotel. Cheers to six days of adventures through three spectacular California national parks.
Practical notes: Sequoia and Kings Canyon are one connected park, managed together. Your entry fee or America the Beautiful pass covers both. Some people attempt to do the two parks in one day. I don’t recommend it. Visalia operates the Sequoia Shuttle, which takes you from most Visalia hotels to the Giant Forest Museum, Sequoia NP. From there, use the free internal shuttle It operates from Memorial Day to Labor Day. $15 round-trip.
Day 6: One last morning, then goodbye
What you do on your last morning is dependent on your departure time. As we were driving to San Francisco, we had more flexibility and chose to have a slow morning in Visalia.
That meant a hot Pilates class at Space Yoga (so great for hiking recovery), a delicious healthy breakfast at Component Coffee, a little bit of shopping and coffee to go at Mission Coffee.
it took us just over three hours to get to San Francisco. (a post on that trip coming soon. Subscribe to our newsletter so you don’t miss it.)
The drive back to Fresno from Visalia is about 50 minutes and Fresno airport is quick to navigate.
Watch the Majestic ‘Mountain Loop road trip highlights in the video 👇
What to sort before you leave home
America the Beautiful Pass: $80, covers entry to all national parks. It pays for itself on this trip. Buy it at your first park entrance or online before you go. I love that any other national parks in the US we now want to do for the remainder of the year are covered!
Rental car: You need one. There’s no practical alternative for this route. Public transit options exist for parts of Yosemite Valley but not for the rest of the trip. We always rent from DiscoverCars.com Check rates and availability here.
Best time to go: Late May through early October. Glacier Point Road in Yosemite and the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway can both be affected by snow before Memorial Day. August and early September are the busiest months. Late September and early October are often the sweet spot: smaller crowds, turning leaves in places, still fully accessible. There is just not as much water in the waterfalls!
Where to stay:
- Bass Lake/Oakhurst: 3 nights. Closer to the park than staying in Fresno, and a nicer base than you’d expect.
- Visalia: 2 nights. The right call. Better food, better prices, and a downtown that offers more for you to do outside of park hours. Consider:
A note on the driving
People ask whether the driving is too much. It isn’t. The mid-trip repositioning from Oakhurst to Kings Canyon valley floor (3 hours) is the longest day on the road. Every other day, the park entrance is under an 90 minutes from your base.
The roads are mountain roads. They move at a mountain pace. Don’t rush them. The scenery on the approach to Yosemite via Highway 41, the descent into Kings Canyon, and the ascent to Sequoia NP are part of the trip, not dead time between the good parts.
Want more? Here are some more road trips in the USA to love, some of the best scenic drives in the USA, and some road trip ideas from LA.
Have questions about the route? Drop them in the comments. Happy to help you plan it.
Here are some frequently asked questions
Do you need reservations for Yosemite?
You don’t need a reservation to enter the park. Yosemite dropped the timed entry system. What you do need to book in advance: accommodation inside the park (Curry Village, Yosemite Valley Lodge, etc.) and Half Dome permits if that’s on your list. Both go through recreation.gov and both fill up fast.
Is the America the Beautiful Pass worth it for this trip?
Yes. Yosemite entry is $35 per vehicle; Kings Canyon and Sequoia together are another $35. The pass is $80 and covers all three plus every other national park for 12 months. It pays for itself before you leave Day 2.
Why fly into Fresno instead of Los Angeles or San Francisco?
Fresno puts you an hour from Yosemite’s south entrance and 45 minutes from Kings Canyon and Sequoia. Flying into LA or San Francisco adds 3 to 4 hours of driving each way. For this specific route, Fresno is the obvious choice.
Can you do this road trip without a car?
There’s a free shuttle inside Yosemite Valley once you’re through the gate. Everything else on this route requires a car. Kings Canyon, Sequoia’s Giant Forest, and the Bass Lake to Visalia transfer all need wheels.
What’s the best time of year for this trip?
Late September and early October. The summer crowds have thinned, all roads are still open, and the days are still warm enough to hike comfortably. July and August work but Yosemite especially gets very busy. Before late May there’s a real risk of mountain road closures from snow.
What is the Kings Canyon Scenic Byway?
Highway 180 from Grant Grove down to Cedar Grove. It drops 4,000 feet into one of the deepest canyons in North America, with walls closing in on both sides and the Kings River running turquoise at the bottom. It’s one of the most dramatic drives in California and most people driving the Sequoia area miss it entirely.
What’s the difference between Kings Canyon and Sequoia?
They’re managed as one connected park but geographically distinct. Sequoia contains the Giant Forest: General Sherman Tree, Moro Rock, the Congress Trail. Kings Canyon is to the north, centered on the canyon itself, Cedar Grove, and the General Grant tree. One entry fee, one pass, covers both.
How long do you need in Yosemite?
Two full days is the minimum to do the Mist Trail and Glacier Point without rushing. If you add Mariposa Grove or Taft Point, allow a third. One day in Yosemite is technically possible and I have done that twice now. I much prefer 2-3 days in Yosemite to really appreciate it.
Can you hike the Mist Trail with teenagers?
Yes. The 3-mile round trip to Vernal Falls is manageable for most teens who are reasonably comfortable on trails. Push to Nevada Falls (7 miles, more elevation) for older teens who want a real workout. The trail gets wet from the falls — bring layers you don’t mind soaking.
Is Visalia a good base for Kings Canyon and Sequoia?
Better than most people expect. It’s a real city with good restaurants and hotels at non-park prices. Kings Canyon is about 90 miles northeast, Sequoia’s main entrance is about 45 miles. You can do both as day trips and come back to a proper dinner each night.
How long is the Majestic Mountain Loop?
Visit California’s Majestic Mountain Loop connects Yosemite, Kings Canyon, and Sequoia in a single circuit starting and ending near Fresno. The total driving distance is around 200 miles. You can technically rush it in 3 days, but 6 days is the right call if you want to actually hike, stop, and not spend every evening exhausted. That’s the itinerary this post is based on.
