1 Week Itinerary: California National Parks
From snowy mountains to otherworldly deserts, California has it all.
California Gurls are unforgettable, but so is California itself. I had always sneered at Americans who professed to never leaving their country, but after this trip, I fully understood why - why would you leave, when you have mountains, forests, deserts and cities all in one state alone?
This 1 week California itinerary continues on from my Southwest US National Parks itinerary here, although it is possible to do either one in isolation. If you have two weeks to spare, I highly recommend doing them both!
Day 1: Los Angeles (arrival day)
Day 2: Los Angeles
Day 3: Sequoia National Park
Day 4: Sequoia National Park
Day 5: Yosemite National Park
Day 6: Yosemite National Park
Day 7: Yosemite National Park
Day 8: Death Valley National Park (departure day)
Day 1: Los Angeles
We begun the California leg of our road trip in none other than La La Land - the laidback, beachy yet flashy counterpart to New York City. Since we were coming all the way from the Grand Canyon in Arizona (see my 1 week Southwest itinerary here), most of this day was spent on the road during the whopping 7.5 hour drive east. We broke it up by stopping in Vegas to drop off our friend for her flight home, and then several other gas and restroom breaks along the way.
When we finally rolled into LA, it was dark and we went out in immediate search for dinner. Since we were staying next to Rodeo Drive, we decided to make the most of what would likely be our only opportunity to walk somewhere in LA (more on that later) and go to the Beverly Hills branch of the famed Sugarfish by Sushi Nozawa, which was 5 minutes away by foot.
Sugarfish does not take reservations, but thankfully we waited for less than 30 minutes before getting a table. Sugarfish offers several set menu options which they call “Trust Me”s, and we opted for the “Don’t Think. Just Eat. Trust Me” menu which included a sashimi course, 7 types of nigiri (with 2 pieces per type) and 2 hand rolls for $59 a head.
Given the amount of food we had and its exceptional quality, we thought that this was some of the best value sushi we’d ever had, especially since Sugarfish has a no tipping policy as well (definitely not typical of the States!)
Where we stayed in LA
Beverly Wilshire, a Four Seasons Hotel: an extravagantly opulent hotel which might not be to everyone’s taste aesthetically, but good god, their rooms are the definition of luxury and the service is second to none.
Day 2: Los Angeles
Given that we only had one full day to spend in LA, this ended up being a ridiculously packed day - but we enjoyed it nevertheless and were glad to be able to see as much of the city as possible.
A quick side note about getting around LA: it is HUGE. Unlike Manhattan, everything is so spaced out that the city sprawls out for miles, meaning that you’ll often find that the various attractions on your list are up to 45 minutes’ drive away from each other - it’s impossible to walk anywhere. This isn’t helped by the fact that LA’s subway system is way less comprehensive than NYC’s, and is notorious for being pretty sketchy and unpleasant to ride in general. LA driving is also extremely stressful for the uninitiated - drivers are aggressive and move at a frighteningly fast pace along the city’s many multi-lane highways, plus we weren’t sure what parking would be like throughout the city. We therefore decided to leave our rental car at the hotel and take Ubers/Lyfts to our various destinations, which whilst convenient, really added up.
Our first stop was at the supermarket to the stars, Erewhon. There are many branches around LA, so we just went to the Beverly Hills one. Even if you aren’t interested in trying the Hailey Bieber strawberry glaze smoothie of TikTok fame (which upsettingly, is very good even at $18), come here just to ogle at the shelves of impossibly beautiful produce and peruse the boujee snacks on offer.
We then hopped in an Uber to Venice Beach, which felt like a must-see when in LA. The beach itself is a lovely place to stroll along, but the beachfront promenade is your classic tourist trap full of shops selling various bits of guff and garb. Regardless, it’s still amusing to walk down and take in sights such as Muscle Beach (where would-be bodybuilders inexplicably pump iron outside for all to see) and the ludicrously vulgar clothes that all the shops sell for some reason.
We also took a little detour to walk around the canals, which is a residential neighbourhood that feels like London’s Little Venice, just with more sun and palm trees. This is a great place to gain an understanding of what LA life is like - perhaps best summarised by the recurring motif of tanned people leisurely walking around barefoot and dripping seawater everywhere before retreating into their luxurious homes.
Once we’d had enough of the uncompromising sun, we headed east to check out the Sawtelle Japantown neighbourhood, which is populated with a plethora of Japanese/East Asian restaurants, cafes and shops. We headed straight for Killer Noodle Tsujita, which I was determined to try after watching this Try Guys video years ago - and thankfully, the peanutty, spicy, saucy noodles were just as good as I hoped they’d be. I’d recommend the no soup version over the soup version, and be aware that the spice level is stronger with no soup!
To top off our lunch, we went to the nearby Wanderlust Creamery, an ice cream shop with unique flavours inspired by travel. After agonising over the decision, we chose green mango sorbet, Japanese Neapolitan (matcha, sakura and Hokkaido milk) and mango sticky rice, the latter being our favourite.
We decided to walk all of this off at the Getty Center, which is an art museum housed in an architecturally stunning set of buildings on top of a hill overlooking the entire city. It’s free to visit, but you do have to reserve a slot ahead of time on their website.
Whilst neither of us are really into art, we had a great time enjoying the gardens, the view and the various exhibitions - they may have been wasted on us, but more worldly people would love it here.
I didn’t want to leave the States without engaging in some good old American capitalism, so we then zipped back down the hill to The Grove, which is a beautiful outdoor shopping mall with a great selection of brands and a MASSIVE outdoor “farmers’ market” food court. To be honest, I would have been happy enough just walking around and soaking up the atmosphere, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to buy two pairs of trousers from Aritzia - the perfect long trousers that I had been looking for!
As sunset approached, we decided to try and catch it at Griffith Observatory - unfortunately, it turned out that the entire city had the same idea and we were quickly stuck in traffic crawling at glacial pace up the hill to the Observatory. By the time we got out, it was dark and the sky was so cloudy anyway that everything in the sky was obscured. Despite this, this was arguably one of our favourite stops in LA - the Observatory is open until 10pm, and it houses a public telescope, a museum with some great exhibits on space, and a planetarium with hourly shows. Whilst we didn’t have time to watch a show, we enjoyed ourselves immensely by wandering through the museum and listening to the Observatory staff give informational talks about certain exhibits- it felt like being a kid again.
Finally, we felt that we had digested enough of lunch for it to be dinner time, and so we took our penultimate Uber of the day to Koreatown, which is (like everything in LA) huge and sprawling. We specifically went for Quarters KBBQ, which I was keen to try after seeing it in this episode of Worth It (can you tell I was raised on the internet?)
We rolled up at around 8:30pm on a Sunday and the restaurant was already PACKED. Again, they don’t take reservations, so we put our names down on the waiting list and wandered around K-town for about half an hour before being admitted inside. All I can say is it was worth the wait - whilst plenty of people online seem to slate Quarters’ inauthenticity, we weren’t there to replicate what we’ve had already in Seoul - we were there for LA KBBQ, which is what we got. The meats were all high quality and well seasoned/marinated, and their accompanying cheese fondue dip is honestly genius. Portions are generous, banchans are plentiful - definitely try this place out if you're looking for KBBQ in LA.
Day 3 - Sequoia National Park
After gorging ourselves in LA, we were pretty ready to leave the hectic city and dive right back into the splendour of nature - so we hit the road after making stops at Erewhon (we had to have that strawberry glaze smoothie one last time) and Trader Joe’s, heading up north to Sequoia National Park.
A few things that would’ve been useful to know before we went:
The road into the park from the nearest gateway town is VERY LONG, narrow, and windy, curling up for miles up steep mountains. To get to the first patch of actual sequoia trees from the park entrance takes at least an hour’s worth of driving up this road (and that’s if you’re fairly confident and quick), so bear this in mind!
Sequoia National Park is separate from Kings Canyon National Park which sits on top of it, but they are managed by the National Park Service as one entity, which is why maps often refer to them together. You can definitely do both - there isn’t much to see in Kings Canyon outside of summer when the scenic road into the main portion of the park closes.
As a result of point 1 above and the fact we arrived pretty late, we only had time to do the Big Trees Trail in Sequoia, which is a very easy and short loop around a meadow where sequoias grow. On this day, it was incredibly foggy and cloudy, and the visibility got so bad that it really felt like we were in some sort of Japanese horror movie when walking around the forest. It made for some fun, Folklore-inspired photos though.
We had an understated dinner at Ol Buckaroo in the town of Three Rivers where we were staying - it’s perhaps as close as you can get to the park without staying in the park itself.
Where we stayed for Sequoia National Park
Airbnb (Three Rivers, CA): wonderful and even better than we had anticipated - spacious, comfy and fitted with everything we could need. We absolutely loved staying here and would highly recommend it.
Day 4 - Sequoia National Park
Armed with the knowledge that getting into the park would take some time, we set off very early the next morning with the goal of driving as far as we could into the park (and therefore into Kings Canyon) and then gradually making our way back down during the day. We figured this would be easier than the other way around, and I think this approach was correct.
We therefore started by driving to Panoramic Point in Kings Canyon, which affords a sweeping view of the mountains after a short walk. Next stop was General Grant, the second largest sequoia in the world - truly a breathtaking and awe-inspiring sight, especially when viewed along with all the other impossibly high sequoias in the grove. However, if I’m being totally honest, you could skip these two spots if you’re short on time.
We then drove back into Sequoia National Park to the Lodgepole Visitor Center, which is the starting point for Tokopah Falls hike. This is a pretty moderate hike which takes you to the tallest waterfall in Sequoia and back - about 3.8 miles long total. Whilst the scenery isn’t the most dramatic along this trail, it’s still a nice walk to do.
Once the hike was over, we drove a little further to see what is *literally* the biggest attraction of Sequoia - General Sherman, the largest sequoia tree in the world by volume, located in the Giant Forest. Definitely don’t skip this - this place genuinely makes jaws drop, and General Sherman itself is truly an impressive sight to behold, especially against the backdrop of all the other equally majestic sequoias soaring up to the sky.
We then moved on to Moro Rock, which is another non-negotiable - you must do this. Sure, it’s a steep and slightly terrifying climb to the top (“rock” seems like a misnomer), but this will give you amazing and awe-inspiring views of the Sierra Nevada mountain range that can’t be beaten.
We decided to use the dregs of the day by doing the Big Trees Trail once again - only this time, the entire meadow wasn’t covered in thick fog, meaning that the jaw-droppingly beautiful and imposing sequoias were fully visible.
After making the long winding drive back to Three Rivers under a rapidly darkening sky, we scarfed down homely tacos and quesadillas from Casa Mendoza for dinner and quickly passed out.
In summary - Sequoia is up there among the best. We were truly floored when we saw the trees for the first time, and after the dusty, hot canyons of the Southwest, the alpine forest scenery was a welcome change. If you pushed us to give an answer, it may have been our favourite out of all the parks we visited, so I’d highly encourage anyone to make the trip there!
Day 5 - Yosemite National Park
Another day, another 3 hour stint on the road - to reach perhaps the most highly anticipated national park of them all, Yosemite. Our first stop was Tunnel View, a popular viewpoint at the end of a tunnel that allows you to take sights such as El Capitan, Half Dome, Bridalveil Fall and Yosemite Valley itself all at once. Needless to say, this place was pretty congested, so we didn’t stay for too long.
We decided to take it slow on our first day and do the Lower Yosemite Waterfalls trail, which is one of the few easy routes in the park (once you’ve exhausted the valley floor, the only way is up!). This is mostly flat and pretty short, only taking about half an hour, and I’d definitely recommend it for great waterfall and forest views.
There is an option to continue from the Lower Yosemite Waterfalls trail onto the Valley Loop trail, which can take you towards Mirror Lake. Whilst mostly flat by virtue of being on the valley floor, this loop trail is pretty long - and if I’m being totally honest, Mirror Lake in autumn is no more than a puddle. Granted, the pictures of the lake during spring/summer when it is at its fullest thanks to fresh snowmelt look breathtaking, but I wouldn’t bother making the trek out there in October.
Where we stayed for Yosemite National Park
Autocamp Yosemite (Midpines, CA): about 45 minutes’ drive from the park, this is a glamping experience with luxuriously renovated Airstream trailers or tents on offer. Whilst our standard queen room trailer was very comfortable and fitted with a spacious spa-like bathroom and kitchenette with everything we could need, it was unavoidably pretty small (especially bearing in mind that this trailer is advertised to house up to 3 adults, which I definitely don’t think would be possible, at least not comfortably!) This was also one of the more expensive places we stayed, but ultimately we enjoyed staying here and could see it being really fun with friends, with each trailer having its own fire pit area and the swanky clubhouse having (amongst other facilities) a 24/7 shop stocked with intriguing wares such as frosé sorbet and s’mores kits.
The town of Mariposa is only about 10 minutes’ drive down the road from Midpines, which turned out to be a godsend with its surprising myriad of food options. On our first night, we opted for a quickie at the Pizza Factory, which is a chain that makes fresh pizza akin to Domino’s with generous heapings of toppings. We then tossed the leftovers in our Airstream’s fridge for breakfast tomorrow before settling down in our trailer for the night.
Day 6 - Yosemite National Park
If this day were to have a Friends-esque title, I would call it “The One Where Ali Completely and Utterly Lost It”.
As I mentioned above, Yosemite Valley doesn’t have much by way of easy or moderate trails - once you’ve exhausted the walks on the valley floor, the only way is up, which guarantees immediate “strenuous” categorisation. It is also a fact of life that the higher you go, the better the views, and so it should’ve come as little surprise that one of the most strongly lauded hikes was the Panorama Trail, which starts at 7,214 feet above sea level from Glacier Point and runs 8.5 miles downhill before reaching the valley floor.
To start the Panorama Trail, you obviously have to get yourself to Glacier Point, and there is usually a park shuttle bus that takes you up those 7,214 feet from May-October. Unluckily for me, this bus was not operating in 2023, meaning that unless we were ok with leaving our car at the top of a mountain, we would have to rely on our own legs to haul ourselves up to Glacier Point via the misleadingly named Four Mile Trail (it is actually 4.8 miles - they really should’ve rounded it up to Five Mile Trail).
To cut a very long, very painful story short, do NOT attempt to do the Four Mile Trail and Panorama Trail together in one day unless you are a) fully equipped with suitable clothing, shoes and gear, and carrying plenty of water and food, AND b) would classify your fitness as either that of an experienced and hardened hiker, an Olympian or a member of the military. I only satisfied a) and boy was this not enough. Whilst there was no thankfully no blood, there was definitely plenty of sweat and tears.
I will say this - whilst ascending the Four Mile Trail was tough, the views of El Cap and Half Dome through the trees on the way up were stunning, and Glacier Point is definitely worth seeing. In hindsight, we should have just come down Four Mile Trail after ascending, or just been lazy (read: smart) and driven up to see the view.
By the time we had reached the valley floor via the steeply downhill Panorama Trail (downhill is MUCH worse on the legs, trust me), we had hiked for 9 hours and the sky was pitch black. After another two hours spent waiting for and catching the evasive park shuttle buses back to our car and driving back to Mariposa, we inhaled sandwiches for dinner at Hideout Saloon (one of two restaurants still open at 8pm, the other being Pizza Factory) and promptly retreated back to our trailer for much-needed hot showers and bed. I was absolutely SHATTERED.
Day 7 - Yosemite National Park
After the trials and tribulations of the previous day, we agreed that we would take this day very easy - and so after an uncharacteristically lazy morning of rotting in bed, we headed to Mariposa for an early lunch at the Little Shop of Ramen, which was surprisingly decent and authentic in flavour given that it was located in a tiny gateway town in rural California.
We then headed back to the park to see El Capitan from the eponymous El Capitan Meadow. Seeing El Cap from here really conveys the rock’s sheer size and magnitude - especially when you spot climbers on its face no bigger than ants. A short hike to the foot of El Cap puts this into even better perspective and allows you to touch the rock yourself - the rock on which climbing legends like Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold have earned their places in the history books. I’d definitely recommend watching The Dawn Wall and/or Free Solo before seeing El Cap to understand what a feat it is to summit it - the latter documents how Alex Honnold climbed El Cap with no protective equipment or ropes.
However, the best views of the trip were yet to come. After another hour or so’s worth of driving up out of the valley to Taft Point, we had a short and easy forest hike to the viewpoint at the precipice of a vertigo-inducing cliff, showing us El Cap in all its splendour from dizzying heights.
We both agreed this place surpasses even Glacier Point’s views (for much less effort as well) - definitely come here if you can, but be VERY careful where you step. The rock is riddled with hidden, deep fissures that open out to the valley floor…
Arguably the best meal of our trip was yet to come as well - that night, we ventured back into Mariposa, and for the first time we were early enough to secure a dinner table at what was by far the most popular restaurant in town - Fredrick’s of Savourys.
This is proper, hedonistic, wholesome middle-America comfort food at its best - we had a blue cheese dip with bacon and crusty bread to start, with bowls of clam chowder accompanying our mains of rack of lamb and ginger cilantro pasta with shrimp. When I say that we’ve never had such good lamb with such buttery smooth mashed potatoes, or such deliciously garlicky linguine with the plumpest prawns known to man, I mean it. If you ever go to Yosemite, make it a point to come here for dinner - you will not regret it.
Day 8 - Death Valley National Park
Because we are suckers for punishment, we challenged ourselves to fit in another national park literally before catching our red eye back home by driving from Yosemite to Las Vegas through Death Valley. Whilst I moaned a lot about having to get up before dawn to accomplish this, I have to begrudgingly admit, it was worth it.
Within a few hours of driving in a southerly direction, we had seen snowy peaks, forests and lakes slowly but surely transform into blistering desert, justifying our choice of clothing (shorts for him, summer dress for me) that must’ve looked really stupid when we were leaving Yosemite at -5 degrees Celsius.
We finally reached Death Valley National Park before noon - officially the hottest, driest and lowest national park out of them all. This is truly a place of extremes, which creates these otherworldly, alien and beautifully stark landscapes. Whilst hiking is possible here, the scorching heat even in mid-October would probably make this pretty unpleasant, so most people just drive from one place of interest to another.
Our first port of call was the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes, best known for being a filming location for Star Wars. People dedicated to the money shot often wade out further into the dunes to find footprint-free spots that offer far more picturesque views, but we didn’t bother with this, and so we therefore didn’t see the best of what this place had to offer.
Next stop was Badwater Basin, imaginatively named because the salty water is undrinkable. This marks the lowest place in North America, being 282 feet below sea level, which was a bit of a mind-boggling fact to get my head around as we surveyed the vast salt flats that stretched out into seemingly infinity.
We were most excited to see the famous salt crust with picture-perfect hexagonal formations, but as we approached, we realised that the flat had been flooded - and at the time of our visit a lot of the roads in Death Valley had been closed due to prior flood damage as well. This didn’t detract from how breathtaking the place was though - if anything, we felt lucky to have the rare chance to see the flat flooded, and the crazy Mars-like rock formations in the background really made it feel like we were on the set of some high budget sci-fi movie.
We made a quick detour to see the nearby Devil’s Golf Course, aptly named since the whole area is littered with treacherously jagged rocks resembling meteorites. I will sound like a broken record here, but the effect is so otherworldly that it’s worth seeing. However, you do have to be pretty careful if you want to venture into the rocks, and there are some ominous signs warning you that the rocks are hard and sharp enough to cause nasty cuts and even broken bones if you fall onto them. Needless to say, we remained cautiously near the edge and contented ourselves with watching people far braver than us pick their way around.
The penultimate place on our whistle-stop tour of Death Valley was Artist’s Palette, reachable via the scenic Artist’s Drive. This rugged mountain landscape contains some really unexpected colours like greens and purples, making for a truly amazing sight. The best part of the drive is actually after you leave the main viewpoint for Artist’s Palette, becoming increasingly windy as it takes you through scenic canyons.
Our final stop was at Zabriskie Point, which is reachable via a short walk up a hill from the car park. This offers one of the most spectacular vistas of the uniquely rippled mountains, and was a great place to end our visit.
After indulging ourselves one last time at In-n-Out Burger and Chick-fil-a, we were all too soon back in the bright lights of Vegas, and then on the plane back home to London.
Overall, this whole trip was one of those truly stellar holidays that was even better in real life than it looked on Instagram. Needless to say, I’m already planning my next trip back…
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