Editor’s Note: This post is written by a member of LTV’s sponsored content team, The Leisure Explorers. Do you own a Leisure Travel Van and enjoy writing? Learn more about joining the team.
“To the RV!” I command, and our three dogs run directly to our LTV in the driveway. For a variety of reasons, it’s been a long time since we’ve gone on an RV trip, but Odin, Thor, and Apollo still know where to go. They’ve seen us packing all week, and now they’re super excited to hit the road, as are we. For the next 11 days, we’re driving north, seeing natural wonders, tasting amazing wines, and making new friends on a long-overdue RV vacation.
First Stop — The Natural Wonder of Yosemite
Yosemite National Park is only about six hours away from our home, yet in the 15 years we’ve been living on the Central Coast of California, we haven’t visited it. We did a quick drive-thru decades ago, and since we got our 2018 Unity FX, we’ve been talking about going back and spending a couple of nights there. But we could never really make the timing work. Then we got the invitation to the Southwest Roadrunners Rally in Truckee, California, in May of 2026, and guess what? Yosemite is on the way there! Perfect timing.
But before we actually get there, I am going to dial us back a few months to talk a little bit about HOW we got our reservations in Yosemite, because it isn’t like other campgrounds or National Parks we’ve visited in the past. For those trips, I do my research—looking at campground maps, satellite imagery, reviews and recommendations, and even individual campsite photos on sites like campsitephotos.com. I decide which sites are best for us based on how they look, how much space they have around them, their proximity to a dog run and bathrooms, and their location within the campground. Once I’ve done all that, I’ll pick the site we want and make my reservation. For Yosemite, you really can’t do any of that.
Sites at the big campgrounds in Yosemite (i.e., the RV-friendly ones) open up for reservations five months prior to your arrival date, on the 15th of the month at 7:00 am PT sharp, and I do mean sharp. I did my research on this. I decided which campgrounds were preferable (either Upper Pines or Lower Pines in the valley seemed best for us) and even looked at maps and pictures. I had a list of preferred sites, but I also knew that it was likely a fool’s errand to think I could be that specific.
At 6:59 am, I had my computer up to recreation.gov. I had multiple windows open, I had my filters applied, and my dates selected. At 7:00 am I hit refresh and started looking for sites. Within 10 seconds, there was nothing available—it was that fast. I started adjusting my dates for an earlier arrival. I hoped maybe I could get one night in one spot and move for the second night. Nothing was open. But I didn’t (completely) panic. My research showed that many people make quick site selections, but after 15 minutes, if they don’t complete the reservation, the site opens again. I waited, kept refreshing, and finally a site became available. Where was it? Didn’t care. I hit select. Whew! Camping shouldn’t be this stressful—at least not until you’re actually camping!
So now we can fast forward to May, and we’re driving into the National Park. Coming from the south, our first real view of the valley is when you come out of the tunnel. Tunnel View is, to me, the best view in the entire park. I remember the very first time I saw it, and it took my breath away. It was an Ansel Adams picture come to life, and many years later, it still doesn’t disappoint. There are other ways to drive into Yosemite, but if you want the grandest introduction to this park, it’s hard to beat Tunnel View.
Of course, being the best and one of the more famous overlooks means it can get crowded. There are two parking lots as you come out of the tunnel—one on the left and just a stone’s throw farther, another on the right. I didn’t even attempt to drive into the one on the left. I could see it was crowded with cars. But I hoped we could at least pull into the one on the right for a quick photo stop. To my surprise, we got our photo stop, and we found a place to pull in!
To caveat this achievement, I’ll say we were there mid-week in mid-May, before the summer crowds descend into the park. Timing was everything for this trip, and if you’re thinking of a Yosemite trip yourself, I can’t stress this point enough. We obviously couldn’t pick our dates (five months prior) based on weather conditions, but we did decide to avoid weekends and go before Memorial Day. That was our salvation. We arrived on Tuesday and left on Thursday. I read in the news that by that Saturday, the park was jammed up, with 90-minute wait times to get in, lines around the block to ride the shuttle buses, and no place to park. I know sometimes you don’t get to choose when you vacation, but we sure are glad we picked the dates we did.
We left Tunnel View and started the drive down into the valley. We passed the turnout to Glacier Point and decided not to go. I had heard it could be challenging in an RV and was worried about finding a parking spot at the top. We’ve done that viewpoint before, so while I’d highly recommend it if you have a car, we kept moving down to the valley floor. Along the way, we passed Bridal Veil Falls, and while we didn’t pull over, we could see the falls from the road.
Once we got to the valley floor, I was again surprised at our ability to find a place to pull the RV over and get out for some pictures. Of course, we had to try to get pics of Apollo, Odin, and Thor everywhere we went. Since I knew after we got to the campground, we weren’t going to drive around anymore, this first day was really our only opportunity, and we were lucky to find the parking we needed.
We finally arrived at our campsite in Upper Pines Campground and set ourselves up. Which, in an LTV, is ridiculously easy. One button puts the slide out, another puts the jacks down, and POOF, we’re done! No hookups there, so we would be dry-camping for our two-night stay. For the dogs (and us), it had been a long day, so we were happy to settle in, have a little wine, eat some dinner, and get a good night’s rest.
Day 2 – Exploring Yosemite
We’re both early risers (and the dogs aren’t great at letting us sleep in anyway), so in the morning we got ourselves and them sorted, and then we left the dogs behind as we went off to explore Yosemite Valley. We would have loved to have taken them, but most trails don’t allow dogs, and the shuttle bus definitely doesn’t allow dogs.
We decided the shuttle bus was our best option, and we’re glad we did. Even if we towed a smaller car, it could be a challenge to find parking spots, especially as the day goes on. This morning, we found empty buses as we journeyed around the valley. We stopped at Yosemite Falls, and since we weren’t going to go the long hike up to the top, we took the easier paved walk to see the Lower Falls up close.
Turns out dogs are actually allowed on that path, but we’d left them behind and made sure not to tell them about that later. We didn’t stop at every location on the bus route, but did get out at El Capitan overlook. It’s a magnificent wall of rock, and then you zoom in with the camera and see the crazy people sleeping on the rock face as they climb—not for us!
After the shuttle bus took us back to the campground, we spent some time with the dogs, had lunch, and then headed back out to the two “villages”, Yosemite Village and Curry Village. We explored the visitors center, an Ansel Adams gallery, and the main shop to look for a souvenir shirt. Then we went over to Curry Village, which had some good views of Half Dome and the Valley, as well as a nice cocktail bar for some adult refreshments!
For us, that was a good day in the park. Of course, there is so much to do in Yosemite, especially if you like hiking and biking. We saw some wonderful sights and then went back to the pups and hung out in the campground.
Day 3 – From Natural Wonders to Wonderful Wine
Driving out of Yosemite to the north provided more views of the many waterfalls and sights. Then it was a (very) windy road for a bit until we finally got to some flat parts and continued on our way into the wine region of Amador County.
In planning the trip, I looked for places between Yosemite and Truckee and for any Harvest Hosts along the route. That’s when I discovered there was a whole wine region I’d never heard of in Amador County. So that was our destination today. After tasting at one winery, we reached our Harvest Host destination at Dobra Zemlja Winery. The host was very friendly, and we parked the RV by a pretty pond before tasting their wines. We gave the doggies little walkies before dinner, and then we hung out in the RV.
Day 4 – Keep Wine-ing
It turns out Amador County isn’t the only wine region up there, so the next day was a short drive to El Dorado County and a couple more wineries before getting to Chateau Davell Winery. People sometimes wonder what our dogs do while we’re tasting wine. It’s normally one of three things–get pet from people (their favorite), pose for pictures (they tolerate), or sleep (maybe this is their favorite). At this winery, like so many, they got to do all three.
Speaking of the dogs, people often call us the “clown car” when we pull up places, as they can’t believe we travel with three dogs in a 25-foot RV. Granted, two of them are corgis, so not very big, but it is a challenge. Luckily, they all seem to have their place in the RV, and we’re remarkably able to move about in tight quarters. Unfortunately, sometimes “their” place is the same as “our” place, such as on the bed. That’s where we miss the king-size bed we have at home!
Day 5 – Lake Tahoe
We still had one more night before we needed to be in Truckee for the rally, so we planned for a night at another place we’ve been before, but very long ago—Lake Tahoe. First, we thought we’d drive over to the famous overlook at Emerald Bay. That was a mistake. The road there is super tight and windy. When the road signs suggest five mph to go around a hairpin curve, it’s going to be a slow drive, and once we got near the bay, it was obvious that MANY people had the same idea, and there was zero chance of finding a spot for the RV. Our LTV may be small at only 25 feet, but that’s still too big for crowded parking lots. So, we did a slow drive-by, I took some pictures from the window, and we proceeded to our campground.
We stayed at Zephyr Cove RV Campground on the east side of the lake (a little treat after dry camping). The campground was very nice, and, as I had done my research, we had a great spot that provided plenty of privacy and some nice boulders, which of course meant it was time for the dogs to pose again.
Another plan we’d made for this night was to take a sunset wine tasting cruise on the M.S. Dixie II, an actual paddlewheel ship that docks right at Zephyr Cove. The nearly three-hour tour (okay, start humming Gilligan’s Island…) took us over to Emerald Bay, but this time right into the bay and around it (with no parking issues!). The Sunset Wine Tasting experience was four (quite full) tastings accompanied by a large charcuterie board and some shrimp. The wine tasting took up the first part of the cruise, and then the dinner crowd below joined us in the lounge as we went round the bay and back to the cove, where we watched the sunset over the lake.
We had one last thing to do as we left Lake Tahoe: walk up to the Cave Rock viewpoint. It was just five minutes up the road from the campsite, and I had read it was an “easy” walk with “some” rock climbing at the end for a wonderful view. Well, the view was wonderful, but the walk was all uphill, especially as (with an RV) we had to park down by the shore and walk up the road before beginning the actual trail. There are a few parking spots at the trailhead, but with the RV, I didn’t think we’d have any chance of finding room. Once we got to the end of the trail, we saw the rock-climbing required to get to the tippy top. Hilary decided to wait below while I gave it a go. It wasn’t THAT hard, but it’s not for the faint of heart. Nevertheless, I made it up for some pictures before clambering back down. A great ending to the first part of our trip. Now we were headed north once more for the LTV Rally.
Day 6-9 – Rally Time
One thing I haven’t talked about much is the weather we had for this trip. When we entered Yosemite, it was 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is pretty hot for us. Luckily, our campsite was shaded, so it was cool enough for the dogs and us. The next day, it cooled down into the lower 70s, making it extremely pleasant. That nice weather stayed with us as we headed into the wine countries and then Lake Tahoe. By the time we left Tahoe, it was starting to get a little chilly. When we arrived at Truckee a few hours later, it was now quite cold. How cold, you ask? Well, as I went into the office to sign in at the RV park, I noticed white stuff falling from the sky. I thought maybe some kind of pollen from the trees? Or maybe ash from a fire? Nope—it was snow. Snow! In May! We’re definitely not used to snow or sub-freezing temperatures.
The outdoor meet-and-greet happy hour for rally attendees was moved indoors, and we asked the group how to handle the unexpected cold. The consensus was that the RVs would be fine, but as the temperature was going to go down to 26 degrees that night, it would be foolhardy to leave your water lines connected. We took that advice, and I made sure to disconnect the hose both tonight and the next night. It was warm enough during the day to reconnect, and each day it got warmer. Still, not the “warm” greeting I was hoping for from Truckee (pun obviously intended).
If you’ve never been to an LTV rally, you may wonder what goes on at them. We’ve only been to a few, all with the Southwest Roadrunners group. They have a big rally each winter in Las Vegas. At those, the days are scheduled with both fun activities (golf putting contest, sip-and-paint, happy hours, etc.) and informative ones (seminars from LTV, Mercedes, other owners, etc.). They are great places not only to meet and talk with other LTV owners, but also to gain a lot of information about your RV. This rally in Truckee was not like that. This was an informal rally at Village Camp in Truckee, with only a couple of scheduled activities. During the day, some people went into town (which we did), while others organized hiking or biking trips around the area. In the evenings, there were happy hours, and on the last day, there was a BBQ catered by a very good local chef, with rally attendees bringing desserts and side dishes.
Although for us the rally was low-key, we enjoyed meeting other LTV owners (shoutouts to Donna, Susan, and Leigh). The dogs enjoyed the dog park and got some run-around time. We all enjoyed relaxing downtime, which is one of the reasons we bought our RV in the first place.
Day 10 – One More Stop and Then Home
As it’s a bit of a long drive from Truckee back home, we decided to split it up with one more night on the road, and one more night at a winery! We drove into Lodi, which we’ve been to a few times. We even stayed at the same winery we’ve been to twice before, Klinker Brick Winery. In fact, you can read about our first time in Lodi in one of our earlier articles, the first one “written” by Odin the corgi.
The temperature was in the low 90s, so we had run the air conditioner on and off with the generator, as we were not plugged in to power. It made for a warm night, and we were happy the next day to drive back home, unload the RV…with a bigger bed for the dogs and us!
We’re glad we (finally!) made a plan and got to see Yosemite, with the added bonus of Lake Tahoe, an LTV rally, and the discovery of a new wine region. That’s what RV life is for us—visiting old favorites and finding new ones at the same time.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://leisurevans.com/blog/yosemite-tahoe-and-truckee-with-a-little-wine/