Ladies and gents: IT CAN BE DONE! I know other people have done it…but WE did it. We took a trailer and did a road trip with three kids (ages 7, 5, and 1.5) and survived to tell the tale!

I did a lot of research and planning for our trip, so thought I’d share what worked for us in case it’s helpful for anyone else.

Our first destination was Sequoia RV Ranch, in Three Rivers. It’s a short 15-minute drive to the Sequoia National Park Foothills entrance, and maybe an hour to the Giant Forest Museum.

SATURDAY. The temperature at the Ranch was 108 degrees when we arrived a little after 4:30 p.m. – yikes! The great thing about this campsite is FULL HOOK UPS. We got to use all of the trailers amenities, including A/C. Honestly, with that kind of heat (and a low of mid-70’s at night), we were checking out surrounding hotels on our way there in case the A/C didn’t work. Thankfully it did, and we left that going while we went to check out the local swimming hole. I highly recommend getting a site closest to the swimming hole, or even a site that has the river next to it – the river was our salvation for that heat! After heading back to our site for a quick dinner (see below for our meals), we went back to the river a little better prepared: camping chairs for Jeff and I and the 1 year old (Jonny), water shoes for everyone, and most importantly: beers (no glass allowed, so we poured into cups and took down).

SUNDAY. We headed out as early was we could with three kids to get ready. I packed a quick lunch and put that in a small cooler I took specifically for days like this one. My oldest is super picky, so I write everyone’s name on a paper towel, wrap their sandwich in it, and then place all the sandwiches in a large ziplock. I sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and placed in a separate ziplock to add to our sandwiches later. I also know us well, so packed plenty of bars, chips, and snacks. And water, of course. We bought these canteens for the boys, which not only got lots of attention from everyone, they also allowed the boys to carry their own water without complaining ;) We also waited until 9:00 a.m. for the office to open so we could check in, since it was already closed when we drove in on Saturday. Office employee was very nice and pointed out a kids scavenger hunt and treasure chest. They also had a bunch of board games in the office – I imagine you can hang out there to get out of the heat, if needed.

Sadly the Giant Forest Museum was still closed due to COVID, but we took the Big Trees Trail which was just passed it, and it DID NOT DISAPPOINT. We took the stroller with us which worked out great for Jonny: the entire trail is paved, although there are some stairs from and to the parking lot on either end of the loop of the trail, so definitely need a couple people to carry up and down the stairs. After we crossed the street on the trail to the meadow, we found some people climbing on a giant log, and I’m so glad we saw them, otherwise we would have walked right by it! A little sketchy, but beautiful view from the top!

The meadow itself was absolutely breathtaking, we even saw a black bear sprint through it! I highly recommend taking the full loop around the meadow – it’s not very long and every angle of this meadow is stunning. We were quite hungry at this point, so we found a log and some shade in the parking lot to scarf down our sandwiches before heading to Crescent Meadow.

The beginning of this road is super narrow and a little sketchy, but widens a bit later on. This meadow also has a fully paved path, so again great for strollers (or for using the stroller to carry all your waters when your one-year old doesn’t want to sit in it). We saw a buck on this trail, which was pretty exciting! We were trying to make it to Thorps Log on this trail, but we turned out right before we got there – everyone was getting tired and grumpy. I later found out the log we climbed in the first meadow was probably more impressive, although less kid friendly, than Thorps Log.

We ended our day by waiting in line for a ridiculous amount of time to get our photo under the Tunnel Log. A couple notes: you have to pass this in order to get to Crescent Meadow and there was quite a back up when we got there – we had to wait in what is supposed to be the bypass lane, in order to turn off left to keep going to Crescent Meadow. We decided to wait on the way back for the photo op. A note to future travelers: please be considerate if there’s a line and make it quick! People were taking forever and doing full photo shoots while 20+ cars waited in line.

I really wanted to check out the General Sherman tree, but Josh and Jon were both asleep by the time we got there, so Jeff and Jake literally ran down and back. My request for photos was forgotten during the quick sprint, ha! Next time!

We stopped for ice cream at Reimers Candies & Gifts on our way back to camp. This was a win-win: the kids love ice cream, and it killed some time on getting back to our hot campsite. We turned on the A/C as soon as we got back to camp, and repeated our schedule from the day before: dip in the river, then head back to camp for dinner. Since everyone was pretty tired and we could use the trailer TV, we opted for a movie night instead of going back to the river.

MONDAY. We had a quick breakfast and tried to pack up before the heat really got in. We were still sweating by the time we headed out. Our next stop was Cedar Bluff Campground, next to Bass Lake (I used the recreation.gov app for two of our reservations and was really impressed with the app). We stopped at a Wal-Mart in Fresno to stock up on some food and other supplies, and found a local pizza place for lunch. I figured eating out for lunch on travel days would break up the monotony of sandwich lunches. We rolled in late in the afternoon and did just the basics, then headed to the lake with our fishing poles, since Josh (our 5 year old), had been dying to fish since we left the house. We tried fishing by the dam, as was recommended by a couple people, but had no luck. Easy night of dinner, campfire, and s’mores.

TUESDAY. Again, we TRIED to head out early, but it’s hard to wake up sleeping kids. The drive from our campsite to the Yosemite National Park entrance was only 21 miles, but there was already a line of cars to get in that took an extra 30 minutes or so. I will say – there are worse places you could be stuck in: the trees were just beautiful! We played some hangman, built some legos (I bought two giant pencil boxes and had the boys pack legos before we left the house), and tried to keep a one year old entertained. This is COVID-era specific, but you had to purchase your pass ahead of time, as they only sell a certain amount per day. The passes are valid for three days, so although they didn’t have any available for Tuesday when I was purchasing it, they had one available for Monday, that was valid for Tuesday and Wednesday also (phew).

The drive in to the valley was…you guessed it…beautiful. We pulled over after the tunnel for the classic look out photo, and then pulled over a little further down the road where we could scramble down to the Merced River and drop in the boys fishing lines. We decided to eat our packed lunch here, which was a bit of a challenge with a one-year old, but it was beautiful. No dice with the fish, so we continued on.

I had to use the bathroom at this point, so Jeff turned off at the Swinging Bridge. I used the loo, then we walked over the bridge, and let the boys get their feet in the river. We realized the paved walking/bike trail was right there as well, and decided to bike around rather than try to find parking deeper in the valley. Best. Decision. Ever.

We biked to the Lower Falls Trail, locked up our bikes and headed to the falls. Scrambled over some rocks to dip our feet in again, and then Jeff had to carry all three boys back over the rocks to the trail. I’m excited to hike up closer to the water fall when the boys are a little older.

We continued around the trail and ended up at Degnan’s kitchen/cafe, where we filled up our canteens and water bottles with fresh water, picked up some ice cream, and a beer for Jeff and I. We sat outside and relaxed a bit before biking back to the truck. On our bike back, a little alcove caught Jeff’s eye, so we all turned back to explore it – wow!

We toured the rest of the valley in the truck, and decided to head home. We were hoping to check out the Mariposa Grove on our way out, but everyone was pooped.

Back at camp, the boys made friends with neighboring campers and stayed up late throwing around a glow in the dark football I bought at the Dollar Tree. It was a HUGE hit. Dollar Tree for the win!

WEDNESDAY. I had originally planned to drive into Yosemite Tuesday and Wednesday, but as the week took shape and we realized how beautiful Bass Lake is, we decided for a “staycation” on Wednesday, and just spent the day around the lake. We headed to The Forks to check out their boat rentals (the original plan was for Jeff to take the older boys on a small fishing boat, while Jonny and I went into town to do laundry, gas up, and…maybe do some antique shopping…?). The woman at the counter was incredibly friendly, and upon seeing the age of our boys suggested we take a larger boat out, as the smaller fishing ones can be pretty scary with that age group. Unfortunately their boat fleet was a little limited and out of our price range, so she recommended we check out Miller’s Landing, which had a little more variety in size and pricing. The staff at Miller’s Landing was equally helpful – the cashier even gave the older boys each a quarter for a gum ball machine, and gave Jonny his first lollipop. We did a two-hour rental of their cheapest patio boat available. It still was more than we’d hope to spend, but figured it would be worth the experience. The staff there did mention that the cheaper boats (less horsepower, cheaper boat) are reserved way in advance, so next time to call at least a week ahead to reserve it, or even A MONTH ahead for holiday weekends! (Noted.)

I’ll just say: it was worth every penny! Even though, again, we caught no fish. Also, kids are funny…they want to fish, but really, they just want to cast their line over and over again. Which is understandable – what kind of fun is leaving your line in and WAITING? Josh had again but asking to fish all morning, but as soon as we stopped somewhere on the lake he was ready to head back to camp to find his new friends, ha!

We fixed hot dogs for lunch, then packed up and headed out to find a little beach spot on the lake. Bass Lake has a bunch of little turn offs where you can park and walk/hike down to the lake, so as you drive around the lake you’ll find canopy’s and chairs lining the edges of the water. You can also pay $10 at the ranger station for a day use permit and park in the parking lots they have around the lake. We found a nice little turn off that even had shade, so we didn’t have to lug our canopy down. We all enjoyed staying out of the heat and by the water for a few hours, although I will say the smell of that water is something else…we all got wash cloth nature baths when we got back to camp.

The boys enjoyed another night of playing with their friends, and we enjoyed getting to know all the parents. I do think camping folks are the happiest folks!

THURSDAY. We started packing up early since we had a long drive to our next site. The boys spent most of the morning playing with their friends while all the parents worked frantically to clean everything up (we decided it will be nice when they are all teenagers and can pull their own weight, haha). Us parents exchanged contact information at the insistence of all the kids – I do hope we get to see them again!

Our next and last stop was Reyes Creek Campground. This was another 4+ hour drive. We stopped at a WalMart again for some basic supplies, including a lot of water since this last site has NO water, and grabbed some El Pollo Loco for lunch. The drive from Bass Lake to Reyes Creek was…interesting. Has anyone driven through Taft, CA before? Weird, desolate, oil lands. This was the campsite I was the most worried about, since it has no water and only vaulted toilets. But I picked it because it broke up our drive home, and technically was only 2.5 hour from home…

Again, I think our site was the best around: we had shade and the creek ran at the end of our site. But, it’s dirt camping which is not our favorite, and there were ants EVERYWHERE. We took a very quick bike ride around the grounds, and decided one night here would be enough. Our site was right across from the bathrooms and wow…that smell was something special when the wind kicked up! Jonny was too tired for the campfire, but Jeff and the older boys had a great time being silly and spitting kernels into the fire (the result of a failed Jiffy Pop attempt).

FRIDAY. We made one last ditch effort to catch some fish by hiking through the creek to a little waterfall area, and dipping our feet in the water. We packed it in after a late pancake breakfast, and hit the road around noon. There was no service when we left, so we couldn’t map our way home, and assumed we’d keep going down the road that brought us to the site…which actually took us through the entire Los Padres National Forest. As scenic as the drive was, it was a little longer than we’d hoped. We also didn’t take into account Friday afternoon traffic in LA – we’ve now learned this lesson the hard way, as our 2.5 hour drive home turned into 5 hours. We even considered staying at a hotel near Malibu just to break up the dreaded drive, but it was hard to find something reasonably priced that wasn’t a shit hole, and therefore trucking on to our comfortable home and beds was more appealing.

Although the final leg of our trip was a little disappointing, the trip overall was AMAZING. The kids, and us, had such a great time, and I’m so thankful for all the memories we made on this trip. We can’t wait to travel again! We’re thinking our next trip will be to Zion, with an overnight in Vegas on the way there. As much as we love camping, I think our next trip will involve hotels ;)

MEALS.

We stuck to easy meals. The Friday before we left we made pulled pork in the slow cooker, which we had for dinner and knew we’d have lots leftover, so we packed that up for Saturday nights dinner. I also prepped teriyaki meat skewers on Friday and packed those in a ziplock back for Sunday’s dinner. I prepped the veggies and packed those in a separate ziplock, and threw them in with meat to marinate on Sunday morning. Monday night we fixed pork loin with boiled corn and leftover Suddenly Salad from our lunch, and Tuesday we ate at a local restaurant since we got back late to camp from Yosemite. Wednesday we did burgers for lunch, and Thursday we fixed breakfast burritos for dinner. Lunches were sandwiches, hot dogs, or stopping somewhere during our drive. Breakfast was mainly cereal, yogurt parfaits, or packaged pastries. I also took bagels and cream cheese, but we only had access to our toaster the first two days when we had full electrical hook ups. I also pre-made ranch and onion dips before we left, and those were great to pack up with our to-go lunches or when we needed an afternoon snack at our site. We also double down on all things snacks: bars, cookies, chips, cuties, apples. You can imagine which snacks the kids prefer.

PACKING. You may know I love lists. Going camping gives me the opportunity to use a list that’s been perfected throughout the years for our family. Every trip there’s something that gets added or updated as the kids get older and the items I need for them shift. I have a master packing list on Etsy in case it’s helpful to work off of and personalize for your family (there are different tabs for different destinations).

RESEARCHING CAMP SITES. I did a LOT of research to find out where to stay and which sites to choose (that were available). Aside from our last stop, I think it paid off! Things I looked for where: location and driving times between sites and places we wanted to see, amenities (hook ups, water, bathrooms), and with the trailer, the size of the site was important. On the Recreation.gov app, each site tells you the max size of a trailer/RV recommended for the site. I also checked Yelp and Google reviews for each site, especially if there were particular sites recommended. General Google searches also helped with locating campground maps to see where the sites were located and to find random sites that have campground reviews. It’s definitely a rabbit hole that at some point you have to pull yourself out of, and just pull the trigger on a site!

And now…the good photos from the professional! All credit to Jeff Armstrong Photography ;)

I hope some of this was helpful, or at least entertaining! What are you favorite places to visit with kids? Any tips or advice to add?