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Video

Video: Dunlap to Acton, California motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 223 miles from Dunlap, California to Acton, California.

Travel from Dunlap to Acton, California

We drove our coach 223 miles, about five hours of driving, from Dunlap, California to Acton, California.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south:

Map

An interactive map:

I discovered lots of ants coming up the Starlink cable when packing it up; we were happy to be leaving the invasive ants behind:

Ants

Curvy road:

Curvy road

Cutler water tower:

Cutler water tower

Rest area:

Rest area

Road disappearing into the distance:

Road disappearing into the distance

Pipes and vines:

Pipes and vines

I-5 freeway heading into the hills:

Freeway heading into the hills

There were occasional water signs, for water dispensers for car radiators; hadn’t seen that elsewhere:

Water

Another rest area:

Rest area

Lake Hughes; a rare full lake in California:

Lake Hughes

5% grade:

5% grade

Six Flags:

Six Flags

Overpass from I-5 to CA-14:

Overpass from I-5 to CA-14

Tunnel on Soledad Canyon Road:

Tunnel on Soledad Canyon Road

Our destination:

Our destination

Check in area:

Check in area

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

Thousand Trails is first-come-first-seved, so we drove around a bit to find a site, and lucked into an excellent one:

Our site

Velvet flocking liner for shelves

We had some extra shelves added in several cupboards in our motorhome, but they just had a bare wood surface. To make them a little nicer, and not quite so slippery, I added some self-adhesive velvet flocking liner to them:

Felt liner

Simple and easy.

Sequoia National Park: southern side

We visited Sequoia National Park in California, including the Foothills Visitor Center, the Tunnel Rock, the Giant Forest Museum, Moro Rock, and Tunnel Log.

An interactive map of our route:

Sequoia National Park historic sign:

Sequoia National Park historic sign

Kaweah River:

Kaweah River

Visitor center:

Visitor center

Tunnel Rock:

Tunnel Rock

A very twisty route:

Twisty route

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rock

Interesting rocks

Big trees:

Big trees

Giant Forest Museum:

Giant Forest Museum

Auto Log:

Auto Log

Moro Rock:

Moro Rock

Trees and hills:

Trees and hills

Driving through Tunnel Log:

Tunnel Log

Our truck under Tunnel Log:

Tunnel Log

Tall trees:

Tall trees

Sequoia National Park: northern side

We visited Sequoia National Park in California, including the Lodgepole Visitor Center and Grill, and the General Sherman Tree, the largest tree in the world by volume. And saw a couple of bears in a tree.

An interactive map of our route:

Relief map in the visitor center:

Relief map

Visitor center

General Sherman Tree trail, a half mile (each way) path from the parking lot to the tree, through the Giant Forest sequoia grove:

Sherman Tree trail

Footprint of Sherman Tree:

Footprint of Sherman Tree

Path and steps:

Path and steps

General Sherman tree, the largest tree in the world by volume:

General Sherman tree

Other big trees:

Another tree

Tree cross section:

Tree cross section

On the way back up the path, we saw a couple of black bears in a tree (not very close, fortunately):

Bears in tree

Kings Canyon National Park

We visited Kings Canyon National Park in California, including the Kings Canyon Visitor Center, General Grant Tree, and a scenic drive through the canyon.

An interactive map of our route:

Relief map of the canyon:

Relief map of canyon

Visitor center:

Visitor center

Gift store:

Gift store

Sequoias:

Sequoias

The General Grant tree, the third largest tree in the world by volume:

General Grant tree

Gamlin Cabin:

Gamlin Cabin

Kings Canyon National Park is split in two parts, separated by Sequoia National Forest, which has some rather nice scenery:

Sequoia National Forest

Back into Kings Canyon National Park:

Kings Canyon National Park

And on the return trip, back into Sequoia National Forest:

Kings Canyon National Park

Sequoia National Forest

A small waterfall (at this time of year):

Sequoia National Forest

Sequoia RV Park

We stayed at Sequoia RV Park in Dunlap, California. (Campground Reviews listing.)

The closest RV park to Kings Canyon and Sequoia National Parks, with nice large spaces.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-09-22
Check out: 2024-09-29
7 nights

Weather:

Sunny
High temps 88-95°F, lows 65-70°F
Negligible wind, gusts to 14 MPH

Noise:

Some road noise
No train horn noise
A little neighbor noise (kids)

Site:

#68, back-in, asphalt
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Fairly level site; high on driver side and front; used hydraulic leveling
Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by 10 feet wide
About 40 feet to neighbor on driver side
About 90 feet to neighbor on passenger side
Picnic table
Fire pit
Some tall trees
Unclean site; small bits of trash
Invasive ants

Utilities:

50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located (at rear of site)
35 PSI water, inconveniently located (at rear of site)
Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (at rear of site; 3 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 45-140 Mbps down, 12-15 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
T-Mobile: 5 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
AT&T: 14-16 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 60-1,000 ms ping
Verizon: 1-5 Mbps down, 0.02-1 Mbps up, 400-600 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Near national parks
Package delivery to manager’s site (didn’t use)

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Closest RV park to Kings Canyon NP

The nightly rate is a bit much for what it is, but you’re really paying for the location. If you have a big rig, there isn’t anything closer to the entrance of Kings Canyon NP. You could get closer to the Sequoia NP entrance, but not by much. It was easy to identify the overnight sites and find one that worked for us. We’d printed the email confirmation, so all we had to do was attach it to the post, and we were good to go. The biggest drawback was that we had our second ant infestation ever while staying here. Little bitey red ants found their way inside by way of the Starlink cable and the water hose, so that was fun. We camped at Sequoia RV Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

We used our Starlink dish:

Our site

The utilities were at the back on the passenger side, so three sewer pipes were needed:

Utilities

There were biting ants that invaded our coach via the water hose (and later other routes):

Ants

In three years of this RV lifestyle, this is only the second time we’ve had ants invade, both in the last month.

The site number sign with a receipt clipped to it; when we arrived we just picked a site and attached the receipt (that we had previously printed out); no human interaction required:

Site number sign with receipt