Los Angeles is a genuinely awkward city to begin a van trip in, and nearly all of the difficulty is in the first two hours.
Pickup and the first two hours
Campervan depots in LA are generally not inside the LAX rental car centre. They cluster a few miles out around Inglewood and Westchester, and you reach them by rideshare from the terminal. Pickup windows are often early-to-mid afternoon, which is a problem, because weekday traffic peaks roughly 6 to 10 a.m. and 3 to 7 p.m., and the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass and the 10 across the basin are the chokepoints. A Friday afternoon pickup pointed east on the 10 or north on the 5 is the worst version of this trip.
Two things work. Either take a short first leg and stay close in, or eat dinner in town and start driving after 7 p.m. Do not plan to collect a van at 2 p.m. and be in Joshua Tree by dark on a Friday.
The three directions out
North, on the coast
Santa Barbara is about 95 miles and under two hours in clear traffic. Big Sur is roughly 300 miles and five to six. The coast route is the one most likely to be disrupted: Highway 1 through Big Sur reopened in January 2026 after nearly two years of closure at Regent's Slide, and has closed again briefly since, so treat a through-drive to Monterey as something to confirm rather than assume, with US-101 inland as the fallback. Closer in, Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu caps combined vehicle length at 31 feet, which suits a van but rules out larger motorhomes.
East, to the desert
Joshua Tree is about 140 miles and two and a half hours on the 10. Death Valley is roughly 270 miles and five hours. Both are winter and shoulder-season trips. The van-specific catch is that desert park campgrounds are dry, so there is no way to run air conditioning overnight, and generator hours are restricted to posted windows. Within Joshua Tree, Black Rock and Cottonwood have potable water; Jumbo Rocks and Indian Cove do not, so fill your tank in Twentynine Palms or Yucca Valley.
Northeast, to the Sierra
US-395 via Highway 14 reaches Lone Pine, Bishop and Mammoth Lakes in roughly 300 to 325 miles and five to six hours, and it is the best drive of the three. The constraint is Tioga Pass, at 9,945 feet the highest paved crossing in the Sierra: Highway 120 over the pass is typically closed from November until late May or June depending on snowpack, so a spring trip cannot enter Yosemite from the east side. Sequoia is closer, about four hours, but the Generals Highway between Potwisha and Giant Forest is not advised for vehicles over 22 feet, so take Highway 180 through the Kings Canyon entrance instead if your van is long.
Seasons that matter in a van
- Late spring and early summer bring May Gray and June Gloom to the coast: a persistent marine-layer overcast that can hold beach temperatures ten to twenty degrees below inland valleys. Good for sleeping, bad for photographs.
- Late summer through autumn is fire season. Southern California national forests run campfire restrictions well into late autumn, campfires are prohibited during any Red Flag Warning, and a free California campfire permit is required for stoves and fires outside developed campgrounds. Santa Ana wind events are most common from September onward.
- Winter can close Interstate 5 over Tejon Pass, the Grapevine, at just over 4,100 feet. When it shuts for snow or ice, the fastest route north out of LA disappears for hours at a time.
Camping close to the city
The nearest option is Angeles National Forest, immediately behind the San Gabriel foothills. Many trailheads and sites there require an Adventure Pass or an Interagency pass, and dispersed camping currently carries a seven-day limit under a forest order that is renewed periodically rather than standing permanently, so check it still applies. It is a workable first or last night when you do not want to fight traffic twice in one day.