The drive north from Santa Clarita reaches the Mojave by the first afternoon, and by the second morning the whole east face of the Sierra is standing over the Owens Valley. The first night is in a desert canyon under wind-carved cliffs. The ones after that are among the boulders and arches of the Alabama Hills with the Whitney crest behind them, and then farther up the valley in Bishop.
A motorhome suits the shape of it. The early nights are dry camps in the rocks, the later ones plug in where summer heat makes the air conditioning worth having, and the whole family sleeps a short walk from whatever they drove up to see.
Red Rock Canyon, the first night off CA-14
Ricardo Campground is tucked against desert cliffs that go red in the late light, with the washes and eroded walls of Red Rock Canyon a few steps from the site. It's a natural first stop up CA-14, far enough out that the sky goes properly dark and the week starts to feel like the desert.
The state park campground on Highway 14 runs first-come first-served and has no RV hookups, so arrive with fresh water on board and the tanks empty. The park holds rigs to 30 feet, and a couple doing the canyon and the hills on their own could size down to a California campervan and skip the length question entirely.
Lone Pine, the Alabama Hills and Bishop
US-395 runs north up the Owens Valley with the Sierra wall on your left, and at Lone Pine it rises almost straight off the valley floor to the Whitney crest. West of town, Whitney Portal Road climbs into the Alabama Hills, a jumble of rounded boulders and natural arches where framing the peaks through a stone arch is the picture everyone takes home.
The Alabama Hills has designated first-come sites on a free camping permit, with porta-potties and a request that RV toilet waste be packed out, so the black tank holds it until the next dump. Tuttle Creek Campground, on Whitney Portal Road, is the developed BLM alternative with pull-throughs and no hookups. Its water and dump station are seasonal and close in fall.
By the third dry night the tanks want attention, and that's where the hookup nights come in. Boulder Creek RV Resort, just south of Lone Pine, has full hookups with 30 and 50 amp service, water and sewer, plus pull-throughs for larger rigs. It books online, which is worth doing well before a summer weekend in the valley.
Bishop, farther up the valley, is where this trip tops out and the rig gets a proper reset before the run home. Bishop RV Park at the Tri-County Fairgrounds is open year round, with 42 full-hookup spaces and more than 135 water-and-electric ones. Beyond Bishop, the June Lake Loop and Mammoth have their own June Lake RV page.
A Six Flags Magic Mountain weekend at Valencia Travel Village
Plenty of Santa Clarita RV trips never leave the valley. A Magic Mountain weekend with the motorhome parked at Valencia Travel Village, just down the road from the park, keeps the coaster skyline in view and lets a group string together two or three park days without loading everyone into the car each morning.
Fright Fest takes over select nights in autumn, and those weekends fill the RV park's sites. Reserve the site at Valencia Travel Village first, then book the rig to fit it.
Castaic Lake makes an easy day at the water between park days. For a mountain night closer in, Chilao and the Angeles Crest are covered on the Glendale campervan page.