Wheres the penguin pics

Err a Panasonic TZ something or other. Just a compact zoom one. I was lucky with those shots. Loved the elephant seals/kings on South Georgia and rockhoppers on New Island and baby gentoo penguins on Grave Cove.

That's the one bit of the trip I think would benefit from reconsidering. Doing Vegas to the "Yosemite" hotel via Tioga pass is a long drive and is unlikely to be open in March anyway, the route around the bottom is still 7 hours and boring; furthermore the hotel is actually 1.5-2 hours from Yosemite Village.

Beat me to it! It may not be shut but a very good chance it will be!

Personally, having done this trip, I really wouldn't advise booking hotels in advance - there will be so much to see that you will get bogged down in so many places to stop and see things and you'll quickly realise your schedule is very restrictive and will likely resent it. Hotels are generally everywhere and we found it so much better just going with the flow and booking a hotel either on the morning early before setting out or even just turning up and checking in at whatever is nearby whenever you want to stop in the evening.

As for the trip between Vegas and Yosemite, we could only recall one hotel midway in the Death Valley area. This was Furnace Creek Inn which was quite nice (next to a golf course) but very expensive (well, a good £200+ per night IIRC). Oh there was another one actually called Stovepipe Wells but didn't stay there. Basically I love the drive between Yosemite and Vegas but it's largely desert and mountains and not much else.

Also be aware that the drive up/down/up/down to Yosemite is not for the faint hearted - they are mountain roads and in many places there is little to no safety barrier. In some places the drop is pretty sheer and can be several thousand feet down!

We headed from the Fresno (western) side of Yosemite heading east towards Vegas using the Tioga pass. When you come out of Yosemite the road just gets higher, higher and higher before it starts going down again. We reached something like 3,400m above sea level (about 11,000 feet) before going downhill and you need to make sure you leave yourself enough time to get down before dark as it gets very dark very quickly, especially if cloudy as you go above the clouds before heading down through them.

On the way down our brakes failed and, in a nutshell, we almost died. We were left stranded halfway down in pitch black darkness and had no option but to proceed down as we couldn't get any phone signal so couldn't call for help. We had to let the brakes cool a bit before setting off and had to use what was left of the brakes but mainly by using the gears to limit speed. It didn't help having endless other drivers behind us hooting us as we were going so slow - they wanted to get down too! It was horrendous and scared the life out of us. It had been a great day but was spoilt by the ending.

The trick is to use your gears to restrict speed and use your brakes as little as possible and when you do, pump them to keep the temps down. I was actually told this in the morning when I stopped at a store heading up to Yosemite but basically forgot what the woman told me until the brakes failed! The car (Grand Caravan (Voyager)) only had, I think, 1,200 miles on the clock. Probably the weight of the car/van didn't help and contributed to the brakes failing.

This kind of road trip is truly amazing, but people should be aware that the Yosemite sector can be daunting due to the high mountain roads. We went in early October and there was no snow, although when we finally got down the other side we stayed at a fantastic small town called Massive Lakes - a kind of Austrian looking town which is in fact a skiing attraction in winter. That night it did start to snow and no doubt the roads we'd been on earlier up in Yosemite would have been treacherous.

To be honest, going in March is too risky as the roads may be closed, or may not but there is a risk that it could snow whilst you're up there. I'd recommend going in late April to late September.

Agree, I did see some great hostels with private rooms but shared bathrooms which some people are not a fan of, but I'd probably do the same or look at Airbnb too. I'm sure this would reduce the price further. It may also provide a wider range of accommodation options particularly around Yosemite where the choice was somewhat limited and expensive.

Unsure why there are so many spelling mistakes. Blame it on the autocorrect on iPhone. Can't edit either sorry everyone!

I'm not sure but depending on the ages the teens they may be classed as adults? May be worth looking at apartments or similar in Airbnb?