Our trip was a success so thanks for some of recs.
We ended up thinking we were going to just hit western top of DNVP (father crowley and Darwin falls) but once there, we said " fuck it, we will never come here again" and decided to drive the extra 90 minutes to badwater basin. So we saw 80% of park highlights. Our only personal miss was ubehebe crater but that would have added another one hour to our now 5.5 hour detour on way to Mammoth.
We were all glad we did it (even 6 and 12 year old). Very beautiful. Barren. Hot as shit at 120 degrees. Will never go there again and that parks username most definitely checks out.
Mammoth was awesome. Like some did for me, highly recommend June Lake Loop. We rented kayaks at silver lake and had a great time rowing around. Mammoth restaurants were all good.
Also recommend the devils postpile and rainbow falls hike. We barely made it as hike maxed out my 6 year old with that uphill on way back....But again, everyone had fun.
Then after relaxing in Mammoth for those few days, we hit up Yosemite. 2nd prettiest place in contiguous USA with all of us voting Grand Tetons a bit higher. Still a Cindy Crawford but we had just seen Elle Mcpherson the summer before. (Sidenote: only prettier place I've ever seen than grand tetons is Machu picchu)
Finished trip with Sequoia National Park to see the trees. Kids learned a ton there. Not as pretty as other areas (again, still gorgeous)....But we were also tired and never got to Kings Canyon so can't fully rate that area. Also, take Dramamine when driving here because road is non-stop winding loops for an hour.
Final comment is holy shit is California in a drought. So dry. Thought we were dry here in Texas and.....nope.