Ugh, gravel and black lava rock everywhere!

Two years ago we bought a half acre with lots of conifers in the northwest corner. The original occupants  had an RV pad and they "landscaped" elsewhere with a combination of black plastic, some sort of impermeable  fiberglass cloth, then they topped it off with either black lava, pea gravel or construction grade gravel. We made a big sifter and on dry days are separating dirt from rock and filling gabion tubes and boxes as split rail fencing and short retaining walls, just to get the stuff out of the way. But I'm wondering if simply wood chipping the RV pad and some of the (too expansive) driveways would build soil and the fruit trees we want to plant in those areas would be able to root through the gravel, and use the minerals in that gravel?

I would guess the trees would never root down through the fabric and plastic. That, coupled with the drainage provided by the gravel, would leave you with very drought stressed trees.

What kind of climate do you have?

How deep would the wood chips be? If you did the wood chips, then added compost (several inches) and wintersowed deep rooted perennials, that might work.
If doing the whole area at a time isn't in the budget, just do a small part at a time.

What kind of climate do you have?

We're in zone 9, at the edge of the Olympic National Forest, in Washington state, we get rain and sun half the time.

hau Mary, as gilbert mentioned, it will be difficult for roots to penetrate any "barrier" cloth or material, but they can do it over time, weathering is the key to that.

Wood chips will work but you will still have that barrier material to overcome.

If the "pad is not huge or deep you can use a long bar to literally poke holes in that buried barrier, just stab it down until it penetrates and do it all over the area.
Once that is done, you can then proceed as planned with the woodchips and tree planting.

As Liz mentioned, small sections will eventually become large areas and you won't be exhausted as much.

Redhawk