Driving Tioga Road in September

Yosemite’s Tioga Pass Road is an incredible drive.  In fact, it is my favorite scenic drive.  It offers the usual twists, turns and inclines of most mountain roads.  But it also passes through a range of gorgeous landscapes.

Tunnel View

El Capitan

This year, after an unusually heavy winter, the road was not open for unrestricted driving until July (vs. its usual May opening).  In mid-September, I wandered into Yosemite National Park, entering via Wawona and Tunnel View. Eventually, I headed east on Highway 120, officially starting onto Tioga Road near Yosemite’s Big Oak Flat entrance.

From this juncture outside of Yosemite Valley, the drive rises gradually from about 6,000 feet through pine trees, heading along Highway 120 toward Tioga Pass, which is roughly 50 miles away at almost 10,000 feet.  The road itself winds through sheer granite cliffs, showcasing impressive craggy rock walls, trees erupting from the rocks and fantastic views.

There Was Even a Mushroom Growing on a Tree Trunk

There were even some wildflowers still lingering along the road.

I Love Lupine, But This Was the Only Little Bud In Sight

An impressive stop is Olmsted Point, sitting at 7,500 feet.  The trees, by this time, have diminished, and the impressive views of the granite rocks and mountains stretch in all directions.  In the distance, you can even see Half Dome. The boulders are strewn everywhere.

That’s Half Dome in the Distance

At one parking area, there were some butterflies and bees who actually posed a bit for photographs.  This delightful little butterfly is called a Great Spangled Fritillary.

Tenaya Lake is the next gem that surfaces along the road.  Its sparkling blue waters are eye-catching.

My favorite stretch along this drive wanders along Toulumne Meadows.  This wide expanse is a gentle dome-shaped, sub-alpine meadow, sitting at 8,619 feet.  Its 39 inches of rain annually comes mainly in the form of snowfall.  The spring is probably the most beautiful time of year to visit the meadows when there are marshes and wildflowers scattered across the area. I last drove this route in August 2017. But any time of year, the wide expanse is impressive.

Not far past Toulumne Meadows, the drive ascends to Tioga Pass, sitting at 9,945 feet.  From there the road descends fairly quickly on a steep drop to the park entrance not far from U.S. Highway 395.  Tioga Lake sits along this stretch of the route.

As Highway 120 nears Highway 395, the rocks take on a reddish hue indicating some iron must be in the rocks.

At the end of the drive, I settled in at a hotel in Bishop. I stopped at Erick Schat’s Bakkery in the morning before heading home.

It was a great drive!

DO YOU HAVE A FAVORITE DRIVE YOU’VE DISCOVERED IN YOUR TRAVELS?

 

Scenic U.S. Highway 395: A Few Stops (part 1)

 

Highway 1

 

Along I-5

If you have traveled by car throughout California, en route to a wide variety of tourist attractions, then you know that the state has a great highway system. The freeways are well maintained, the exits are well marked, and rest stops are numerous along major routes.  Along the west coast, Highway 1 travels down the coast past some of the most scenic landscape in the state, maybe the country.  Interstate 5 is the major north-south freeway that runs from San Diego to Los Angeles, close to San Francisco, and then up through Oregon and Washington en route to Canada. Highway 99 runs parallel to I-5, traveling roughly from Mexico to Canada. Highway 99 was supplanted by I-5 in the 1960s as the primary thoroughfare up and down the state, but it still serves residents well.

Highway 395 also runs north-south through the state, east of both I-5 and Highway 99.  Although it does not run through large cities such as Los Angeles or San Francisco and it does not extend from Mexico to Canada, it is a lengthy impressive route.  It runs from about 140 miles north of San Diego up basically to the Oregon border.  It also travels for a short time into Nevada. It connects such natural wonders as Death Valley, Lee Vining near Yosemite National Park, and Mammoth Lake.  This 557-mile route runs along the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, giving access to many impressive locations.

I never drove extensively on Highway 395 until one year, almost 20 years ago now, I took my dad on a trip to Bishop, California. Bishop sits at the northern end of the Owens Valley at an elevation of 4,150 feet. Nestled against the Sierra Nevada, it was named for Bishop Creek that flows out of the mountains.  Although the Bishop area represents the largest population in Inyo County, Bishop has fewer than 4,000 residents as of the 2010 census.  The purpose of our trip was to seek out fall colors, and we were successful.  The colors were glorious, the mountain vistas were impressive, and the fishing holes seemed popular.  What I remember the most is that Dad had a great time!

On that same trip, days later, Dad and I ended up in Lee Vining, California, for lunch and quickly realized how close we were to Mono Lake. Mono Lake is an immense inland sea, one of the oldest in the western hemisphere. It measures 70 square miles and fills a natural basin that measures 700 square miles. Ancient volcanoes created the lake, which is thought to be anywhere from one to three million years old.  Many tributaries fill the lake, but the there is no natural outlet, so Mono Lake retains sulfides and carbonates, making it an alkaline lake with a ph of 10.  Mono Lake is almost three times as salty as the ocean.

Its salinity fluctuates, especially since 1941 when Los Angeles began diverting water from the lake’s tributaries to Los Angeles consumers. Some restoration and preservation measures have been enacted since then, so the danger of Mono Lake becoming a dead area has passed. But it is still at lower water levels and higher salinity counts than it would have been since the initial water diversion.  The restoration measures preserved the lake’s main biology of algae, brine shrimp and alkali flies. The area still serves as a major bird migratory path and nesting site.  As the water level fluctuates, various formations such as spires and peaks become visible, giving the lake an otherworldly look.  The spires are called tufa and add to the picturesque appeal of Mono Lake.

Dad and I spent the afternoon hiking around Mono Lake, waiting for dusk’s afterglow as the sun set opposite the lake.  We thought about waiting around for the moon rise later that night, but we were not really prepared for the stake-out.  And once the area became pitch black and we got lost a bit in the sands surrounding the lake, we decided to head in for dinner instead.  We talked about going back to both locations—Bishop and Mono Lake—at some point, but we  never did.

My goal is to return to Mono Lake at some point.  Since California has been experiencing drought for the last three years, I imagine the water level has dropped a bit. I also hope to visit other natural wonders that are accessible via Highway 395, like Death Valley.  Maybe I’ll travel there in the winter.

HAVE YOU DRIVEN HIGHWAY 395?  

WHAT SITES ALONG ITS ROUTE HAVE YOU VISITED?