Question:Advice please on route from Las Vegas to San Francisco via Yosemite, in
early May.
I did not realise that the road thro Yosemite would no doubt be closed until
June or so.
Would like to visit a couple of parks enroute.
Answer:
It seems that in the last 30 years the earliest it has opened is
May 2 and the latest June 30.
I must have got lucky. I definately went in the Spring as the
waterfall was 'on'. I went back in September of another year
with a friend and someone had turned it off. I was unaware
that the pass might be closed.
You can drive through Death Valley and then do Mono Lake
hoping that the pass is open. If it isn't you have to travel
further north to Monitor Pass which appears to be open all
year and then drive back toYosemite. (Sonora Pass is a
really good drive too, but I suspect that this is closed even
longer than Tioga).
Or you can loop round via Mojave and Joshua Tree and
enter Yosemite directly from the South West.
I recommend both, but obviously you have to choose one.
In most years, Hwy 120 through Yosemite does not open until the last weekend
in May. In some years it opens much later.
Your other option is to head west from Vegas and then north through the
Sequoia foothills to Yosemite. Maybe stop at Death Valley, Sequoia, and
Kings Canyon national parks along the way. Note that the entrances to the
mountain parks are via slow winding roads, so you will need several hours to
get from Hwy 99 to the main tourist area of Sequoia or Kings Canyon. Also,
be prepared for snow on the hiking trails at higher elevations (even in
July).
Another option is to visit Lake Isabella. Take I-15 southwest from Las
Vegas, then CA-58 west from Barstow, CA, then US-395 north to CA-178
west.
After visiting Lake Isabella, continue west on CA-178 to CA-99 in
Bakersfield, then north to Yosemite (or stop at Kings or Sequoia along
the way, as others have suggested).
By the way, there is a web site
(http://www.monobasinresearch.org/data/tiogapass.htm) which tracks the
annual opening and closing dates of Tioga Pass (CA-120); Although the
Average opening date has been May 30th, it has ranged from April 8th
(in 1933) to July 8th (in 1977).
I concur with other suggestions. But with global warming, maybe Tioga
pass will be open sooner than prior years.
Writing this from Scotland, where the first proper snow of the winter has
totally disrupted the traffic today!!
I look forward to my drive through Nevada and California.
It's likely to be quite inconvenient on that date BUT if the Tioga
Pass is open:
Las Vegas to Pahrump to Shoshone through Death Valley to Lone Pine to
Mono Lake through Yosemite to San Francisco.
This route is about seven hundred miles, only a hundred farther than
Las Vegas to San Francisco absent Death Valley and Yosemite. It's a
great trip, one I've taken four times (two each way) in the past few
years and might do this year, too.
You've already seen the Tioga Pass opening dates. If this year
continues to be as cold as it's been AND we get some snow, it might
be a late opening.
Here's "A bit of non-gambling Las Vegas" with about a dozen useful
links: http://geocities.com/iconoc/Articles/LasVegas.html
If you're there on a Monday, go to the bar in the back of the
Stratosphere at 20:00 for a Blues Jam that's a blast.
The "Don't-miss SIGHTS in San Francisco" page
http://geocities.com/iconoc/Articles/Sights.html has enough to keep
you busy for nine twelve-hour days. It includes links to your best
source of advice on WHERE TO EAT here, the internet Group ba.food, and
the quite-good sfSurvey. It also has a WEATHER CHART with a link to
current conditions.
The best on-line MAP of San Francisco is an inter-active PDF created
for the San Francisco Municipal Railway:
http://geocities.com/iconoc/Grafix/CityWide.pdf. I recommend 150% or
greater magnification. There's also a link that will tell you HOW TO
GET THERE FROM HERE. Other links on the page,
http://geocities.com/iconoc/Grafix/FlagMaps.html are a map of our
CABLE CAR ROUTES and a superb map of GOLDEN GATE PARK.
The frequently-updated SPECIAL EVENTS page has irregularly-scheduled
music and dances as well as links to seven calendars of
regularly-scheduled dances, a composite of five of them, and one of
dance cruises and events around the world:
http://geocities.com/dancefest/Specials.html
