One of my main missions for this trip is to avoid interstate highways. Which made the drive from Sacramento to South Lake Tahoe to Yosemite extremely beautiful.
After grabbing a drink with a fellow invitee in Sacramento on Wednesday, November 28 I head to South Lake Tahoe. Mind you, because it is winter time, the sun sets before 5 p.m. most days, so my drive to Tahoe was mostly in the dark. At one point I began to notice the snow piles along the side of the road. The temperature had dipped to about 34 degrees. My couchsurfing host works for Lake Tahoe TV and was telling me that the skiing and snowboarding conditions have been pretty good and they are hoping for a better winter this year than last year’s. It looks like they are off to a pretty good start.
When I left in the morning he strongly recommended that I go to the Emerald Bay overlooks to get the classic Lake Tahoe views, especially since I had a break in the weather with some sun. It did not disappoint.
After checking out the view of the Lake, I set off for my next destination: Yosemite. To get there, I had to alter my planned route a bit because Tioga Pass had been closed for the winter. Instead, I took CA Hwy 49, which was gorgeous.
By the time I got to Mariposa, the sun was setting and I was exhausted so I found a motel and settled in for the night, rather than try to see things in the cold and dark. But the next morning, it was pouring rain. I set off into the park hoping that it wouldn’t be as bad and that I could do a half loop on the valley floor and maybe camp in the park. But after driving around and stopping at all the major stops I decided that it was too cold and wet for my liking and decided to set off for Death Valley and go around the Sierras to make my way into Nevada and then Utah.
Once again, my camera decided to not work (I think it might be done, unfortunately.) I did get one picture of Bridalveil Falls though.
I also got to hang with John Muir.
Then I set off for Death Valley, which I will write about in my next post.