Day 8 - Sonora to Lone Pine (Tioga Pass)

Sonora is only 70 or so miles from the entrance to Yosemite National Park. We left at about 8.00 to give ourselves plenty of time just in case we were turned away from the entrance to the Park and told to find another route. A couple of hours later we were at the entrance to the Park and there were no Rangers telling us to turn around. The road ahead was closed toward Yosemite Village and all the famous vista points, but we were able to continue on highway 120 and drive through the Park on the Tioga Pass. A small consolation.

As we approached the Park we could see the burnt trees from the fires they had a few weeks back. The fire risk remains high and there was often a smokiness to the air. As we were now in the mountains the temperature had dropped quite significantly. The roof stayed on today and we even had some heat blasting out temporarily.

As we started our route through the Park it did seem very quiet. There were a few cars travelling in either direction, but I imagine the road is usually a lot busier. To start with we felt like naughty rebels jumping out the car to try and take the odd picture, but it soon became apparent that there was no one around to stop us from pulling over and taking some photos. There were plenty of barricades around to stop cars turning off the main road.

We managed to see a small part of Yosemite. We were still left with a sense if what might have been because even from the major road thorough the Park some of the scenery looked stunning. We were over 9,000 feet at one point and there were some hints of snow on some of the higher spots.

We were out of the Park within 2 hours and descending into Lee Vining where we decided to turn off and check out Mono Lake. That was closed too as it's a government funded project. We then hit the road south on our way to Lone Pine, our designated stop before heading through Death Valley. On the way we could see some sort of mini sand storm which we ended up driving through. The wind was pretty strong and it had blown up all the sand and dust. It was a shame really because there was mountainous scenery surrounding us.

After checking in at the hotel and Jess spending some time in the hot tub, were in downtown Lone Pine for something to eat. Again, TripAdvisor came to the rescue and we were at at restaurant called Seasons. Jess had lamb and I had the Flat Iron steak. This was the best steak I'd ever had. It was huge and there wasn't an ounce of fat on it. Beautiful :)

Tomorrow is a lot of driving through Death Valley (if they let us through because it's a National Park), then onto the Hoover Dam (which is open because it's not funded by the government or something along those lines), then it's through on to Kingman where we staying. It's a about 330 miles in total.

 

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