Yosemite National Park - 2016 Trip - Day 07

Start Location: El Portal, CA
Ending Location: Susanville, CA
Miles Today: 302
Trip Miles: 1568
States Visited: 4
Provinces Visited: 0
Low Temp: 60.5° F
High Temp: 113.2° F
Min Elevation: 2059'
Max Elevation: 9994'

Route Map:

Today was a pleasant morning but not very pleasant afternoon. We started out heading for Tuolumne Meadows which is at the Northeast entrance to the park. We considered visiting the Tuolumne Grove which was along the way but it is a 1 mile, strenuous hike and we just weren't into that. Since we were on our way out of the park, we had on full leathers and, with our luggage packed, we had no place to put the leathers. Besides that we had no desire to get all sweaty on the steep uphill hike from the grove since we would be on the bike for the rest of the day. We did stop at the Tuolumne Visitors Center and, like Wanona, it was much more low key and the whole area seemed to be centered more around hiking than anything else.

Along the way to the Park exit we stopped at Olmsted Point which had amazing views from the other end of Yosemite Valley and the other side of Half Dome. We took several pictures and hiked down to a great view point. We eventually passed over Tioga Pass the highest highway pass in the Park and California at 9943 feet and finally exited the Park.

We planned to travel 395 North thinking the traffic would be relatively light and it was - for a while. Route 395 actually passes through the corner of Nevada but, before we got to Nevada, we had two road construction zones where the road was down to one lane and we had to wait for a pilot vehicle in considerable heat. Then in Carson City there was a major power outage so all of the traffic lights were out besides many businesses along the road. That caused us significant delays. We finally got out of Carson City, made our way through Reno, and encountered another one lane traffic construction zone after we made it back into California. While in California we also encountered several dry lake beds - evidence of the current draught conditions in California. Although we never saw any fires, we passed through several areas that had been burned, could smell smoke occasionally, and even saw smoke while in the park.

We were glad to finally arrive in Susanville, CA where we spent the evening.