Driving the Tioga Road Across the High Sierra

Along the way it passes through forest, open meadows, lakes and granite domes, with many turnouts for pulling over to take in the view. From Yosemite Valley, plan on roughly an hour and forty-five minutes to reach the pass. The Yosemite Road Guide, sold at visitor center bookstores, suggests stops along every park road.

Crane Flat, about 16 miles and half an hour from the valley, is where the drive begins. This mix of forest and meadow has a gas station with a few basic supplies, and bears often wander through the meadows, so watch the grass and keep traffic moving if one appears. Just to the east, the Tuolumne Grove shelters about two dozen mature giant sequoias. Reaching them means walking a mile downhill and losing 500 feet, and the climb back to the small parking area is strenuous.

Higher up, Olmsted Point gives a view of Tenaya Lake below, and soon the road runs right along its shore. Tenaya is among the easiest lakes in the park to reach, and people come to picnic, swim and paddle canoes. It has two picnic areas, one of them wheelchair accessible. Both the lake and Olmsted Point are also good places to watch the stars at elevation.

Farther east, the road reaches Tuolumne Meadows at 8,600 feet, a meadow that ranks among the biggest at that height anywhere in the Sierra Nevada. No other road crosses the High Sierra between here and the country south of Mount Whitney, so this route marks the northern boundary of the largest unbroken roadless wilderness in the lower forty-eight states. At Tioga Pass, 9,945 feet up, you might spot the endangered Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep, found nowhere else in the park.

Snow shuts the road each winter from the Tuolumne Grove to the Tioga Pass Entrance Station. During that time, Tuolumne Meadows can't be reached by car and the park can't be entered from the east, though Crane Flat stays open to drivers all year.