Today is our final day in Yosemite. We've had perfect weather almost the entire week. The only exception was the smoke from a controlled burn near Hodgdon Meadows, and that wasn't weather. It's easy to understand why people have cabins in the mountains to spend their summers in retirement. You don't really have to do anything to have a great day. Just spending time in the mountains is enough.
It was about 75 degrees when we left Crane Flat and started for Bishop. Tioga Pass Road is a great highway, but it was built before the days of motorhomes and can cause some white knuckles in places if you meet another motorhome (generally a rental without an experienced driver) or a bus. The grade of the road is good, but they need to do some serious widening in places. With the drop-offs, there is no place to go if the other guy is encroaching on your side.
It was 59 miles from Crane Flat to the "bottom of the hill" by Lee Vining. We geared down and dropped from 10,000 feet at Tioga Pass to 6800 feet at the Highway 395 junction without any problems. And then we saw the flag near the gas station. It was flying taut like someone had ironed and starched it. It was only 84 degrees, but we would have the wind blowing down from the Sierras and hitting us broadside all the way to Bishop.
By the time we hit Sherwin Grade, I knew we were going to be very uncomfortable in Bishop. Smog completely filled the sky, and the temperature was crossing 90. When we reached our campground in Bishop, the temperature was over 100. Hot is one thing, but hot AND ugly is another. Even if we can escape the heat by driving up into the Sierras, we can't escape the smoggy skies.
Our 3 days in Bishop will be shortened to one day. We're going home tomorrow.
Previous Day
Return to Trip Page