June 8, 2012  

Yosemite High Country

Crossing the Tuolomne River by webmink
Crossing the Tuolomne River, a photo by webmink on Flickr.

If you’re heading to Yosemite National Park this summer, don’t forget to visit the high country. There’s year-round tundra in Tuolomne Meadows, wonderful walks along the Tuolomne River, fewer visitors, more granite domes and the opportunity to skip across Tioga Pass to visit Mono Lake and maybe even Bodie ghost town.

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About Simon Phipps

Grizzled geek with eclectic tastes. Fanatical about freedoms, manic about music, radical regarding religion, particular about politics.

4 Responses to “Yosemite High Country”

  1. Jean says :

    Your many photos of California’s beautiful places are rapidly convincing me to find someone there to drive me around to some of them during my visit to the Bay Area this summer.

    • Simon Phipps says :

      If you need a route planned, let me know. I spent many away-from-home weekends touring California’s parks…

      • Jean says :

        Oh, thank you, that would be great. It’s been nearly 40 years since I lived and travelled in the area. You keep posting photos of so many of my favourite places, but I’ve long since lost track of where they are in relation to each other. Real soon I will pull up a map and at least partially remedy that problem.

      • Simon Phipps says :

        There’s plenty to choose from.

        • I tend to go to Yosemite through Mariposa, and we’ve often stayed at El Portal (the accommodation in the park will be full for the season by now unless you want to camp). I walk the valley floor in the park, go to Glacier Point for Sunset, walk around Olmstead Point and in Tuolomne Meadows, go through to Mono Lake, have been to Bodie and Bishop.
        • I enjoy a trip to Big Sur, eating at Nepenthe, staying at Big Sur Lodge in the state park if I can get a room, stopping to scramble on the beach for jade pieces at Jade Cove before carrying on to Hurst Castle (staying at one of the ugly-but-cheap motels in Cambria) and then ending up in San Luis Obispo.
        • I love the area around Mount Shasta for walks and butterflies and views, and go on from there to Redwoods National Park or even to Crater Lake.
        • Lassen Volcanic National Park is less visited (so less serviced by facilities). It’s probably too late to get in at Drakesbad Guest Ranch now. You can include it in a long loop through Trinity National Forest and over to Eureka through Weaverville. You can drive back down US-1 from there and get civilised again at Mendocino before taking in the bleak beauty of Point Reyes.

        Those are all long itineraries; I enjoyed all of them!

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