Two Hours, Four Seasons
Trip Start
Apr 30, 2010
1
44
52
Trip End
Sep 05, 2010
Kirkwood, California
Monday, May 17, 2010
Well we had another crazy drive today!
We had planned to visit Yosemite but found out we were a week or few too early - all the roads leading into Yosemite from where we were (on the interior side of the Sierras) were still closed for winter - yes, winter. Late May in California is apparently winter - who knew?
We would have taken Highway 120 from Mammoth to Yosemite, which would have been about two hours....but the 120, and all other nearby alternates, were still closed while crews worked on clearing 6 feet of packed snow. We ended up detouring North - almost to Taos - and taking the 88 across. A small 7 hour detour, so we went straight to Monterey instead of Yosemite.
Throughout the drive, we climbed two or three thousand feet in elevation, then dropped again, several times over. We reached elevations close to 8,500 feet before finally, hours later, arriving at Monterey: Elevation 40 feet. Needless to say, the weather varied a bit. We enjoyed all four seasons in a few hours' drive.
Check out the pictures for a look at our slight detour.
