Yosemite Forum

Hey everybody. Tioga Rd temporarily opened on a limited basis for cyclists on the 14th. Still no scheduled opening date for vehicles yet though.

On a slightly different note:

We hiked up to Ralston Peak at 9200 ft up in Desolation Wilderness for some recon. We hit relatively consistent snow cover of about 12-24"+ over 8000 ft in forested and north aspects, then solid cover of varying depths on all aspects at and above 9000 ft. Looking across from there to Pyramid Peak at almost 10k, we saw nothing but solid white. There's still a lot of snow in the Sierras, the afternoon and evening temps were cold, and the creeks were heavily charged.

So, even if Tioga Rd is open, on the trails headed to higher elevations, expect winter travel to be the norm for at least some time to come. Trust the snow depth modeling projections to be pretty close to accurate.

Thanks, Phil.

Thanks, that helps a lot.

You're welcome.

You guys have a good trip. Bring the microspikes for sure.

Tioga Rd opens to all traffic at noon on Wednesday, 05/18, but no commercial services will be available yet. Have gas and food.

Are you saying we might get stuck on the road? Haha...

Lost in the Sierras in a parking lot 50' off the road, starving to death because you ran out of gas with no cell service to call AAA for more, and breakfast this morning just isn't doing it any longer and you now need a burger for the energy to simply wrap your mind around the fact that you screwed up badly.

At Crane Flat, there's a sign that clearly tells you where the next gas is...Tuolumne, when it's open. You get out to Tuolumne with not enough gas to get back to Crane Flat, and you better fancy a trip to Lee Vining, if you can make it. I have no idea who reads these, but we live in a world where people call 911 because their refrigerator is too noisy, so I'll hedge on the side of caution, state the seemingly obvious, take nothing for granted in vacation mentality vs common sense, and make sure that just about anyone can clearly understand that "commercial services" not being available yet means places where they sell you the stuff you need aren't open.