Page 144 - 2014 Travel Guide to California

TOP CITIES
South Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Tahoe City, Bishop,
Mammoth Lakes, Oakhurst, Madera
INTERNATIONAL GATEWAY
Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO),
3 miles from Reno, Nevada city center
TOURISM WEBSITES
yosemitepark.com
visitinglaketahoe.com
tahoesouth.com
yosemitethisyear.com
visitmammoth.com
POPULATION
600,000
HIGH
SIERRA
142 2014 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A
HIGH SIERRA
Come explore this epic land of mountains,
meadows, forests and streams
B Y J O H N F L I N N
John Muir liked to call it “The Range of Light,” but that wasn’t the
naturalist’s only pet name for his beloved Sierra Nevada: He also
called it “God’s mountain mansion” and “The grandest special
temple of nature I was ever permitted to enter.” It’s not just the radiant
light that drew Muir—and continues to draw people—to the Sierra again
and again. It’s the pristine lakes and rivers, the dramatic hiking and biking
trails, the contrast between the green meadows and granite battlements.
The Sierra Nevada (Spanish for “snowy mountains”) may be one of the
highest and most majestic mountain ranges in North America, but it’s also
one of the most accessible and user-friendly. Stretching 400 miles from
north to south, and about 70 from east to west, it’s crossed by seven high-
ways—four of them open all year—and encompasses everything from Lake
Tahoe—where you might find yourself crowding shoulder-to-shoulder
around a boisterous craps table—to remote canyons in Yosemite or Kings
Canyon national parks where you can spend a silent and solitary after-
noon watching Muir’s favorite bird, the water ouzel, plunge into waterfalls
and cascades.
In a state with no shortage of superlatives, the region has more than
its share: It can boast the world’s oldest tree, the world’s most massive
tree, the Old West’s largest ghost town, the nation’s highest waterfall
and—until Alaska came along and rewrote the record books—the nation’s
highest peak.
RUTHCHOI/SHUTTERSTOCK. OPPOSITE: REBECCA GARRETT/MAMMOTH LAKES TOURISM