Page 157 - 2015 Travel Guide to California

DRIVE
»
TOUR
»
MUST
SEE,
DO
» California’s Everest You don’t have to be
Sir Edmund Hillary to plant your flag on the
14,495-foot summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest
mountain in the Lower 48. The pathway to the top
begins west of the town of Lone Pine and gains an
ear-popping 6,100 feet in 11 miles.
› mount-whitney.com
Highway 120 is a magical mystery tour through the heart of Yosemite
National Park’s exquisite high country. From the handsome old mining
town of GROVELAND, follow 120 east into the park (HETCH HETCHY, the
fraternal twin of Yosemite Valley that was dammed to provide San
Francisco’s water supply, is a short side trip) past the TUOLUMNE GROVE of
giant sequoias and up into the rarified alpine world. Pull over at OLMSTEAD
POINT to view HALF DOME from an angle you’ve never seen before. You’ll
traverse TUOLUMNE MEADOWS, the jumping-off point for some of
Yosemite’s finest hiking trails, and cross 9,943-foot TIOGA PASS before
descending three-quarters of a vertical mile to shimmering MONO LAKE.
» Biggest Tree Tree-huggers, don’t bother
trying to wrap your arms around the General
Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park. With a cir-
cumference of 102 feet, the giant sequoia is the
largest known tree on the planet. While not quite
as tall as its coastal cousins, its staggering girth
more than makes up for it.
› nps.gov/seki/naturescience/sherman.htm
» Happy Campers Perched on the southern
shore of Lake Tahoe, Camp Richardson is an old-
style resort with knotty-pine cabins, a hotel and
marina, where people have been coming for 90
years for beach-going, boating, biking and ice-
cream eating.
› camprichardson.com
» The Wild, Wild West Bodie, possibly the
Old West’s most notorious mining town, now
exists in a state of “arrested decay” on a high,
windswept plain northeast of Yosemite. It’s one of
America’s most extensive ghost towns.
› parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509
» On the Lake Take a tour across Lake Tahoe
into mesmerizing Emerald Bay aboard an
authentic Mississippi River paddlewheeler. They
depart several times a day from Zephyr Cove and
South Lake Tahoe.
› zephyrcove.com/cruises.aspx
THERE’S ROOM FOR EVERYONE on a rural
road leading across the Owens Valley, left;
Yosemite Valley, opposite.
2015 T R AV E L G U I D E TO C A L I F O R N I A 155