Benton, CA to Tioga Pass! Day 42

Woohoo! We are camping tonight at a campsite right before the entrance to Yosemite National Park!! (Everything is full in the park and we have reservations for tomorrow night! We got here a day earlier than expected). We couldn't be happier. Today we had the most elevation gain of the trip (6,762 ft!) up to Tioga Pass and have about that amount of climbing to do between here and the ocean! Oh and 10,000 feet of elevation loss. HERE WE COME PACIFIC!

Okay, I'll back up. We woke up this morning in Benton, CALIFORNIA! Oh and we're incredibly happy to be in this state also. Not only are we excited to get to the ocean in a few days, but California is beautiful and we're excited to be riding through it. 

We are breakfast at the little diner that we'd had dinner at the night before. Yum, breakfast. With are stomachs full of pancakes for me and French toast for Alec we began the climb. We got going a little bit late, we were on our bikes at 9 AM, so it was already pretty hot outside. But despite the heat and the hill we were energized by how far we'd come and the beauty around us. 

There were elevation signs as we went up marking our progress. 

Our climb was also broken up into two parts, the first about 3000 and the second, tioga pass, was about the same but in a shorter mileage (steeper!). Here we are at the top of the first one.

And the downhill after was nice. First it was through an alpine meadow and then down through some tall TREES!! There were trees! So many trees. We pretty much hadnt seen trees for all of Nevada. So it was exciting. 

And then a lake appeared! Water was in short supply in the desert also... so coming across Mono Lake was wonderful and beautiful.

There's a lake through there! We did get closer though of course. 

And then we went through some road work, which was exciting because we got a huge lane to ourselves!! Ohhh yeah, bikes. 

After stopping at the gourmet food gas station (it actually was, Alec had fish tacos and I had a great asian salad. Yum) we started the trek up Tioga Pass. Aahhh it was steep. And long. But really beautiful. 

^Alec

^Allie

Continuing up to and past 8000

And 9000!

Waterfall!

As we continued up we (well of course) got higher and higher, and really could see amazing views of the mountains. The road basically clung to the edge of mountains above a deep beautiful valley. We were glad to be riding next to the mountain face instead of over the cliff! It would be a frightening road to ride down with the steep grade and the cliff directly off the road. 

Not to the top yet, still about 1000 feet to go! But still feeling good and invigorated by the views. 

Right after this the road wound back into the mountain peaks and away from the cliffs and we were riding next to lakes and trees and more beauty. 

And then finally...! We reached to top of Tioga Pass and the entrance to Yosemite!!

There were SO MANY mosquitos. The picture below is right after standing still from the picture above, and being attacked by the flies. 

Then, because we didn't have reservations in Yosemite for that night and everything was full (it's their busiest time of year!) we camped right outside the park. And it was chilly in the altitude! It was a great camp ground though and was right on a lake and surrounded by mountains. Amazing. 

Daily stats:

Mileage: 69.7 mi

Average speed: 7.9 mph

Elevation gain: 6762 ft 

Elevation we slept at: 9,900 ft

And it's (actually!) downhill from here to San Fransisco!

Slow up Tioga,

Highest Calfornia pass,

It's downhill from here.