The label points at Yosemite Valley, but up here on the Tioga Road you are far above it, in the high country of the park where the granite lies bare and polished and the air at two and a half thousand metres smells of pine resin and warm rock. This stretch, between Olmsted Point and Tenaya Lake, is where the road runs across the glacier-scoured heart of the Sierra Nevada, and for many riders it is the finest part of the whole crossing.
Stop at Olmsted Point. From the slabs beside the car park you look down Tenaya Canyon to the back of Half Dome, its rounded shoulder from an angle few visitors see, with Clouds Rest towering beside it. Boulders lie scattered across the bare granite around you, dropped by retreating glaciers thousands of years ago, as if someone had left them there and forgotten to come back. A few minutes east, Tenaya Lake fills a granite basin, its water clear and cold, with sandy beaches at the eastern end and domes rising from its shores. On a calm morning the reflections are perfect.
The road itself is a joy, smooth and well engineered, with long flowing bends, wide views and few really tight corners, climbing gradually east towards Tuolumne Meadows and Tioga Pass, at 3,031 metres the highest highway pass in California. The speed limits are low and enforced, and you will share the road with cars, campervans, cyclists and wildlife, including deer and the occasional black bear. The road is closed from November until late May or June, depending on the snow, and in some recent summers the park has required reservations to enter at peak times, so check before you go.
Services are very limited. Inside the park there are only a few places to buy food and fuel, and they are not always open, so plan carefully. Lee Vining, at the eastern foot of Tioga Pass, has fuel, food and a famous petrol station restaurant, and Mammoth Lakes, about fifty kilometres south of there, is the nearest real town. Fill up before you enter the park and carry water and warm layers, because the nights are cold even in July.
Afternoon thunderstorms are common in summer, building over the peaks after lunch, so the morning is the best time to ride. And when you sit by Tenaya Lake with your boots off, you may decide there is no hurry at all.