Tioga Pass is the highest highway pass in California, at 3,031 metres, and it is the eastern gate to Yosemite. A small park sign, a ranger kiosk and a stony meadow mark the top, with snowbanks lingering into July and the peaks of the Sierra crest rising to either side. It feels like the edge of something, and it is: on the east side the road drops about 3,000 feet in a dozen miles to the high desert of Mono Lake and the Great Basin, a change of climate and scenery as abrupt as any in North America.
The road down the eastern side is a classic. Tioga Road becomes Highway 120 and plunges through Lee Vining Canyon in a series of tight bends and hairpins, with steep walls, big drops and the blue of Ellery Lake flashing below. Further down, the whole eastern plain opens, with Mono Lake, a vast, salty, alkaline lake dotted with strange tufa towers, spread like a mirror. The road is narrow in places, the surface is good, and the traffic is heavy at weekends. Riders love it for the climb, the change in scenery and the sense of arrival. It is also very cold at the top, even in August, and thunderstorms and sleet can arrive without warning.
The road was first built in the 1880s to reach a silver mine, and then bought by Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service, who paid to have it made public in 1915. The route is closed by snow from about November until late May or June, and its opening is a minor local event. Check conditions before you set out, and be prepared to turn around.
There are no services at the pass itself, other than a small, seasonal resort with a cafe just below the summit on the east side, a favourite for pie and coffee. Fuel is available at Lee Vining, about twenty kilometres east, and Tuolumne Meadows, farther west, in season. Mammoth Lakes, about 38 kilometres away, has everything. Fill up in Lee Vining before riding west, carry layers and enjoy the thin, bright air. The park charges an entrance fee, and the altitude can leave you breathless.