Planning trip to Yoemite, Tahoo and Mammouth Lakes

[bd2leo]

We're planning a trip to Yosemite, Lake Tahoe and Mammouth Lakes for next May. We will most likely fly in to and out of San Francisco. We're planning a 7 day trip. Any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Mark Sedenquist]

We will most likely fly in to and out of San Francisco. We're planning a 7 day trip.

Welcome to the trip advice planning forums! May is a gorgeous time to be visiting the High Sierras and Yosemite. Dogwoods will still be blooming and the waterfalls will still be roaring -- assuming we get a decent snowpack again this year.

This year the road over Tioga Pass didn't open until May 18th (so it might be better to travel towards the end of May if you can). If the pass is still closed when you visit, you can still reach Mammoth Lakes and Lake Tahoe by using one of the other crossings -- most likely US-50.

Mark

[glc]

I much prefer CA-88 to US-50. It's a lot less traveled and is very scenic. It's also maintained year round.

[Southwest Dave]

If you are not planning on visiting San Fran and are just using it as an entry point then Las Vegas would be a good alternative which would not rely so much on Tioga pass being open and you may be able to 'bag' a couple of extra National parks. From LV cross Death valley NP and head up to Mammoth Lakes. Continue to Lake Tahoe and then across or around the mountains to Yosemite. From Yosemite head south and do a drive through of Sequoia NP before heading back to Vegas.