Yosemite to Las Vegas in two days (not Tioga pass)

[makaco]

For a long time my wife and I have been planning to go from Yosemite to Las Vegas/Grand Canyon (we'll fly in from Sweden). We got our final bookings months ago, and the plan was to drive from Yosemite to Las Vegas in two days, via Tioga Pass on Monday the 20th of June. Unfortunately, it seems very unlikely that Tioga is open by then, so I wonder if and what the alternatives are. (we have accomodation reservations both in Yosemite and Grand Canyon that can't be changed, and we only have two nights in between to play with)

It seems like one option is to go up north to Sonora Pass (108), making the trip a bit longer, but still a scentic route, and we'll be on the "right" side of the Sierras going donw south. Maybe stopping in Death valley?

The other option may be to take the highway trough Fresno and Bakersfield, but how fun is that?

Given two days and the first option, where would be a nice stopover? It seems a bit far to go straight from Yosemite to Death Valley. Are there any nice areas inbetween, Bishop, Mommoth Lake?

I really like to see Death Vally, and given two days it should be doable even when using the SOnora pass? Is 190 the best choice and simply drive straight through it, or is it better to come in from North/Nevada? (I saw there were still a lot of road work in Death Vally, and many sights beeing closed)

Thanks for any tips. /Magnus Karlsson

[Mark Sedenquist]

For a long time my wife and I have been planning to go from Yosemite to Las Vegas/Grand Canyon ... It seems like one option is to go up north to Sonora Pass (108), making the trip a bit longer, but still a scentic route, and we'll be on the "right" side of the Sierras going down south.

All of the passes to the north of Yosemite are open and yes, Sonora is a very scenic route. But the southern route takes you along the historic gold rush trail and you can also go around Lake Isabella. (For more on these routes -- look at the "similar threads" on the bottom of this page).

But for the total experience, I would counsel Sonora and stopping overnight at either Mammoth Lakes or Bishop and then go east on CA-166 at Big Pine and go see the world-famous Bristlecone Pines before heading east again over Westgard Pass. When you reach US-95 head south to Beatty, NV and then take route 374 back west into Death Valley into the Furnace Creek area and then CA-190 back to Death Valley Junction and back to Pahrump and then on to Las Vegas.

Mark