Will we need tyre chains in Mammoth??

[RomfordGirl]

This site pretty much says it all.

My preference would be Bishop; larger and more options (plus the Mountain Light Gallery for Galen Rowell fans and also Schat's Bakery).

Another thought, after reading your starting point....

SF to Reno to Bishop is too long for a day's drive (425 miles or so). If you want to make Bishop, I would take US50 from Sacramento over Echo Summit through South Lake Tahoe, connecting to 395 someplace south of Carson City (near Gardnerville).

Even that will be a long day (360+ miles), so maybe Bridgeport is a better bet. The US50-SLT-Gardnerville routing is around 275 miles, and considering some of it is mountain driving would make for a full day.

My husband is saying he wants to do the route suggested above ie SF to Sacramento to SLT connecting to 395 south of Carson City near Gardnerville to Bishop.
He is a commercial van driver in the UK and often does journeys of 300+ miles per day, although of course the road conditions would be different.

Can you please advise the best road to connect to 395 from the US50 (coming from SLT)? I have purchased a California Road Atlas through Amazon and am trying to figure out which road we should be taking? Is it the state highway 207, or should we follow the US50 all the way until it merges into the 395?

Thanking you in anticipation.

[Mark Sedenquist]

It really depends on the weather conditions and your personal comfort zone with driving on steep mountain roads in the snow. CA-207, also known as the Kingsbury Grade is the local's choice for reaching the ski areas coming from the lowland valleys. I've driven it at least 100 times in every weather condition you can imagine. I really like the views and drive -- but it can be a bit exciting when the road is icy...

If the conditions are dicey enough -- the state will close the road -- but if it's open, I would certainly suggest you use it as the shortcut to US-395.

On the other hand, the drive along the lake on US-50 should not be missed -- so if you have the time -- I'd drive along US-50 to US-395 -- even though it will add an extra hour or so to your drive.

Mark

[RomfordGirl]

Thanks Mark that was very helpful!

Regards & nice weekend