Day Four - Wednesday June 20

Today was my big day to ride through Yosemite National Park. I got up bright and early (as always) and headed out to the park entrance. Fortunately my friends parents have a yearly pass to the park so I was able to use that to get in without paying. That's always a nice bonus. I started out heading East through the park across Tioga Pass Road. This road is closed during the Winter due to it's high elevation, but it's open during the summer. This was a great ride because there was very little traffic so early on the road so I was able to really haul ass. Once I got over the mountains it opened up into a vast meadow on the East edge of the park. There was a small market here so I stopped off and grabbed some breakfast before heading West back the way I came. This section had a great high elevation lake and I got some excellent pictures.

After heading back near the park entrance I went down into the main Yosemite Valley. This is where all of the famous landmarks of Yosemite National Park are located (El Capitan, Yosemite Falls and Half Dome). There was a lot of traffic now, but that didn't matter because it was nice to just roll along at 20mph and stare up at all the fantastic scenery. I got a couple great shots of my bike in front of Yosemite Falls here.

After venturing through the valley I went up Granite Point Road which wound its way up the mountains along the South side of the Yosemite Valley. This was a much nicer road as far as riding conditions went because the corners were perfect, there wasn't much traffic and the views were fantastic. Once I got to the end of the road there were several lookouts where you could get the best views of Half Dome. I got in some rest and some great pictures then headed back. This is another road that is closed during the Winter so there was a large elevation change across the 20 miles or so. Just as I was coming near the end of the road I passed a Jeep with a couple girls in it. I tried to get them to follow me, but they just couldn't keep up.

I spent the next couple hours winding my way down and around the various canyons and valleys to get back to the cabin. I swear ever time I thought I was getting close there was yet another hill for me to get over. I made it back to the cabin sometime in the mid afternoon after doing a little over 300 miles for the day. A few hours later all my friends started showing up for our camping trip. We stayed up late talking and drinking copious amounts of beer.

Day Four Route

Pictures