We spent today driving out of Yosemite National Park and heading to Mammoth lakes.

We left around 9am after a getting coffee and setting up the Go Pro on the front of the car and headed out to wind back up the other side of the valley to the Tioga Pass.

Again, not a lot to really report as it was just a scenic drive through beautiful scenery of mountains and forests, passing Lakes and cliffs and sweeping green meadows. I’ll let the pictures do the talking this time.

At its highest point the Tioga Pass is 9943 ft above sea level and spends most of the winter closed due to high snow fall. Eventually we made it to Lee Vining and Mono Lake which is apparently best viewed from a distance  due to it being rather stinky !

From Lee Vining we took a side trip north up to the Ghost Town of Bodie. Bodie was a fantastic place to visit and i’ve given it a page of its own with over 70  photographs. Click to read more about Bodie

After spending a few hours in Bodie we headed back down to Lee Vining and stopped for a coffee and then drove the final 30 miles down the 395 into Mammoth lakes and to our hotel for the night , The Alpenhof.

Mammoth lakes is pretty much an alpine ski resort. It reminded us very much of Le Grand Bornard in France where we visited a few years back. We were staying at the Alpenhof which was designed like a typical German ski resort hotel complete with chalets, and whilst it was very comfortable and a nice quiet place to stay, they lose points for not having coffee available in the room lol. The town itself felt quite false and very purpose built. We ate some lovely Mexican food sat outside a restaurant with a gas powered log camp fire whilst watching kids playing ping pong and various hack sack games in the square.