California: Death Valley, the Eastern Sierra and Yosemite

Arrive in Las Vegas

Harry Reid International Airport to your hotel in Las Vegas

• Welcome dinner
• Nuit : Las Vegas

Soir

The day is free until the early evening, so land when it suits you; the exact meeting time comes with your final itinerary. Las Vegas sits in the Mojave Desert, and the light and heat here are a fair preview of tomorrow. In the evening your See Sight Tours guide meets the group for a short briefing: how we pace the Death Valley days around the heat, what to pack for altitude on the Eastern Sierra, and how the mornings work. Then we walk out together to a welcome dinner nearby. Afterwards you are free to see the fountains or the Strip after dark, but we leave after breakfast tomorrow, so most guests keep it short.

Compris

• Pick-up at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
• Welcome briefing with your guide
• Welcome dinner

Into Death Valley: Dante's View and Badwater

Las Vegas via Pahrump and Death Valley Junction to Dante's View, Badwater Basin and Artists Drive, then Furnace Creek

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Death Valley
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

We leave Las Vegas after breakfast and cross the desert west through Pahrump into California, about two hours of driving to the edge of Death Valley National Park. Our first stop is Dante's View, about 1,670 m up in the Black Mountains and cooler than the valley, where you look straight down on the white salt pan of Badwater Basin with the Panamint Range rising beyond. Then we drop to Badwater itself, 86 m below sea level, the lowest point in North America, and walk out onto the salt crust before noon, with a stop at the jagged salt of the Devil's Golf Course.

Après-midi

Lunch is a sit-down meal at Furnace Creek, and the hot hours of the afternoon are yours at the hotel inside the park. When the light starts to soften we drive the one-way loop of Artists Drive past Artists Palette, where minerals stain the hills pink, green and cream.

Compris

• Death Valley National Park entry
• Dante's View over Badwater Basin
• Walk onto the salt flat at Badwater Basin, 86 m below sea level
• The Devil's Golf Course
• Sit-down lunch at Furnace Creek
• Artists Drive and Artists Palette in the late afternoon

Zabriskie at sunrise, the dunes at sunset

Furnace Creek to Zabriskie Point and Golden Canyon, then the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Death Valley
• Environ 1.5 h de route

Matin

We are at Zabriskie Point, a few minutes from the hotel, before sunrise, as the first light turns the folded yellow badlands gold and Manly Beacon catches the sun. Those who want a walk then go down into Golden Canyon with the guide while it is still cool, between pale walls towards the red cliff of Red Cathedral; everyone else heads back for a slow breakfast.

Après-midi

Late morning we stop at Harmony Borax Works, where the twenty-mule teams hauled borax out of the valley in the 1880s, and then lunch is at Furnace Creek. From late morning to late afternoon the heat makes walking unwise, so the time is free: the pool, a nap, or the visitor centre.

Soir

Around an hour before sunset we drive to the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes near Stovepipe Wells and walk out among the ridges as the shadows lengthen.

Compris

• Sunrise at Zabriskie Point
• Harmony Borax Works
• Sit-down lunch at Furnace Creek
• Sunset walk on the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes

Over Towne Pass to the Alabama Hills

Furnace Creek over Towne Pass via Father Crowley Vista Point and Olancha to Lone Pine and the Alabama Hills

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Lone Pine
• Environ 3 h de route

Matin

After breakfast we leave Death Valley to the west, climbing over Towne Pass and down into the Panamint Valley, then stop at Father Crowley Vista Point above Rainbow Canyon, a deep volcanic gorge of dark lava and coloured ash.

Après-midi

The road crosses the dry bed of Owens Lake, drained in the early 1900s to supply water to Los Angeles, and reaches Lone Pine in time for a sit-down lunch, about three hours of driving in all. The Sierra Nevada stands straight up behind the town, and Mount Whitney, at about 4,420 m the highest peak in the lower 48 states, is on the skyline. The early afternoon is free in town; the small Museum of Western Film History tells how the boulders outside town became the backdrop to decades of westerns.

Soir

In the late afternoon we drive into the Alabama Hills, walk the short loop to Mobius Arch and stay for sunset, as the light turns the Sierra crest pink.

Compris

• Father Crowley Vista Point above Rainbow Canyon
• Sit-down lunch in Lone Pine
• Alabama Hills: Movie Road and the Mobius Arch loop
• Sunset on the Sierra Nevada and Mount Whitney from the Alabama Hills

Activités en option

• Museum of Western Film History in Lone Pine (pay locally)

Manzanar, Bishop and Mono Lake

Lone Pine to Manzanar, Bishop and Mammoth Lakes, then Mono Lake South Tufa and back

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Mammoth Lakes
• Environ 3 h de route

Après-midi

From there we drive north up the Owens Valley to Bishop for a sit-down lunch and on to Mammoth Lakes, arriving in the early afternoon with time free in the village. In the late afternoon we drive about forty minutes north to the South Tufa area of Mono Lake, at least 760,000 years old and saltier than the sea, and walk the boardwalk loop among its limestone tufa towers as the low light turns them gold.

Soir

We are back in Mammoth for dinner, about three hours of driving in all.

Compris

• Manzanar National Historic Site: the interpretive centre, the reconstructed barracks and the cemetery monument
• Sit-down lunch in Bishop
• Mono Lake South Tufa walk in the late afternoon (fee included)

Bodie at opening, then over Tioga Pass

Mammoth Lakes to Bodie, then Lee Vining, Tioga Pass, Tuolumne Meadows, Tenaya Lake and Yosemite Valley

• Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
• Nuit : Yosemite National Park
• Environ 5 h de route

Soir

This is the one long day of the trip, about four and three quarter hours of driving, and it is long for a reason: Bodie and Tioga Pass both sit on the eastern side of the Sierra, so we see both on the way to Yosemite rather than add a night. We leave Mammoth Lakes at about 7:15 am and drive north past Mono Lake to Bodie, about an hour and a half, the last 5 km on a graded dirt road, to arrive as the park opens. Bodie is a gold-mining town at about 2,550 m kept in a state of arrested decay, its houses, church and saloons left as they were, and we walk its streets for two cool morning hours, well before its earlier closing time in autumn. Lunch is a sit-down meal in Lee Vining. Then the road climbs to Tioga Pass, at about 3,030 m the highest road pass in California and the east gate of Yosemite. We walk in Tuolumne Meadows, stop at Tenaya Lake and Olmsted Point, and reach Yosemite Valley around 5 pm. No stretch is longer than about an hour and a half.

Compris

• Bodie State Historic Park entry and a morning walk through the town
• Sit-down lunch in Lee Vining
• Tioga Pass and Yosemite National Park entry
• Tuolumne Meadows walk towards Soda Springs
• Tenaya Lake and Olmsted Point

Yosemite Valley on foot, then Glacier Point

Yosemite Valley, then Tunnel View and Glacier Point

• Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
• Nuit : Yosemite National Park
• Environ 2 h de route

Après-midi

Lunch is in the valley, then the early afternoon is free. At about 4 pm we drive out past Tunnel View, with El Capitan and Bridalveil Fall framing the valley, and up to Glacier Point, about 975 m above the valley floor, where Half Dome and Vernal and Nevada Falls catch the late light.

Soir

Back in the valley we sit down together to a farewell dinner.

Compris

• Guided Yosemite Valley walk with a local naturalist: Lower Yosemite Fall, Cook's Meadow and the Merced River
• Lunch in Yosemite Valley
• Tunnel View
• Glacier Point in the late afternoon
• Farewell dinner

Activités en option

• Bike hire on the valley's flat paths (pay locally)

Across the Central Valley to San Francisco

Yosemite Valley by Highway 120 through Groveland and Oakdale to San Francisco

• Petit-déjeuner
• Environ 4.5 h de route

Matin

Take a last early walk by the Merced River while the valley is quiet, then after breakfast we leave Yosemite by the Big Oak Flat Road and Highway 120. The road drops through the foothills to the old Gold Rush town of Groveland, where we stop for coffee and a short walk along its main street, then runs out across the flat orchards and farmland of the Central Valley, past Oakdale. The drive is about four and a quarter hours, the second longest of the trip, so we leave at about 9 am and keep it moving. Crossing the bay into San Francisco we drop guests at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) from about 2 pm, and then at a central point near Union Square for those staying on in the city. Your guide checks your onward plans before saying goodbye.

Soir

If you have never seen San Francisco, a night or two here after the trip is easy to add, and we can suggest a hotel and a guided walk that takes in the Golden Gate Bridge.

Compris

• Coffee stop and short walk in Groveland
• Drive to San Francisco with your guide
• Drop-off at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) or near Union Square

Activités en option

• Extra nights in San Francisco with a guided city walk that includes the Golden Gate Bridge (on request, priced separately)