California: Death Valley, the Eastern Sierra and Yosemite

1. Jour 1 : Arrive in Las Vegas

   Harry Reid International Airport to your hotel in Las Vegas

   • Welcome dinner
   • Nuit : Las Vegas
   Détail du jour 1

   Fly into Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), a short drive from the Strip, where a driver meets you in arrivals and takes you to the hotel. 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

   Temps libre : Free until the evening briefing

   

2. Jour 2 : 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

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Death Valley
   Détail du jour 2

   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. 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

   Temps libre : Hot middle of the afternoon free at the hotel

   Activité : Short walks of up to about 2 km on flat salt crust. It can be very hot even in June and September: bring a hat and plenty of water.

   

3. Jour 3 : Zabriskie at sunrise, the dunes at sunset

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

   • Environ 1.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Death Valley
   Détail du jour 3

   An early start, because Death Valley is best at the edges of the day. 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. 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. 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

   Option plus facile : Watch sunrise from the Zabriskie Point overlook, a short paved walk from the car park, and go back for breakfast; at the dunes, stay near the edge where the sand is firm.

   Option plus active : Golden Canyon to Red Cathedral with the guide straight after sunrise, about 5 km return with about 150 m of climb, finished before the heat.

   Temps libre : Late morning to late afternoon free at the hotel

   Activité : Walking only early and late. Dune sand is soft and tiring; walk as far as you like and turn back when you choose.

4. Jour 4 : 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

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Lone Pine
   Détail du jour 4

   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. 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. 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)

   Option plus facile : Watch sunset from the van-side viewpoints on Movie Road instead of the arch loop.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free in Lone Pine, and the evening after sunset

   Activité : The Mobius Arch loop is about 1 km on sandy trail with a few rock steps.

5. Jour 5 : Manzanar, Bishop and Mono Lake

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

   • Environ 3 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Mammoth Lakes
   Détail du jour 5

   We are at Manzanar National Historic Site when the interpretive centre opens at 9 am, about fifteen minutes north of Lone Pine. During the Second World War more than 11,000 Japanese Americans, most of them US citizens, were forced from their homes and held here behind barbed wire. Your guide gives the background, and then there is unhurried time in the centre, in the reconstructed barracks and at the cemetery monument, which survivors and their families still visit on the annual pilgrimage; we ask guests to treat it as a place of memory. 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. 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)

   Option plus facile : At Mono Lake, walk the first, flat part of the boardwalk loop near the car park and watch the light from the shore.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free in Mammoth Lakes, and the evening after Mono Lake

   Activité : About 3 km on foot across the day on level paths and boardwalk. Mammoth Lakes is at about 2,400 m: drink water and take it easy.

   

6. Jour 6 : Bodie at opening, then over Tioga Pass

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

   • Environ 5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner et repas du midi
   • Nuit : Yosemite National Park
   Détail du jour 6

   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

   Option plus facile : At Bodie, stay on the level main streets near the car park; in Tuolumne Meadows, walk the flat first part of the trail and wait by the river.

   Option plus active : In Tuolumne Meadows, scramble up Pothole Dome with the guide, about 1.5 km return with about 60 m of climb on granite slabs.

   Temps libre : Evening free in Yosemite Valley

   Activité : About 4 km on foot across the day on level dirt streets and easy trails. Bodie is at about 2,550 m and Tioga Pass at about 3,030 m; the air is thin and mornings can be near freezing.

   

7. Jour 7 : Yosemite Valley on foot, then Glacier Point

   Yosemite Valley, then Tunnel View and Glacier Point

   • Environ 2 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner, repas du midi et repas du soir
   • Nuit : Yosemite National Park
   Détail du jour 7

   At 8 am, before the valley car parks fill, a local naturalist guide walks the valley floor with us. We start at Lower Yosemite Fall, at the foot of Yosemite Falls, which drop about 740 m in three steps. They run fullest in late May and June; by September and October they are often a trickle or dry, so the autumn walk centres on the meadows, Half Dome and the river. We cross Cook's Meadow with Half Dome above, and follow the Merced River. Along the way you hear how glaciers carved the valley, how the Ahwahneechee people lived here, and how the valley was first protected in 1864; the park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 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. 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)

   Option plus facile : Join the first half of the valley walk and ride the free valley shuttle back.

   Option plus active : In the free early afternoon, walk the Mist Trail to the top of Vernal Fall, about 5 km return with about 300 m of climb on steep stone steps, wet with spray in spring.

   Temps libre : Early afternoon free in the valley

   Activité : The valley walk is about 5 km on the flat.

   

8. Jour 8 : Across the Central Valley to San Francisco

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

   • Environ 4.5 h de route
   • Petit-déjeuner
   Détail du jour 8

   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. 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)

   Activité : Book a flight from SFO leaving after about 6 pm, or stay on in San Francisco.

   

Faune et météo : Late May and June bring full waterfalls in Yosemite, snow on the high peaks and hot days in Death Valley; September and October bring cooler desert days, golden aspens on the Eastern Sierra in October, and Yosemite's waterfalls low or dry. Watch for coyotes and ravens in Death Valley, migrating birds at Mono Lake and mule deer in Yosemite.

• Las Vegas1 nuit
• Death Valley2 nuits
• Lone Pine1 nuit
• Mammoth Lakes1 nuit
• Yosemite National Park2 nuits