Death Valley, Yosemite & Mono Lake in One Vacation is possible!

Seeing these three beautiful places in California in our 2-week vacation was the goal.  But what time of the year seemed to be most favorable to us?  We settled on the first 2 weeks in April.  Here are some of the things we considered during our planning:

If we went later than April, Death Valley will be very hot.  So we made this our 1st destination and even with that the temperature peaked at 97° in Badwater.  Bonus for going in early April is that the spring flowers can be spectacular with some luck and the right weather conditions being on your side.

To include Mono Lake into this trip we drove up Hwy 395 from Death Valley to Lee Vining which is the nearest town to Mono Lake.  We had one snowstorm overnight but by mid morning it had melted.  We had to eliminate a visit to the great ghost town of Bodie as the Ranger had not deemed the road passable yet.  And the road over Tioga Pass into Yosemite Valley which is only 77 miles does not open until mid May.  This causes a detour to a pass that is open, meaning about a 6 hour drive. 

This was our route:

1. 1. Drive North on Hwy 395 to Minden Nevada.
   

2. 2. Take Carson Pass (Hwy 88) to Jackson California
   

3. 3. Then take Hwy 49 South to Big Oak Flat
   

4. 4. Hwy 120 which will then take you into Yosemite.
   

If we went earlier than April, Yosemite would still be quite frozen.  Even in mid April we had two overnight lows of 15° and 19° and one snowstorm overnight which melted by early morning.  This time of the year also means we escaped the summertime crowds and saw the waterfalls flowing throughout the valley. 

Overall it was a fabulous trip even with the long drive to get from Mono Lake to Yosemite.  It just gave us more places to see and photograph.  We also had just the right mix of springtime sun and a few brief storms that make for wonderful photos opportunities.

Thanks

Dotty

Wesdotphotography.com team.