Mammoth Lakes, Yosemite National Park

Submitted by
Jim Fitzgerald and Steve Morris
Photos by Steve Morris

MTA CA Chapter #3 went on a weekend trip [May 3-4, 2003] to Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite National Park. There were 5 motorcycles and 6 people on the trip. The first night was an uneventful stay in Ridgecrest at Motel Six. We had an enjoyable dinner at Kristy’s for some home style cooking. Early Saturday we were all woken up before the alarm clocks by a neighbor who started his big V-twin with "off road" pipes at 05:30. These thoughtless bikers don’t know or care about the negative image they reflect to us.

Mammoth Lakes was the destination for the second day and we took a few "detours" along the way. At Lone Pine we took the Whitney Portal road toward Mt Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental 48 at 14,494 foot. What a wonderful view! At the base of Mt. Whitney is in an area called the Alabama Hills where many Western films were made from the 1950s until recently. We took a highly recommended self guided tour on a small road called Movie Road. The road surface started out paved and then became decent hard pack with a few areas with washboard surface and occasional sand traps that were several inches deep. Some turns and dips had fine gravel that was hard to navigate. Joe Zuzulka’s Venture with daughter Donna as his passenger went down in the soft sand Kathy Fitzgerald did well until the last 1/2 mile in a deep spot and tipped her 800cc Intruder over Little damage to the bikes and no humans were harmed, so we brushed off the dust (which was abundant) and rode on. Jim Fitzgerald found that his FJR1300 with radial tires does not make a good dirt bike. The Ventures are a bit of a handful off road as well. Next time we'll take dual sport motorcycles.

The remainder of the trip more than made up for the minor spill. On the way up 395 toward Mammoth Lakes from Lone Pine we stopped at the Manzanar Relocation Center. Manzanar is a former WWII Japanese Relocation Center. Some of us in the group have friends who spent time there during the war or friends with older relatives that were relocated to Manzanar. After the gravel road experience earlier that day, we turned back at the gate and passed on the self guided tour. You may take a virtual tour via the web site at http://www.nps.gov/manz/

We arrived at Mammoth Lakes around 3 PM and since we still had plenty of time for sight seeing we rode up to Mary Lake at 9,000 feet. The lake was still frozen and there were big snow drifts everywhere. But we were riding with light jackets on since it was 55 degrees at the coldest! What beautiful scenery!

We ate dinner at a local brew pub called Whiskey Creek. The food was a bit better than regular pub grub and their beer was decent as well. Two of us tried their Blueberry Wheat which had a nice amber color with an interesting purple tint from the berries. The head retention was excellent for a wheat beer and the color of the head was almost as white as the snow outside. We enjoyed a nice sunset out the window at the restaurant while enjoying good food & great company.

Last thing we did before bed was calling CalTrans to see if the Tioga Pass Road was open and, much to our surprise, they just plowed it open this afternoon!

http://mammothweb.com/recreation/recreation.html

We knew we would have a long ride to get home Sunday so we left Mammoth at 7 AM going north on Hwy. 395 for Lee Vining where the Tioga Pass road, Hwy 120 to Yosemite starts. After breakfast and gas in Lee Vining, we headed up 9,800 foot Tioga Pass. What a treat! There were snow banks several feet thick right up to the road and waterfalls at almost every turn. The lakes were still frozen at every vista. The rocky crags were spectacularly highlighted and contrasted by the deep snow. The roads were in amazingly good shape for just being opened, few rocks and not much water on the road. Amazingly, the temperature never dipped below 44 degrees and black ice fortunately was never to be found. As we all kept chattering on the Cbs, words were not adequate to describe the beauty of this place.

Time did not allow us to go into the Yosemite Valley. But what we saw in the high country was virtually indescribable. By 1 o’clock we were on Hwy 41 headed to Fresno and the Central Valley where it was up to 95 degrees. At Fresno we took Hwy 99 over the grapevine and into metropolitan Los Angeles where we all went our separate ways. We were all glad we went on this trip and agreed this is a good time of year to see the national parks. Traffic was light, the weather was not too hot or cold, he scenery was spectacular. A wonderful time was had by all who attended, next year we hope to have more of our pals join us.