California,  Landscape,  Monday walks,  Mountains

Driving, and walking, the Tioga Pass

January 21, 2025 / 25 Comments

Nature’s peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves.

John Muir, quoted on the NPS Yosemite website

While Yosemite Valley is very famous and much-photographed, another area of the national park, the Tioga Pass, is rather less so. The Tioga Road runs for nearly fifty scenic miles surrounded by the high Sierra Nevada peaks and domes. The Tuolumne River flows across the sub-alpine meadows of the same name which offer wonderful views and some lovely walks.

On our first visit to California in 1991 we drove this road from west to east; this time around we travelled east to west. And with more time to spare we stopped not only for the views but also to do a couple of walks which I’m sharing as Monday Walks.

Soda Springs

We stopped briefly a few times on the first stretch of the road, the scenery just begged to be photographed! My feature photo was taken looking back at a section of the road that we’d just driven.

But our first main stop was near Tuolomne Meadows where we did the walk to Soda Springs. This was a beautiful walk of about one and a half miles. We had great views of the surrounding mountains as we followed the path along the river.

The path to Soda Springs

The Soda Springs themselves were a fascinating sight, cold water springs bubbling from the ground. There must be lots of minerals in the ground here, as the rocks were deep red in places and encrusted with the soda crystals that give the springs their name.

Soda Springs

At Soda Springs

Near the springs is an old cabin (see photo bottom right above), which has definitely seen better days! It was built about 1889 by John Baptist Lembert, the first European settler in the Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite. He kept a flock of angora goats here and served as a guide for tourists in the high country. He built his cabin directly over the largest of the springs. It is therefore thought he probably used it not to live in but to prevent his goats from fouling the spring.

We looped around the area before walking back to our car, which gave us some great views of Lembert Dome, named for that early settler.

Views of Lembert Dome

Tenaya Lake

Driving on a little we stopped by Tenaya Lake and had a short walk through the Lodgepole pines to a small beach. Some people were paddling in the chilly waters, but I contented myself with dipping a finger in!

Tenaya Lake

The lake was named after Chief Tenaya, who was the last chief of the native people who lived in Yosemite Valley before being driven out by the California militia. Those people had called the lake Pie-we-ack, ‘Lake of the Shining Rocks’. It lies at 8,150 feet, which explains the chill of its waters!

Olmstead Point

A little further down the road we made a longer stop at Olmsted Point. From here you can look down on Yosemite Valley from the east, a rather different angle from the usual views. You can see the distinctive outline of Half Dome, as well as another impressive mountain, Clouds Rest.

Views from Olmstead Point, including Half Dome and (to its left in the largest photo here) Clouds Rest

There is also a lot of evidence of glacial activity, with striated rocks and ‘erratics’, boulders left by retreating glaciers. Looking back the way we had come we could see Tenaya Lake in the distance.

Tenaya Lake from Olmstead Point

We followed a path down from the car park area, across some of these rocks. Although short, it was a bit of a scramble in places, but it was worth the effort as it led to a spot with a view right into Yosemite Valley. It was also much quieter as most visitors seemed to stay within a few metres of the parking area; we only encountered three other people here.

Views towards Yosemite Valley and Half Dome

That was our last main stop of the day. From there we drove the rest of the Tioga Pass road and headed for our accommodation just beyond it in El Portal. We were leaving Yosemite Valley for the following day, just as I will leave it now for a later post!

I last visited Yosemite in October 2024, when all these photos were taken.

25 Comments

  • Rebecca

    January 22, 2025 at 01:27 Reply

    This is a corner of California I haven’t seen yet. All the same, its wild, untouched nature is mesmerizing, and it’s awesome you got to visit a lesser-known, yet beautiful part of my home state! Thanks for sharing, Sarah 🙂

  • Terri Webster Schrandt

    January 21, 2025 at 20:53 Reply

    Amazing to see our old Tuolumne Meadows stomping grounds, Sarah! I’m also a bit surprised Tioga Pass was still open to get to the high country–you were lucky! Soda Springs, Lembert Dome, Lake Tenaya and Olmstead point were all places dear to my family since the 1960s. I love the view of Half Dome from Olmstead Pt. Also interesting, an administrator at Sacramento State Un, who’s last name is Olmstead is THAT Olmstead family. He was a manager of The Well when it first was built in 2010. A leisure legacy still continues.

    Your photos are gorgeous and I’m glad you got to visit MY backyard, LOLL!

  • Egídio

    January 21, 2025 at 18:58 Reply

    Oh, Sarah, these beautiful images brought back wonderful memories of our visit and drive in that area. We went to the exact same spots you show. Like you, I was also content in just dipping my hand in the lake to see how cold it was. Someone went swimming. When we got to the top of Olmstead Point, there was a musician playing Scottish pipes.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      January 21, 2025 at 18:53 Reply

      Thank you Susanne 🙂 It was definitely quieter here than in the Valley the next day even though it was a weekend. We’d prebooked admission so I’m aware they do control the numbers. Even in the Valley we were surprised to find some less busy spots, especially in the first couple of hours of the morning!

  • Mick

    January 21, 2025 at 17:50 Reply

    Nice shots of the glacial landscape! The Lembert Dome looks like a Roche moutonnee, where the ice sheet polished the upstream side and plucked the rock off of the downstream side. You could use your shots of the erratics in a Geomorphology textbook.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      January 21, 2025 at 18:51 Reply

      Thank you Mick 🙂 I’ve not heard of a Roche moutonnee but your description does fit the shape of that mountain. There are several domes in that region and I know glaciation was the major factor in their formation.

  • Georgina

    January 21, 2025 at 17:13 Reply

    Oh, WP playing me up and now lost the comment. Thanks for showing the extra our day trip to Yosemite could not cover in 1999! Dramatic scenery shots.

  • Georgina

    January 21, 2025 at 17:10 Reply

    Such dramatic scenery. I always wanted to go back and explore more. Luckily we did see Yosemite central on a long day trip from San Francisco by coach. I am really glad we got a glimpse and you’ve added in the extra!

    • Sarah Wilkie

      January 21, 2025 at 17:45 Reply

      Thank you Georgina 🙂 The Valley is stunning (I’ll share some of that in a future post) so I’m glad you got to see at least that. But the Tioga Pass / Tuolumne Meadows area is just as beautiful in its own way and far quieter 🙂

  • Heyjude

    January 21, 2025 at 16:45 Reply

    What a terrific landscape and it all looks so tranquil. I found stopping and doing shortish walks was so rewarding in the US. They always seem to have good viewpoints / stopping places.

    • Sarah Wilkie

      January 21, 2025 at 16:57 Reply

      Thanks Jude 🙂 Considering it was a Saturday it was relatively quiet, apart from Olmsted Point. Yes, we like to do several shorter walks in these national parks, rather than one long one, as there’s so much variety and everything is very well guided.

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