Wednesday, September 19, 2007

High Sierra Tour

Life Above 5000 Feet

My wife and I just finished with a 3 day tour of the Sierra Nevada Mountains put on by Pashnit Tours. Starting from the southern part of the range at Yosemite National Park, we rode into the valley with the granite mountains surrounding us on all sides, El Capitan, and Half Dome greeting us with such incredible beauty I just wanted to stop and drool... It's no wonder that people come away from this valley so inspired, it really is just awesome. We had lunch at the Awanhee Hotel which was built in the valley sometime in the 1920's I believe and it has been in operation ever since.

We got back on the road with our group of 11 riders, mostly on one sort of sport bike or another from Suzuki, Honda and even a Ducati. My wife and I were on the only Harleys on the trip this time. The mountain highways and passes we eventually would ride during this trip were:

Hwy 120 - Tioga Pass
Hwy 108 - Sonora Pass
Hwy 4 - Ebbetts Pass
Hwy 89 - Monitor Pass
Hwy 88 - Carson Pass

We would visit Mono Lake and also an old ghost town in the middle of Mono County called Bodie. It's now a National Park but it was once a thriving gold mining town of about 10,000 people at its peak in the 1800's.

Heres a few pics to start with:


Half Dome from Tioga Pass


Harleys in Black and White


Lined up on Monitor Pass

Hotel on Mono Lake


Sunrise at Mono


Kirkwood Lookout; Carson Pass


Chopper vs. Chopper
Icehouse Road Forest Lookout

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