Drive of the Week: Hope Valley to Bishop
Earlier this week, color spotter Peter Robbins took the drive from the west side of the Sierra up route 50 toward the Lake Tahoe Basin, crossing over to Hope Valley, then down US 395, spotting color all along the way. Robbins stated that none of the areas he drove through will disappoint, which is why it’s this week’s “Drive of the Week.”
Following details reported by Robbins:
First stop to fuel the voyage was my favorite coffee shop in South Lake Tahoe, Cuppa Joe, and their parking lot/seating area showed the promise of what was to come.
There is a nice stand of aspens across from the golf course between Lake Tahoe and Meyers.
Luther Pass was just turning – no pic, but should be nice over the next week or so.
On to Hope Valley where the famous Red Creek Cabin looked lovely, and if you look carefully there is plenty of green aspen to keep this viable – my guess is at least through the weekend or perhaps longer.
No pix, but Monitor Pass over to 395 had lots of color, and even the road from Sorensons to Woodfords and Markleeville were quite nice.
The highlight was the Dunderberg portion of the trip, where unbelievably some of the leaves were almost red!
I was back the next day exploring that area and the Green Creek area, both of which were full of lovely aspen groves, and the highlight of this particular excursion. I took the following pic so that people might see what the road is like. There ARE some larger rocks and a few ruts, and most of the vehicles I encountered were SUVs or pickups, and I initially thought, “too bad this is all essentially inaccessible to folks with regular passenger cars” (I have a RAV4). Then I saw what looked like an oncoming car, it was a Tesla! He had made it through some of the worst based on where I saw him. I also saw a Prius! Both were cars I thought least likely to encounter. So…. people with good enough tires/tread to survive the rocks without getting a flat should be able to go to these places. I would not do this near dusk though, people should give themselves plenty of time to get out if they have trouble.
I did go on to explore Bishop Creek and Rock Creek canyons – lots of nice color but no award-winning photo’s here this trip. The colors were lovely at North Lake though.
I did not go up McGee or Sherwin or other creek beds, but the following pic shows what they all look like from the stretch of 395 between Mammoth and Bishop.
I didn’t do any exploring of Mammoth, but did go check out June Lake Loop which looks very promising for the coming weekend to a week or so.
So there you have my quick report…. all in all it looks like anywhere somebody wants to go between Hope Valley and Bishop, they will find lots of gorgeous color, an awful lot of which requires no more than getting out of your car on a paved road, with of course some of the best still a little off the beaten path. I think if people have to pick a time, this coming weekend deserves a GO NOW for all of it. In my humble opinion, forgive the intentional pun, but all this totally eclipses the visual spectacle of Saturday’s annular solar eclipse (or partial if you stay in California).
We appreciate the thorough report and can’t wait to get out there this weekend! We are even considering taking a road trip by camper van like those found at roadsurfer.com. Have you ever experienced fall colors from a camper van?
Gorgeous Pictures and what a great drive!