Tioga Road Bicycle Partial Opening

The Tioga Road is now open to bicycles from Crane Flat to Yosemite Creek Bridge. Please watch out for debris on the road and road crew traffic. If conditions allow, they will extend the bicycle zone farther east prior to the opening.

Oh, now that sounds like fun! Too bad our weekends are getting filled up between now and July 1. Maybe I can talk the boy into taking a mid-week trip sometime in June.

I did not know that they did that. Is this something they do every year. I assume it is just bicycles. I have always wanted to ride my bicycle on tioga pass rd., however, when tourist traffic, i think it is crazy.

I have to wonder what kind of climbing there is along the part that is open to cyclists.

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itchbay
I have to wonder what kind of climbing there is along the part that is open to cyclists.

Rock climbing or bike climbing?

Ha! Bike climbing. I suppose I could do some kind of search for elevation changes along the road.

So, it looks like it's just under 40 miles from Crane Flat to the bridge, and only about 1000' of elevation. And nothing too steep. Sounds like a great out and back ride.

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itchbay
So, it looks like it's just under 40 miles from Crane Flat to the bridge,

Not really.

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itchbay
So, it looks like it's just under 40 miles from Crane Flat to the bridge, and only about 1000' of elevation. And nothing too steep. Sounds like a great out and back ride.

From TOPO!, here is the profile of the road elevation from the Yosemite Institute/Tuolumne Grove parking lot to the Yosemite Creek bridge:

I'd never even thought about biking the unopened road, that sounds like a lot of fun.

We're already talking about making it a group event next year. Get a couple of campsites at Hodgdon Meadows, do a long out-and-back, camp and drink lots of beers. Sounds like heaven.

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itchbay
We're already talking about making it a group event next year. Get a couple of campsites at Hodgdon Meadows, do a long out-and-back, camp and drink lots of beers. Sounds like heaven.

Don't count on this happening every year.

I may be mistaken but, If memory serves correctly, this is only about the 2nd or 3rd time in the last 10-15 years that they have allowed bike traffic before opening the road to motor vehicles. Have no idea what may be their criteria for doing so, but I suspect that it is related to the amount of service vehicle traffic anticipated using the road.

Well, we can still ride the road, even if it's opened to cars. We're all experienced road cyclists. It wouldn't be ideal, but I'm sure others have done it without incident.

My only concern would be the maroons with the RVs they only drive around twice every 10 years, and they have no idea how wide they are, or how to properly get over and back around a cyclist. But seeing as how I live and ride in Sonoma County, I'm used to even that.

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itchbay
the maroons with the RVs they only drive around twice every 10 years

Worse: a lot of those RVs are rentals and the driver often has never been behind the wheel of one before.