Re: Tioga Road timelapse (Crane Flat to Tioga Pass in 3.5 minutes)

If you're curious (as I was) about what the Tioga Road looks like 5 days past opening day in the season that had 195% or so of average snowfall, voila:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUxYjyEXxd0

If that's a little too zippy, you can download your own version here (right click then 'save as' or 'download linked file', 140Mb file):
http://www.ronrosano.com/2011-06-23_Tioga_Road-480x270.mov
and if you open it with Quicktime and choose "Window - Show A/V Controls", you can play it at half speed, pause, and move frame forward and back in single steps (right & left arrow keys) to check out certain spots.

This was shot Thursday June 23, and is about an hour of driving squeezed down to 3 minutes 32 seconds. Works out to about 815 MPH. Includes detours through Olmstead Point and the parking lot near the Tenaya Lake outlet.

While there were many spots with water running across the road, there wasn't nearly as much snow as I expected, and the road was very safe to drive. I was expecting 5-10' snow banks in Tuolumne Meadows.

Neato!

suggestion, cut out the audio, it's just irritating!

What did you use to shoot this with? What software did you use to produce the video file?

Thought folks could just mute the audio if they didn't like it; thanks for the feedback.

Shot with consumer-grade Sony video cam, used iMovie to import & convert to Quicktime MOV files, drag files to Final Cut Express and adjust speed to 2000% of real time, then resize in Quicktime.

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vdrummer
Thought folks could just mute the audio if they didn't like it;

Indeed. Leave it on.

Thanks for sharing this. I had a great time watching this. It was hillarious! I actually like the soundtrack. It makes it fun. Best ride in the park! When can I go on?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/28/2011 11:45PM by rightstar76.

All you have to do is turn off the sound. You can do this both on YouTube and on the Quicktime File. There's one other option as well. Just turn off the speakers. I love that sound!

That was great. I don't know if technically it can be called a time lapse. If I understand it correctly, time lapse is a series of still photos put together to form a moving image. This is basically a very cool video that is fast forwarded.

Killer! Thanks!

I drove yesterday from the Ranger Station on Tioga to Crane Flat and then turned around. In 30 years of being in Yosemite in late June, I have never seen snow like this. In fact, never anything close to this! The tent store is still not open, Touloume campground looks totslly flooded and I checked the stream crossing at Tenaya at Sunrise... I would not attempt it. There were no cars at the Mono Pass trailhead and only three cars at the Cathedral Lakes trailhead, unheard of in "normal Junes" of the past. I've never seen such flooding in meadows and groves adjacent to the road in the High Country.

Mammoth is even worse. It's raining right now with almost unbelievably unseasonbly cool temps in the 50's, which will impede melt off. However, next week looks to be hot. I don't think hiking in the High Country will happen for another 2 weeks unless you're postholing it.

For anyone on the 395 side of Yosemite who wants hiking, try Rush Creek in June Lake. I was able to make it about 6 miles towards Alger Lakes before turning around at a dangerous stream crossing.

Ok. Pretty cool.

(good thing I don't get car sick though)

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Wow, terrific!

But when I did the "camcorder-on-dashboard" thing two years ago along Tioga Road, I had to stop and "windex" lots of smashed bugs off my windshield often ....duh ... maybe early, early morning is better suited to avoid that, I wonder ....

Thanks, that was great to watch. I've never been on that road, but plan to this year. Now I have some idea of what to expect (not nearly as bad as I would have thought).

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Hitech
(not nearly as bad as I would have thought).

I'm just curious about what you were expecting? Were you expecting "bad" as in scary to drive, too much traffic or something else? Before they realigned the road in the early 60's, some people driving it called it the scariest road they'd ever been on (although, based on photos I've seen, and the old parts of the old road I've hiked (admittedly, not much of it yet), it wasn't THAT bad). I've only ever been on it early in the season...usually within a week or so (sometimes a day or so) of it's opening so I've not seen much in the line of traffic but I'm sure it gets much worse in the summer.

I was expecting a twisting mountain road with no shoulder and a cliff on one side. Also with steep inclines. Something like Hwy 1 but in the mountains with steep inclines.

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Hitech
I was expecting a twisting mountain road with no shoulder and a cliff on one side. Also with steep inclines. Something like Hwy 1 but in the mountains with steep inclines.

There are definitely some steep sections and big cliffs between Tioga Pass & Lee Vining! That area is more spectacular in some ways. Worth venturing at least the two miles past the Pass to get a meal (and PIE!) at Tioga Pass Resort.

CA-108 over Sonora Pass will give you that.

Edit: replying to Hitech...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2011 12:00PM by ttilley.

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Hitech
I was expecting a twisting mountain road with no shoulder and a cliff on one side. Also with steep inclines. Something like Hwy 1 but in the mountains with steep inclines.

Once all the roads got realigned in the mid-20th century, most of those sorts of things went away. I'm so used to it now that I don't think much about it but, within the park, there are still a few spots on the Wawona Road that used to scare me (there are a few fairly sharp turns with very steep drop-offs and no guard rail). Also a couple of spots on the road to Hetch Hetchy where the squeamish won't want to be in the outside lane. Most of the scary roads are outside of the park.

Now, if you're talking about scary amounts of traffic, that's a WHOLE different story!

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Hitech
I was expecting a twisting mountain road with no shoulder and a cliff on one side. Also with steep inclines. Something like Hwy 1 but in the mountains with steep inclines.

Keep going west towards Lee Vining and you'll see why people called it the scariest road. Awhile ago there was no guardrail!

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mtn man
Keep going west towards Lee Vining and you'll see why people called it the scariest road. Awhile ago there was no guardrail!

There still isn't one on much of it. Too many rocks need to be pushed over the edge.

Yup. That's why there's no guardrails on Hwy 89 over Monitor Pass too (another possible white-knuckles drive from some people). And of course, there's that famous hairpin turn on Glacier Point Road near the very end of the road.

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eeek

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mtn man
Keep going west towards Lee Vining and you'll see why people called it the scariest road. Awhile ago there was no guardrail!

There still isn't one on much of it. Too many rocks need to be pushed over the edge.

For the last two years I've been there, each day driving up from Lee Vining there would be new rocks in the road that fell during the night. That portion of Tioga Road is one huge scree field with nothing to hold it back. Still don't like driving downhill there on the outside lane. Gives me the willies.

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tomdisco

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eeek

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mtn man
Keep going west towards Lee Vining and you'll see why people called it the scariest road. Awhile ago there was no guardrail!

There still isn't one on much of it. Too many rocks need to be pushed over the edge.

For the last two years I've been there, each day driving up from Lee Vining there would be new rocks in the road that fell during the night. That portion of Tioga Road is one huge scree field with nothing to hold it back. Still don't like driving downhill there on the outside lane. Gives me the willies.

This little thing?
http://maps.google.com/?ll=37.950018,-119.215565&spn=0.016447,0.02708&t=h&z=15

now we know who the bear killer is.....

(just kiddin, thanks for the heart palpatations)

Sound at 2:26 totally makes the audio worth it.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/29/2011 02:36PM by bbb.

Yes, I like having the audio; car engine sound reminds me of a dentist's drill. Someone had the right idea (1:51) - out there with their Tioga RV!

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vdrummer
Yes, I like having the audio; car engine sound reminds me of a dentist's drill. Someone had the right idea (1:51) - out there with their Tioga RV!

Sounds like a stick shift..Yes? No?

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mtn man

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vdrummer
Yes, I like having the audio; car engine sound reminds me of a dentist's drill. Someone had the right idea (1:51) - out there with their Tioga RV!

Sounds like a stick shift..Yes? No?

Automatic.