Grand Canyon Tour - Day 8
The final day of our Grand (Canyon) Tour started out stiffly, as you might imagine. We only needed to travel from Lone Pine, CA, to the Sacramento area to meet up with family for the final push home on Sunday. We had no idea of the complications in store for us.
It was a reasonably decent day on the east side of the Sierras. Mt Whitney had a little snow on it, the sun was shining, and a brisk breeze was blowing. As we approached the Mammoth area the wind picked up quite a bit. The snow level appeared to be a little lower than I had anticipated.
We made a quick jaunt over to Mono Lake to take pictures of the fanciful formations there. When we finished we rejoined Hwy 395 just a mile or so south of Lee Vining.
As we approached the Tioga Road (to Yosemite, still closed for the winter) I noticed a snow plow pulling out onto 395, and just at that moment a particularly strong gust of wind rocked the car and a rock, dislodged by the wind from the left shoulder of the road struck the back window right behind my head, shattering the window into a million pieces. We stopped at a gas station and taped the window in place to prevent more glass from falling out. Proceeding north, the plan was to take Hwy 89 over Monitor Pass to S. Lake Tahoe, then 50 on into Placerville. We soon discovered that 89 was still closed for the winter, so we had to go up and take 88 instead. These two incidents put us way behind schedule. Then, as we come into S. Lake Tahoe, Hwy 50 has chains required. Our 4wd vehicle qualified to proceed without chains, but the rest of the traffic was crawling at a snail's pace for the next couple of hours. Oh well...
Day 8 Pictures
The End.
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