#Troga pass resort near yosemite skin

The cross-country skiing here is nothing short of spectacular. The lodge provides flannel sheets and pillowcases, but you must bring your own sleeping bags. Tioga offers electrically heated one- and two-bedroom primitive log cabins ($95 per person per night, which includes hearty home-cooked breakfasts and dinners), or a berth in the dorm that sleeps up to 14 ($75 person per night).

#Troga pass resort near yosemite skin

(An old mountain lion skin is stretched above the doorway to the dining room, with a sign beneath reading: “This is a Tioga Pass chipmunk.”) The 75-year-old log cabin lodge, located at 9,600 feet, is a cozy spot with wood-burning stoves, plump couches and plenty of nooks to settle down in and read after a day skiing exquisite corn snow. “We find people are disappointed when they don’t have to ski in-it’s part of the adventure.” “Most people who come here are experienced and fit,” Claudette said. But after the heavy snow in mid-January, guests had to ski from the gate on California 120 to the lodge. During most winter months, you face about a 2 1/2-mile jaunt. In April, you stand a very good chance of a ride. The staff can tell you how much of a ski you will have. Visitors are either ferried to the lodge by the proprietor, Bob Agard, in a hefty four-wheel-drive vehicle, if the road is clear of snow, or must ski there for all or some of the climb, passing breathtaking views of the park and occasional bighorn sheep.Īgard and his wife, Claudette, who run the lodge together, advise calling ahead to check the conditions. The 6 1/3-mile stretch of road to the lodge, which climbs 2,600 feet, is closed during the winter months, leaving the rustic facility inaccessible to normal cars. After breakfast the next day, we drove along California 120, the road to Yosemite, until we reached the snow gate across the road that’s locked in the winter. We stayed at the Best Western Lake View Lodge, where we promptly got into a Jacuzzi and collapsed. To make the most of our weekend, we drove the six hours from Los Angeles to the tiny town Lee Vining on a recent Friday evening after work. Two years ago, a blizzard marooned guests for one week. In mid-January this year, the lodge was almost hidden in 13 feet of snow.

But in the winter, the lodge is cut off, buried in snow. In the summer, thousands see the resort as they drive through Tuolumne Meadows and exit the eastern side of Yosemite. That still leaves room for people like me, a cross-country skier with basic skills who is ready to adventure beyond groomed trails but has no interest in training for the Iditarod. Many guests here are advanced cross-country skiers or hearty souls splurging before they pitch tents in the snow. Tioga Pass Resort-on the crest of the Sierra Nevada, two miles east of Yosemite National Park-is not for the truly timid. Suddenly, I remember that I grew up in Manhattan, where you could always hail a cab. But when the bowls get too steep, my knees turn to Jell-O, my voice quavers, and my telemark turns become big snow plows. Sure, I enjoy cross-country skiing a couple times a year. I’ve not darkened the doorway of a gym for months.