Driving Yosemite - cliffs, switchbacks, etc?
 

We discovered during recent wonderful trip to Yellowstone that these sort of un-guard-railed heights scare our son and me to death - and my husband thinks driving close to the edge gives one a better view. The truth likely lies somewhere inbetween. Would we be terrified at Yosemite?

Although I loved Yosemite there were many places without guard rails especailly driving west out to San Francisco. The road was also the most twisty and winding road ever.

If I were you I would stay either in the southwest where the land is flat or go north to South Dakota. Have you ever been to Mt Rushmore or the Badlands? Both plaxes are pretty flat.

I've found if you drive in by way of Mariposa, that road is much better than the road towards San Francisco.

I don't like those kinds of roads either. The road over Tuolomne Meadows and Tioga Pass to Lee Vining is fine for me going east, but the last time we did it the other way around...from Lee Vining...it was scary.

That is the only road that I find daunting. Coming into the park from Mariposa is a peace of cake, at least for me.

Oh gail, I can really sympathize. My father, my uncle and my husband all drove the same way. About Yosemite, I have lived through it but from the time I was a little girl I was petrified, and still get that way. Of course nothing bad ever happened. Good luck to you!

To be specific--the road "to San Francisco" sunset520 and KathrynT are talking about is Route 120.

While the worst section for those afraid of heights is the part just west of its intersection wuth Route 140 where it climbs to a high altitude from the valley floor (great views though), the twistiest section is the Priest Grade outside the Park, just west of the town of Groveland. If you get carsick anywhere, you'll get carsick on the Priest Grade. Years ago, when Queen Elizabeth visited Yosemite, three of her bodyguards were killed taking a curve too fast on the Priest Grade.

The good news is that straighter, faster, lower altitude Route 140 (the road to Mariposa) adds only a very few minutes to the trip to S.F., and offers lovely river and canyon views in addition.

Route 120 running east out of the park is not very intimidating up through Tuolumne Meadows, but in the area of Tioga Pass at the east entrance of the park, on the way to Lee Vining and Mono Lake, the stretch described by jtrandolph above, is about as designed to terrify those afraid of heights as any heavily-traveled road I've seen.

Showing my age, I confess that when I first experienced it, at age twelve--not, fortunately, as the driver--it wasn't paved yet. jtrandolph must be pretty fearless to react to it so mildly.

Unfortunately, you can't avoid it if you want to go in or out of the park to the east by car--but only a very small percentage of park visitors do that, in the few months of the year it isn't closed by snow. But it is very scenic.

route 140 is the non-barf ride.

Thank you JBC411, my mind was blanking on the numbers of those highways but I wanted to give Gail some hope of a decent route. I'm glad to see I'm not the only petrified of those high roads with no railings.

These kinds of roads don't bother me at all so I usually don't notice how bad things are.

I saw someone mention that Hwy 140 is a non barf ride, but there are curves and there are drop offs, just not as bad as Hwy 120 and for goodness sakes, don't drive Hwy 41 down to Wawona...now there is a curvey road that hugs a cliff!

Utahtea

Thanks for detailed responses - I guess Yosemite is not out of the question if we plan accordingly. Driving thru northern part of Yellowstone my son kept yelling out his father for driving "55 - the universal speed - good for winding cliff roads, good for flat plains" We don't barf, just get terrified. (He has been driving this way for 35 years and has never had an at-fault accident, but it still makes an unpleasant ride for the rest of us)

I am having a hard time seeing the scary parts of the Yosemite Highways, sure, it's steep in parts with steep dropoffs and, hey, maybe there's no guardrail in places but the road is plenty wide for an average passenger car.

That's strange, utahtea. I know how very knowledgeable you are about the parks of Utah and the southwest, my number 1 up to now undervisited priority for myself in the U.S. by the way, and I am planning to make heavy use of your archived posts in the future. But are you sure you are remembering Highway 41 in Yosemite correctly? I have been along it many times over the years, and in contrast to the several scary stretches on Highway 120, I don't remember any on 41.

Hi Gail! I can really relate to your post! While we don't barf either, we do often catch our breath. Well, i should say DD and i do, the twistier and curvier the better for my guys, they love the rush.

Having said that, i think you'll be fine in yosemite. Last month driving Tioga Pass from Lee Vining, the pavement was often wet from the major snow pack last winter. It was still fine, and just stunning. Not that it wasn't literally breathtaking, but really not too bad.

For us, the drive TO lee vining actually had more barf potential with the dip after dip after dip, and my hubby who thought it was a roller coaster.... :&

Also, i agree that the road to mariposa is very pleasant, with more foothills than mountains, also vineyards etc. Very nice and easy. Route 41 did have some twisty parts but again, everything is relative to what you can or can't tolerate. I think it's worth going to find out, though! :)

We drove into Yosemite by 120 and I was petrified! My husband kept saying, "How beautiful, take a picture!" and I kept looking at the drop off with no guard rail right beside the tires on my side, saying, "I can't move, I can't move!"

We drove out on 140 and it was much, much better!

I have to admit getting a little bit woozy on Priest Grade myself and I am not one to get car sick.

One time on Hwy 120, we came around a turn to see a large trailer coming the other direction. Scenes from the Long Long Trailer played in my head. It wasn't that bad, but it was reminiscent - LOL.

I'd definitely recommend Hwy 140 to anyone worried about heights and sheer drop offs.

On 140, going in, you are on the inside (i.e. next to the mountain), so it's a non-issue. Except there's a couple of pretty long (non-scary) hair pin turns, just keep the pedal at 30 mph so the people in the back aren't shifting into each other's laps to ease up on any barf potential. Pull into the turn-outs when you see two cars behind you, so they won't be on your tail for the duration if you're going at that speed.

On the way back, there's only a couple of big drops to the side, most of which are guard rail protected, but there's plenty of space between the roadway (some of which is brand new paving!) and the side of the drop. Remember, there's a lot of busses and big rvs that take this route and they are NOT skinny cars.

I'm wondering though -- I haven't used the route that comes in from the West in several years, but my recollection is that the drop off is on the side coming in, not going out. If that's the case, perhaps you can use that route going out, then you'll be on the "mountain" side each time.