Day 23: A Pass to Murphys, CA (almost home)7

Sunday, Nov 6

Yet another contrast: ‘Vegas, NV to Murphys, CA. Big city to Big Trees. But it took a full day and a dicey finish over Ebbetts Pass to get there.

Shunning the boring southern I-15 route that connects to boring I-5, we took rural roads up the back side of the Sierra’s. This went through dramatic high desert between craggy mountains. Eventually, we knew, we would have to get across those craggy mountains.

Surprisingly, in the middle of nowhere (Beatty, NV), we stumbled across a whole row of new Tesla charging stations out behind a Chevron MniMart.

Patrick practices for when he gets a Model 3

Yosemite’s famous Tioga Pass was already closed for the season due to early October snow. But signs said Hwy 89 was “open” and that does connect to Hwy 4 for a direct shot down into Murphys. Curiously there was no mention of Ebbetts Pass on Hwy 4…

Just past Mono Lake, we started up Hwy 89 into the (ominous) snow covered Sierra’s in the late afternoon…

View of the east side of the Sierras from Hwy395

And Hwy 89 was just fine. However, when we got to the intersection with Hwy 4, there was a small “road closed ahead” sign. But the “road closed” gate was open. A mixed message at best.

We always wanted to see what was up at the end of Hwy 4. And not wanting to go all the way back around through Tahoe, we went for it. The road gets down to one lane as it winds through the pass area, but that lane was thankfully free of snow. We cleared the pass just as the sun (and gas gage) were starting to get low. Whew.

Headlights starting to show as we pass the summit with snow on the sides

After a quick stop for provisions (and gas!), we made it safe and sound to the mountain house. Almost home.