If you had a week off work...?
Discussion
Some resorts already open, many have a good covering. Varying week to week, but some lifts were open in October for the weekends.
Otherwise a blast down to Nice, along the coast to Spanish border and back would be fun. Not that warm this time of year, but the roads would be as quiet as they get.
Otherwise a blast down to Nice, along the coast to Spanish border and back would be fun. Not that warm this time of year, but the roads would be as quiet as they get.
Day 1. Fly to San Fran & stay the night.
Day 2.Rent a V8 Muscle car, drive up through Wine country on the silverado trail to stopping for a wine tour en-route to Calistoga and stay the night.
Day 3. Back down the Silverado turn left at the bottom and head to Yosemite, The mountains will look amazing in the snow. When you get to the park Dinner and stay the night at Ahwahnee.
Day 4. Through the Park and back to the 120 then over the mountains towards Lee Vinivg. If you can book it and the weather is good, do a Hot air balloon trip from and over Mammoth. Then onto Death Valley and stay the night at the Amargosa
Day 5. Back in the car and Viva Las Vegas!
Day 6. Fly home
You could use the extra day to either spend more time in Yosemite, or drive to the Grand Canyon from Vegas. If you miss the Hot air Balloon opportunity skip staying in death valley and get to Vegas a day early and do the Canyon.
No Charge for the trip planning!
Day 2.Rent a V8 Muscle car, drive up through Wine country on the silverado trail to stopping for a wine tour en-route to Calistoga and stay the night.
Day 3. Back down the Silverado turn left at the bottom and head to Yosemite, The mountains will look amazing in the snow. When you get to the park Dinner and stay the night at Ahwahnee.
Day 4. Through the Park and back to the 120 then over the mountains towards Lee Vinivg. If you can book it and the weather is good, do a Hot air balloon trip from and over Mammoth. Then onto Death Valley and stay the night at the Amargosa
Day 5. Back in the car and Viva Las Vegas!
Day 6. Fly home
You could use the extra day to either spend more time in Yosemite, or drive to the Grand Canyon from Vegas. If you miss the Hot air Balloon opportunity skip staying in death valley and get to Vegas a day early and do the Canyon.
No Charge for the trip planning!
big_boz said:
Day 1. Fly to San Fran & stay the night.
Day 2.Rent a V8 Muscle car, drive up through Wine country on the silverado trail to stopping for a wine tour en-route to Calistoga and stay the night.
Day 3. Back down the Silverado turn left at the bottom and head to Yosemite, The mountains will look amazing in the snow. When you get to the park Dinner and stay the night at Ahwahnee.
Day 4. Through the Park and back to the 120 then over the mountains towards Lee Vinivg. If you can book it and the weather is good, do a Hot air balloon trip from and over Mammoth. Then onto Death Valley and stay the night at the Amargosa
Day 5. Back in the car and Viva Las Vegas!
Day 6. Fly home
You could use the extra day to either spend more time in Yosemite, or drive to the Grand Canyon from Vegas. If you miss the Hot air Balloon opportunity skip staying in death valley and get to Vegas a day early and do the Canyon.
No Charge for the trip planning!
Great plan HOWEVER the 120 Tioga Road from Yosemite to Lee Vining is now closed for the season due to snow Day 2.Rent a V8 Muscle car, drive up through Wine country on the silverado trail to stopping for a wine tour en-route to Calistoga and stay the night.
Day 3. Back down the Silverado turn left at the bottom and head to Yosemite, The mountains will look amazing in the snow. When you get to the park Dinner and stay the night at Ahwahnee.
Day 4. Through the Park and back to the 120 then over the mountains towards Lee Vinivg. If you can book it and the weather is good, do a Hot air balloon trip from and over Mammoth. Then onto Death Valley and stay the night at the Amargosa
Day 5. Back in the car and Viva Las Vegas!
Day 6. Fly home
You could use the extra day to either spend more time in Yosemite, or drive to the Grand Canyon from Vegas. If you miss the Hot air Balloon opportunity skip staying in death valley and get to Vegas a day early and do the Canyon.
No Charge for the trip planning!
They begin ploughing again around April/May.Prancing Hippo said:
If you had a week off work in mid-December, what PH-er type thing would you do?
I'm in exactly this situation. I'm making new hard brake pipes for my MX5 then fitting them, new flexible hoses, new discs, new pads and rebuilding a caliper. Plus put the winter tyres back on it. Once that's done I'm going to remove the boot panel from my Elise and replace the wiring loom to the coil.If I didn't have to fix the cars I'd probably just drive/ride to nervy's and do something ill-advised and dangerous with his big wheel and a hill.
I did do a bike track day in Februrary once, and felt very glad to be alive for several months afterwards. I've also done some car track days over winter and found them to be more fun than days in the summer because there is less grip. So maybe a trip to the 'ring (I've been there when it was a bit icy and extreme caution was needed, but it was still hilarious).
blueheron said:
Great plan HOWEVER the 120 Tioga Road from Yosemite to Lee Vining is now closed for the season due to snow They begin ploughing again around April/May.
That's a shame, Throws my plan out the window, without a MASSIVE back track it doesn't look like there is much of an option to get to the other side either. They begin ploughing again around April/May.
big_boz said:
That's a shame, Throws my plan out the window, without a MASSIVE back track it doesn't look like there is much of an option to get to the other side either.
Fly in to Pheonix, drive rental Mustang/Camero/Corvette to AMARG for a tour of the boneyard, then north to Flagstaff via Sedona (amazing twisty roads), grab a bit of Route 66, Grand Canyon (hilarious off-roading on the way to the Skywalk), Hover dam, then Vegas, get bored of Vegas and have a day in Death Valley instead (some amazing roads in there - one of the most memorable drives of my life was in DV in the rain), then back to Vegas to fly home.big_boz said:
That's a shame, Throws my plan out the window, without a MASSIVE back track it doesn't look like there is much of an option to get to the other side either.
When are you going? If you're able to move your trip i'd strongly suggest doing so. We drove the road in May this year (3 days after it opened for the summer!) and the scenery was stunning.Bookmark this page: http://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/tioga.htm
When we booked the trip, we didn't know about the road closing over winter. In the week leading up to our Yosemite visit, I was F5-ing that page for ploughing updates, hoping we wouldn't need to do Plan B. Thankfully they'd only had 40-odd% of their typical snowfall that year, so the road was opened very early, just in time for our drive
Word of advice - Glacier Point road also closes due to snowfall. Also a shame to miss as the view from the top is incredible.
June would be the best time to visit Yosemite for your first time. Roads should be open by then, waterfalls full flow, and not so crowded as July!
Captain Muppet said:
Fly in to Pheonix, drive rental Mustang/Camero/Corvette to AMARG for a tour of the boneyard, then north to Flagstaff via Sedona (amazing twisty roads), grab a bit of Route 66, Grand Canyon (hilarious off-roading on the way to the Skywalk), Hover dam, then Vegas, get bored of Vegas and have a day in Death Valley instead (some amazing roads in there - one of the most memorable drives of my life was in DV in the rain), then back to Vegas to fly home.
We drove through Death Valley and I wasn't that impressed really. We didn't have time for tourist detours though so maybe that's why.Stopped at a small settlement on the way through (where you buy your National Park permit) and it was about 40C.. so hot.
Captain Muppet said:
one of the most memorable drives of my life was in DV in the rain.
Same here, I couldn't believe it was raining in the desert having recently seen 121F on the dash!Also the ability to drive for hours on end and the scenery hardly changing is very eeary, makes you realise that the UK has nothing of scale.
Drive around Europe visting all the PH type things about.
Le mans and associated bits in area, Monaco, Paul Ricard circuit, the Village where they have a Goodwood type weekend racing through the streets (name please?), visit the best roads the south of France has to offer and go towards Italy...
Le mans and associated bits in area, Monaco, Paul Ricard circuit, the Village where they have a Goodwood type weekend racing through the streets (name please?), visit the best roads the south of France has to offer and go towards Italy...
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