Tioga Pass, Eastern Entrance

Wow that's beautiful!

Boy does this bring back memories...

I am familiar with the Tioga Pass portal, having done geologic field work in that area as a student studying the so-called "roof pendant" structures. It was in the peaks west of the Saddlebag Lake cutoff road, itself just past Ellery Lake, as I recall.

Most are unaware that the tips of the Sierra peaks in this region are actually composed of metamorphosed sedimentary layers of rock. They formed at sea bottom, then were uplifted during the Cretaceous Period by the rising molten granitic intrusions of the Sierra Nevada Batholith. That would be ~80-100 million years ago. Heat from this quite recent mountain-building event "cooked" the sedimentary layers as the intrusions rose. Then erosion began its inevitable process of tearing them down.

But it is still possible, and very counter-intuitive, to be able to look for and find fossils of once ocean-dwelling creatures at the very tops of these peaks. I may still have some in my attic rock collections. And I can still recall climbing the huge exfoliating monzodioritic granite dome behind Olmstead Point and seeing Half Dome in the distance through binoculars. It's the closest I've ever been to Yosemite Valley proper.

Very cool photograph. Did you by any chance record exactly where on the pass road it was made?

No, I don't have exact locations for it - I didn't have a GPS with me at the time. I think it was outside (on the Lee Vining side) of the ranger station/entrance gate to the park. Maybe about halfway between the Whoa Nellie Deli and the park gate? But this was taken from the shoulder of the road, without a doubt.

If I get some free time I may wander the pass road with the Google Street Man, just for grins...