Itinerary: Salt Lake City, UT to Yosemite (via St. George, UT & Las Vegas, NV)
Purple Route (865 miles): Salt Lake City, UT to Yosemite (via St. George, UT & Las Vegas, NV)
Start your Yosemite road trip in Salt Lake City, a fantastic outdoors destination before heading south through Utah on Interstate 15 (I-15). Access Bryce Canyon and Zion National Parks from either Cedar City or St. George before continuing south to Las Vegas. Then head northwest through Death Valley National Park, Lone Pine, Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, and Lee Vining, CA. From Mono Lake, drive west to Yosemite’s East Entrance at Tioga Pass. (Note that Tioga Road and the park’s East Entrance are only open seasonally, usually from June through October.)
Explore Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City is Utah’s biggest metropolitan area, surrounded by the Wasatch Mountains, a four-seasons outdoor playground. North of the city lies the Great Salt Lake, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the largest saline lake of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. Biggest of all the lake’s islands, you won’t want to miss Antelope Island State Park. Reached via a causeway or by boat, the island is home to all kinds of wildlife, from antelope, deer, bobcats, and coyotes to a herd of American bison first brought here in 1893.
Visit Southern Utah’s Parks
Heading south on I-15, you’ll pass by Ogden’s four-seasons mountain resorts and the university town of Provo. Known for its summertime Shakespeare festival, Cedar City is a jumping-off point for detouring east to Bryce Canyon National Park, with its fantastical hoodoo formations, and also to Zion National Park, where you can hike The Narrows of the Virgin River or hike along the dizzying cables to Angels Landing.
Just outside Zion’s west entrance on Hwy. 9, the arty town of Springdale makes a good base camp for exploring the park. Farther west on I-15, the city of St. George is another place to break your journey. Bring the kids to the city’s Johnson Farm to gape at fossilized dinosaur footprints. Alternatively, take a highly recommended detour to the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park via the small town of Kanab, which has an Old West frontier atmosphere dating back to the days when Hollywood film stars shot on location there.
Las Vegas & Death Valley
Further south on I-15 across the Nevada state line, Las Vegas is best known for its casinos and the world-famous Strip. But it’s also a great base camp for desert adventures. Go rock climbing or horseback riding in Red Rock Canyon, then hike to sculpted sandstone formations in the Valley of Fire.
If you’re curious to experience the hottest temperatures in the USA or stand on the lowest-elevation point in North America, then Death Valley National Park is for you. Just a few hours’ drive northwest of Las Vegas, there eroded badlands, fields of spring wildflowers, Old West mines, hidden canyons, and even a waterfall await.
Eastern Sierra Nevada
From Death Valley, it’s an unforgettably dramatic drive as you climb out of the Panamint Range on the park’s west side following CA Highway 190 around Owens Lake. Join US Highway 395, the Eastern Sierra Nevada’s scenic byway, northbound past Mt. Whitney (elevation 14,505 feet), the tallest peak in America outside Alaska.
Towns along Highway 395 in the eastern Sierra Nevada include Old West flavored Lone Pine, near the Alabama Hills (where countless Western movies were filmed) and stands of ancient bristlecone pines, the oldest trees on earth. Bishop and Mammoth Lakes are four-seasons outdoor playgrounds, while Lee Vining stands on the shores of Mono Lake, with its otherworldly looking tufa formations and ancient volcanoes.
From Mono Lake, CA Highway 120 (Tioga Road) leads west to Yosemite’s East Entrance. Tioga Road and the East Entrance are usually only open from June until October, depending on snowfall. Just west of Tioga Pass, which sits atop the Sierra Nevada crest, lies the enchanting Tuolumne Meadows area of Yosemite’s high country. Then you’ll wind down past White Wolf and Crane Flat, turning south and then east to enter the park’s famous Yosemite Valley.
