Sierra Vista National Scenic Byway

We love to find roads that are off the beaten path and the nearby area offers several. The Sierra Vista National Scenic Byway starts near Oakhurst and rises to over 7000 feet before descending into North Fork some six hours and 90 miles later. About a third of the trip was on dirt roads and even on the paved portion it was slow going. The lady at the visitor center advised we take extra food and have a full tank of gas and this advice was right on. On the entire ride we only saw about ten vehicles and there were NO stores or gas stations. What we saw was beautiful vistas of forest, meadows, lakes and mountains.

Nancy Atlas holding up the Globe Rock.
Looking up at the bare rock we climbed to get a great view of the surrounding area.

The view from the top of the Sierras, forest and Jackass Meadow in the forest.

Nanc on the descent.

Arch Rock is not very impressive after the many arches we saw in Utah.

The snow covered Sierras. This is about as close to snow as we want to get.

The streams are running very low after a long dry summer.

Mammoth Pool is also down because of the drought.

We saw a sign along the road that this was a controlled burn.

Near the end of the scenic byway we found we were at the exact center of California. With so many extremists in this state it is surprising to find it does have a center.