AUTO TOUR 



95 



Carl Inn before its removal in 1940 



CRANE FLAT TO TIOGA PASS 



(Total driving distance 48 miles) 



J THE TIOGA ROAD. This 



A road climbs about 48 miles up the 

 western slope of the Sierra, becom- 

 ing the highest highway in California 

 at Tioga Pass, elevation almost 10,000 

 feet. For the first 3.4 miles it follows 

 generally the old Big Oak Flat Road 

 which it crosses at right angles at Gin 

 Flat. Twenty-one miles of the Tioga 

 Road, located approximately in the mid- 

 dle, is the old steep, winding, narrow 

 road built in 18 83 by the Great Sierra 

 Consolidated Silver Company. Although 

 improved today this road still retains 

 much of it's old character and charm. 

 Slow and careful driving along this sec- 

 tion is safe. The improved road on either 

 side of the 21 -mile stretch was completed 

 in 193 8. Negotiations are under way 

 for a new section to replace the old 

 road but portions of the old road will be 

 preserved as an historical exhibit. Along 

 this road you will pass successively 

 through forests of sugar and Jeffery 

 pine, red fir and lodge-pole pine, with 

 the limber-branched western whitebark 

 pine at Tioga Pass. In winter the Tioga 



Road is closed by snow. 



(Additional information under T-7, 

 page 97.) 



J CRANE FLAT. During the days 



of the original Big Oak Flat Road, 



a Mr. Gobin operated a hotel and 

 Mr. Hurst a saloon here at Crane Flat. 

 Very little was known about these op- 

 erations but diaries of early day travel- 

 ers mention them. The hotel was built 

 on the approximate location of the 

 present Blister Rust Control Camp. 



J GIN FLAT. Scattered all through 

 *% the high Sierra are meadows known 

 as flats, since most of the sur- 

 rounding country was very hilly and 

 steep. Cattle and sheepmen used these as 

 pastures before the park was established. 

 Apparently there was considerable activ- 

 ity at Gin Flat in the summertime while 

 John B. Curtin, once state senator and 

 cattleman, headquartered there. A por- 

 tion of the ruins of a cabin back from 



