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2 0 1 5 T R A V E L G U I D E T O C A L I F O R N I A 155 DRIVE TOUR » Highway 120 is a magical mystery tour through the heart of Yosemite National Park's exquisite high country. From the handsome old mining town of GROVELAND , follow 120 east into the park ( HETCH HETCHY , the fraternal twin of Yosemite Valley that was dammed to provide San Francisco's water supply, is a short side trip) past the TUOLUMNE GROVE of giant sequoias and up into the rarified alpine world. Pull over at OLMSTEAD POINT to view HALF DOME from an angle you've never seen before. You'll traverse TUOLUMNE MEADOWS , the jumping-off point for some of Yosemite's finest hiking trails, and cross 9,943-foot TIOGA PASS before descending three-quarters of a vertical mile to shimmering MONO LAKE . MUST DO SEE, » » California's Everest You don't have to be Sir Edmund Hillary to plant your flag on the 14,495-foot summit of Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the Lower 48. The pathway to the top begins west of the town of Lone Pine and gains an ear-popping 6,100 feet in 11 miles. › mount-whitney.com » Biggest Tree Tree-huggers, don't bother trying to wrap your arms around the General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park. With a cir- cumference of 102 feet, the giant sequoia is the largest known tree on the planet. While not quite as tall as its coastal cousins, its staggering girth more than makes up for it. › nps.gov/seki/naturescience/sherman.htm » Happy Campers Perched on the southern shore of Lake Tahoe, Camp Richardson is an old- style resort with knotty-pine cabins, a hotel and marina, where people have been coming for 90 years for beach-going, boating, biking and ice- cream eating. › camprichardson.com » The Wild, Wild West Bodie, possibly the Old West's most notorious mining town, now exists in a state of "arrested decay" on a high, windswept plain northeast of Yosemite. It's one of America's most extensive ghost towns. › parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509 » On the Lake Take a tour across Lake Tahoe into mesmerizing Emerald Bay aboard an authentic Mississippi River paddlewheeler. They depart several times a day from Zephyr Cove and South Lake Tahoe. › zephyrcove.com/cruises.aspx THERE'S ROOM FOR EVERYONE on a rural road leading across the Owens Valley, leV; Yosemite Valley, opposite.