Glacier Point Road Biking

Date: May 2, 2026

With this year’s snow season being rather sad, I was awaiting the potential for an early bike day on Glacier Point or Tioga Road. I checked the Yosemite road status webpage daily, and on April 28th the page updated to say Glacier Point road was open to bikers only, with no estimated opening date for cars yet. I brought it up with a cycling friend and we decided to commit to riding it on Saturday if it stayed closed to cars through the weekend. (The forecast showed some chance for rain on Sunday.)

By Friday night I had gathered a group of 5 of us to go ride and take advantage of this limited opportunity. We headed out around 5 AM and got to the parking lot at the turn off for Glacier Point Road just before 9:30 AM. We saw many other bikers coming up from the valley or starting at the same parking lot. The weather was partly cloudy and just the right temperature, perfect for the ride.

The ride out has two main climbs, with a descent in the middle and at the end for a round trip mileage of 32 miles and 3600 ft of climbing. The grade never really got excessively steep, and the steepest part was probably the climb back out from Glacier Point. Riding the final descent to Glacier Point and seeing Half Dome right in front of you will be a sight I won’t forget for a while. On the ride back, the descent to the parking lot was an uninterrupted 5 miles of just pure speed that felt like flying. It was incredible being able to use the entire road for biking and not having to worry about cars. So many other bikers were out there that day and it was fun seeing all the other riders. Some of those riders were flying past us uphill; I hope to be that strong one day! Combined with the stunning scenery of the Yosemite wilderness, this was an epic ride that will be hard to top.

Tioga opened for bikers only for one day on Thursday May 14th with one day's notice, and I didn’t get to ride it. For next time!

Ohlone Wilderness Trail (2026)

Date: January 17th, 2026

This spring has been relatively dry (until the storms in mid-February), and all of January had fantastic weather for being outdoors: partly cloudy/sunny with the relatively cool winter air. The hills in the bay were green from the rains at the end of December, and I was looking for some hiking to do. I didn’t really want to backpack since I didn’t want to take up an entire weekend, and realized this was a good time to try to hike the Ohlone Wilderness trail in a day. It was sort of spontaneous; I saw some posts about people doing this online and decided why not. I’ve wanted to hike this trail for awhile now and the conditions were right.

I hiked from Lake Del Valle to Mission Peak; it would be easier to get back home from the Mission Peak side and I wanted to get the larger climb up to Rose peak done first. The night before I just threw in a random assortment of bars, trail mix, and dried mangoes for fuel, and carried in 4L of water with three electrolyte packs along with a filter. In hindsight I didn’t need to carry that much water at a time; there were plenty of water sources along the way but I just wanted to be prepared.

I had my dad drop me off at the start at Lake Del Valle around 7:15 AM, right after they officially opened at 7 AM during this time of the year. A group of trail runners were starting at the same time but were just running up to Rose Peak and back, and I hiked/jogged with them for half a mile before they took off. I wanted to make sure I paced myself so that I could make it all the way to the end. I got to the top of Rose Peak around 10:40 AM and sat down to eat some snacks. To my surprise, another group of trail runners were coming up to the peak, and among the group were a couple of coworkers that I had run with before! They were doing the same trail and had started a little later than me. I decided to run with them on the downhills, and keep up for as long as I could. It’s always nice to have some company to motivate me to go faster.

We jogged the downhills and hiked up the uphills while we chatted for a bit. The scenery before  Rose Peak was nice but nothing new to me; the East Bay hills always have that familiar look to them especially after hiking around here so often. However, the rolling green hills on the Sunol side of Rose Peak were incredibly lush, and there was one part where the trail became less distinct and went through an open field that felt like I was in a video game.

The “downhill” to Sunol and Little Yosemite had more uphill in it than I expected, and we were constantly changing from running to hiking. I eventually continued on past the trail runners as they stopped to refill their water. I kept on until just before reaching the Sunol valley where I got about another liter of water for the upcoming climb to Mission Peak. I didn’t stop for long in Sunol as I was already behind my schedule of reaching Mission Peak. I planned on meeting my friends at the top and descending down with them. I booked it up as fast as I could and passed a group of kids on a backpacking trip, some of them carrying a comical amount of cooking gear. I started getting a bit of a cramp less than a mile from the peak, but drinking some more electrolytes and eating a bar staved that off.

I reached the top of Mission Peak around 3:15 feeling pretty good except for sore feet and descended down to Fremont with my friends.