Chasing gold,
not the clock.

Best fit for this loop, not a claim of “the most beautiful everywhere.” The reread posts strongly praise North Lake, South Lake and Lake Sabrina near Bishop. North/South Lake are not included; Lake Sabrina is now an optional early-start extension via the toggle. The whole southern trio is still excluded. More time at home does not create more mountain daylight.

For this weekend, prioritize Sonora Pass, Bridgeport Twin Lakes, Convict, Silver/Rush Creek and Lundy Lake. The October 7 county report supports their current color. Mayayay’s pinned comment explicitly lists Convict, June Loop, Lundy Lake and Twin Lakes for this weekend, but it is a report roundup, not a firsthand visit to every one. 半斤 found June/Gull partly green October 4–5; the later official report is why they remain worthwhile.

Scenic extras are labeled honestly: Hot Creek gets repeated recommendations/visits for steam and blue-green water. Tenaya and Olmsted are removed at your request, even though they appear in the posts: Yosemite is transit only. Jerry also says much of Tioga still looked green and that photos were brightened/warmed. Kino’s Twin Lakes Overlook is in Mammoth, not your Bridgeport pin.

Posts reread: 半斤 · October 4–5, Kino · October 2–4, Mayayay · October 4 + pinned update, Jerry · route and comments. Some post links require the Rednote app or signed-in search.

Representative sampling, not a complete pavement certification. The separate audit agent captured 48 images and visually inspected 40 (39 distinct panoramas), below your 100-image ceiling. No additional images were needed. Examined major-road samples were paved; not every connecting road, driveway or parking bay was checked.

Known gravel: Silver Lake Resort/Cafe front parking, September 2025 panorama. Its CA-158 approach is paved. Twin Lakes Road is paved in the samples, but gravel shoulders and unverified legal parking remain. Stay off an unverified pullout; skip the stop if no suitable signed parking is available.

Later additions, no new panorama images: Hot Creek’s USFS directions specify 2 miles paved then 3 miles gravel. This is source-reported, not visually audited. June Lake Beach and Lundy Lake parking remain unverified, as does Dos Alas last mile. Tenaya/Olmsted records remain historical only; those stops are removed. Groveland’s actual Tesla stalls were visibly paved. Private resort/campground parking permission is not assumed.

The audit found about 3 km of paved Old Priest Grade in the former cached return. That was a route-choice mismatch, not a dirt road. The current geometry and navigation now explicitly use CA-120/New Priest Grade. This corrected grade was not separately panorama-sampled. It adds about 2.7 mapped miles; allow a little more return time.

Historical imagery ranges from 2013 to April 2026. Old pavement does not establish current condition, legal parking, closures, snow or charger operation. Download the original sampled evidence and publication notes.

Sonora’s summit section is substantially more winding by this measure: about 2.2× the accumulated road-direction change per mile. Comparing exactly 10 km of road on each side of each summit controls the section length. This supports Tioga for fewer/broader summit bends; Sonora’s advantage is its fit with Bridgeport, not gentler driving.

What was calculated: public OpenStreetMap road geometry via OSRM, not Google’s travel-time estimates. Resample at equal 50 m intervals; estimate direction using a 100 m road chord; add absolute direction changes with correct angle wrapping. Left and right bends both count. This is accumulated road-heading change, not steering-wheel rotation or a count of hairpins.

Sharpness proxy: within the summit sections, the 95th percentile of accumulated turning across overlapping 200 m windows is about 110° on Sonora versus 60° on Tioga. Windows overlap and can contain several bends; these are not individual-corner angles.

Robustness and limits: six sampling/smoothing settings put the summit ratio at 1.7–2.7×. The worst-20-km ranking is less robust: roughly tied at coarse smoothing, so “Sonora is worse everywhere” is not supported. Full corridors are Cold Springs → Sonora Junction versus Groveland → Lee Vining junction; their lengths/endpoints differ, and the shorter Sonora corridor has less total turning overall. US 395, charger access roads, Priest Grade west of Groveland and CA-108 west of Cold Springs are excluded.

Unsigned winding is unchanged in reverse, but downhill braking and uphill workload are not. These 2-D numbers measure neither grade, lane width, exposure, pavement, traffic, closures nor accident risk. They do not mean “2.2× harder” or “2.2× more dangerous.” Choosing Tioga no longer automatically deletes Twin Lakes: the Friday alternative retains it with a recommended 8 AM start and extra backtracking.

Sources: Sonora summit node, OSRM route geometry, OpenStreetMap contributors. Retrieved October 8 Pacific. Download metrics, exact endpoints, source URLs and sensitivity results.

Lunch follows the pass: Friday CA-108 uses Mia’s before Cold Springs charging; Friday CA-120 uses Groveland takeaway or packed food. Saturday CA-120 uses Whoa Nellie/packed lunch, CA-108 uses Bridgeport food during Tesla charging. Sonora is optional inbound, a home-reserve charging stop on the CA-108 return. Walk times are still one way; service at every alternative time needs confirmation.

Source rule: 23 selected business locations and Google ratings were read directly in Maps. Yelp business pages were read for Skadi, Ursa and Vulcania; other restaurants do not receive a Yelp badge. Xiaohongshu badges link actual posts read, including negative experiences. The eight newest charger-adjacent options are Google-only finds here. A source badge identifies evidence, not unanimous endorsement. Hungry Bear (3.9) and Smokeyard (3.7) were checked but not added just to inflate the list.

Important disagreements: Skadi is Google 4.8/334 and Yelp 4.8/516. Ursa is Google 4.8/60 and Yelp 4.5/79: promising, but a smaller sample. Vulcania’s positive Xiaohongshu posts conflict with Google 3.8/397 and Yelp 3.6/562, so it is downgraded. Whoa Nellie is Google 4.5/1,130 with mixed Xiaohongshu experiences. Scores and counts are October 8 snapshots.

Skadi, Ursa and Vulcania list Friday 5–9 PM on Yelp; last seating and availability remain unconfirmed. Fourteen walking routes were originally measured. The active Tesla/hotel filter now has 12 walking candidates: Rivian is removed from the normal charging plan, and Mia’s highway walk is excluded. One-way estimates exclude queues and eating and do not guarantee sidewalks or hotel shortcuts.

Not worth a southern detour: Erick Schat’s in Bishop and Copper Top BBQ in Big Pine. Dos Alas is a distinctive in-town alternative, not the default after a long drive. No separate coffee tour or leisurely brunch.

Keep a packed lunch and an early-breakfast fallback. If carrying perishable takeaway for later, use a cooler rather than leaving it in a warm car. No reservations or food orders were made.

Keep Convict and Silver Lake; add June Lake shore and Lundy: the later return buys distinct stops, not longer hikes. All these areas have support in the October 7 near-peak report. The Lundy addition is lake/lower-canyon access, not the upper waterfall hike or rough road.

Skip Sagehen and upper Rock Creek: recent firsthand reports describe fading or past-peak color. The county report supports dropping these detours. The lower Rock Creek canyon can differ; this is not a blanket judgment of the whole road.

Bridgeport Twin Lakes: Friday’s 10 AM start and northern route earn a short visit. These are CA-108 and CA-120, not interstates. Sonora is direct for Bridgeport but winding. Hot Creek returns as a conditional morning scenic extra, clearly marked for gravel access—not as a promised autumn-leaf hotspot.

Thousand Island Lake is a backcountry hike. Laws Museum, Alabama Hills and North/South Lake remain excluded. Lundy is now included on both return choices; Sabrina has its own conditional 5:30 AM extension. The saved pins are suggestions, not permission to ignore daylight or energy limits.

The first three rows and the Saturday 2 PM crossing are dated Google predictions. Other local legs are Thursday snapshots, excluding parking, meals and charging. The gas mart remains the lunch location; its Rivian stalls are no longer part of the normal charging plan.

Friday’s measured legs total about 5h 53m–7h 13m driving and 293 miles. Add 60–85 minutes charging, 30–45 minutes at Twin Lakes, and contingency: budget roughly 8–10 hours door to door. The 6–8 PM hotel target can slip; leave Bridgeport by 5 PM or drop Twin Lakes, and leave the lake by 5:45. Individual charger windows are planning allocations, not separately measured arrival forecasts.

Daylight, not the home clock, is the constraint. Leave Lee Vining around 1:45, no later than 2 in normal conditions. Budget the 2h20 crossing without Yosemite viewpoint stops, 30–45 minutes charging/food and a 30-minute descent allowance. Aim past New Priest Grade near Moccasin around 5:30 PM, latest planning target 6. Removing Tenaya/Olmsted recovers 35 minutes for lake flexibility and margin, not another detour. USNO October 10: sunset 6:31 PM, civil twilight ends 6:57 PM. Clear the remaining foothills before dark; terrain/cloud can reduce usable light earlier. The 9–10 PM home window allows lower-elevation food/rest and traffic, not after-dark mountain sightseeing.

Cached OSRM/OpenStreetMap default geometry: 296.6 + 312.6 = 609.2 miles. Alternatives: Friday CA-120 327.7 mi, Saturday CA-108 319.2 mi. Sabrina adds 107.5 mi to either Saturday route: 420.1 / 426.7 mi respectively. The selected total appears above the map. These are not Google polylines or live navigation; no Yosemite viewpoint waypoints are included.

Open the Friday 10 AM Maps prediction · Select CA-108 for the northern comparison; this direct-hotel link excludes Twin Lakes.

Open the Saturday 2 PM Tioga prediction · origin is the same gas-mart property, not a planned Rivian charge.

Vehicle corrected: you confirmed a standard 2024 Model Y, roughly 60 kWh. ABRP’s matching 2023–2024 Standard range RWD lists 55.5 kWh in its model picker, not the old 51-kWh entry. That modeled value is not a measurement of your actual pack; nominal and usable ratings/model variants differ. Default 19-inch wheels were used; actual wheels, degradation and live vehicle data are unconfirmed. Tesla was set as the strongly preferred network.

Friday direct test, 100% start: Sunnyvale → Tesla Cold Springs, 146 modeled miles, 47 kWh, 11% arrival with no charging stop, before the small Mia’s pickup detour. Possible in the model, but not a comfortable blanket approval to skip Sonora. Require the car’s live prediction including Mia’s to show at least 15%, preferably 20%, at Cold Springs before bypassing the Tesla backup. Old 51-kWh percentages are superseded.

Saturday scenic benchmark, 100% start: Westin → Convict → Hot Creek → June Beach → Silver → Lundy → gas-mart lunch → Tioga → Tesla Groveland: 177 modeled miles, 38 kWh, 29% at Groveland, no intervening charge. That run included a Tenaya reference on the same corridor; its viewpoint stop is now removed, not a fresh whole-route simulation. Clock arrivals were not used. The benchmark ends at Groveland and does not predict the home leg or guarantee wind/cold performance.

Tesla-first: charging sequences follow the selected day plans above. Lee Vining is lunch only on the Tioga return, not a required stop on Sonora. Sabrina adds Bishop Tesla; its extra energy is not covered by the 29% baseline. Non-Tesla is last resort only if necessary and no suitable Tesla is safely reachable. The generic “Lee Vining Tesla” at 129 Mattly Avenue is slow J1772. Check live energy before committing to any selected pass.

Westin: six paid ChargePoint J1772 plugs are listed at roughly 3.84–7.68 kW, with 2026 slow/expensive reviews. That does not establish the price of separate Tesla destination ports. Ask about the Tesla/NACS ports, guest rate, working power, valet/session/parking fees, and availability. Replenishing 40 kWh can take 6–7 hours at 7 kW or 14–16 hours at 3 kW. Mammoth’s Tavern Road Supercharger is the backup; check live status in the car.

Foliage: the October 7 county report puts Sonora Pass at peak; Twin Lakes, June Lake Loop, Conway Summit, and Convict at 50–75%, near peak. Lundy Canyon is peaking, Lundy Lake near peak, Sagehen past peak. A better color percentage is not by itself a reason for a long detour.

Weather: October 8’s 4:30 PM Mammoth forecast gave Friday about 68°F, night 42°F, Saturday 58°F, with gusts 20 mph Friday and 30 mph Saturday. A Lake Wind Advisory and Fire Weather Watch begin Saturday at 11 AM. Showers/lower snow levels appear Saturday night/Sunday. This is a town forecast, not a pass-summit forecast.

Roads: Tioga was open when checked, with possible Tuolumne delays. US 395 had Friday controls; CA-108 also had weekday controls. Dome Fire smoke may affect Yosemite. Glacier Point Road was closed and is not on the route.

Entry: no 2026 timed-entry reservation was required, but Yosemite transit still requires park admission. Standard private-vehicle entry is $35 for seven days unless pass-covered. NPS also lists a $100 fee per non-US-resident visitor age 16+, subject to pass exemptions. Check the applicable rules for your party; do not infer eligibility from citizenship alone.

Pass closure: select the alternate only if verified open and compatible with the remaining daylight and real battery reserve. An on-the-day switch after a late start cannot inherit the early-start schedule or guarantee every visit. If high passes are unsuitable, use a verified safe alternative and accept a changed return. Never follow cached geometry past a closure.

Bring offline maps, warm/windproof layers, walking shoes, water and packed food, a headlamp, and vehicle-approved traction equipment. Follow chain and bear-food-storage rules. Hot Creek is optional gravel access, with no potable water, no water entry, swimming, fishing or fence crossing. Sabrina also requires a fresh CA-168 access/weather check; no new surface certification was performed.

These are CA-108 and CA-120, not interstates. The selectors change complete day plans, not just the line color. Bridgeport Twin Lakes remains Friday on either inbound route; Convict, conditional Hot Creek, June Beach, Silver/Rush Creek and Lundy remain Saturday on either return. Tenaya/Olmsted remain excluded. Both-120 means no Sonora Pass scenery; both-108 means no Tioga crossing. A repeated crossing does not add a second lake visit.

Friday CA-120 preserves Twin Lakes by paying for the backtrack: Groveland→Bridgeport via Tioga is 2h41 / 117 miles in the Thursday Maps snapshot; home→Groveland via New Priest Grade is 2h31 / 133 miles. Add charging, park delays, 18 minutes to Twin Lakes, the lake visit and 1h15 back to the hotel. 8 AM is recommended. A 10 AM departure is not ruled out by geometry, but it cannot promise Twin Lakes plus generous daylight margin. If the real Bridgeport ETA exceeds the 5 PM cutoff, keeping all priorities requires an earlier start, not a faster drive.

Saturday CA-108: Lundy→Bridgeport 30m / 23.7 mi; Bridgeport→Cold Springs via Sonora 1h41 / 71 mi; Cold Springs→Sonora 34m / 27.1 mi; Sonora→94085 2h12 / 122 mi. These are Thursday “leave now” snapshots, not Saturday appointments. Lunch becomes Bridgeport takeaway during Tesla charging; the home reserve is handled in Sonora. Cold Springs is past the summit but not out of all mountain/foothill roads. Keep moving toward Oakdale before dark.

Lake Sabrina: possible, but an ambitious optional extension. Maps: Westin→Sabrina via Bishop 1h13 / 62.1 mi; Sabrina→Bishop Tesla 25m / 18.9 mi; Bishop Tesla→Convict 41m / 37.1 mi. Compared with direct Westin→Convict, that is roughly 107 additional miles and two additional driving hours, before the 30-minute lake visit and 30–40-minute charging allowance: about three extra hours. Departure becomes 5:30 AM, breakfast packed, shorter shore visits, and ready/packed lunch. Early travel is dark and high CA-168 can be shaded/icy. If road conditions, visibility or charging prevent the early schedule, disable Sabrina or explicitly shorten optional stops; do not extend the mountain crossing into darkness.

The extension visits only Lake Sabrina’s road-end/shore near the Boat Landing reference. No Blue Lake hike, North/South Lake detours, boat outing or café wait is included. The lake is firsthand-supported in the reread Kino/Mayayay/Jerry posts, but those visits do not certify this Saturday’s color or access. Exact parking surface and current frost/water level remain unverified. The Tesla stop is 151 S Warren Street, Bishop, verified in Maps; its equipment rating is not the car’s charging speed. No new charger-food walking route or panorama count is claimed.

Energy evidence boundary: corrected-car ABRP’s 11% direct Cold Springs test and 29% Groveland scenic benchmark apply only to their original paths. CA-120 inbound, CA-108 outbound and Sabrina variants are not fresh full ABRP simulations; their charge allowances are planning budgets governed by live Tesla navigation. Do not copy 29% onto the longer Sabrina route. Non-Tesla charging remains last resort only when necessary.

Cached OSRM routes are separately constrained through the selected summit, CA-158, and New Priest Grade for CA-120. Sabrina routes go through Bishop and CA-168 rather than assuming a shorter local-road approach is appropriate. All are cached geometry, not road-opening guarantees. Selector choices persist in the URL; the downloadable Markdown contains every plan. Sabrina route via Bishop ↗ · Verified Bishop Tesla ↗.