Tioga Pass Resort

Tioga Pass Resort - TPR

Located at 9641 feet elevation, TPR is surrounded by the lakes, rivers, meadows and mountains of Yosemite National Park, the Inyo National Forest, and the Mono Basin National Scenic Area. The lodge and cabins, built from 1914 through the 1980s, provide charming, rustic accommodations, paired with delicious fresh foods. TPR has a pristine snowmelt water stream, summer wildflowers, and golden fall colors encompassed by 360' views of the Sierra Mountains.

Albert J. Gardisky first came to Tioga Pass in 1914; he constructed Cabin 1 that year, and began mining and trapping. Gardisky quickly learned, however, that he could make a better living providing food and shelter to the growing number of travelers crossing through Tioga Pass.

By 1916, Gardisky, together with a mule and a block and tackle, had completed Cabins 1, 2, 3 and 4, and the Main Lodge. When the winter of 1920 crushed the flat roof on the Main Lodge, Gardisky re-built the roof into its current two story A-frame. The cold storage room was added in the 1920s, as was the first “Old Kitchen”. By the mid-1920s, “Camp Tioga,” as it was known until 1951, provided travelers with roadside food and lodging not unlike today. Gardisky lived at the resort year-round from 1914 to 1935, and wintered in Lee Vining until he passed on in 1943.

After Gardisky’s death, his relatives, believing Al had hidden his “treasure” in one of the buildings, tore apart the floorboards of all of the buildings. Finding nothing, they quickly sold Camp Tioga to Gerald and Eunice Younge. The Younges didn’t take to the resort, and sold it six months later to Hal and Edna Bergland. During their fourteen years at TPR, the Berglands re-roofed and added bathrooms to the cabins, built “modern” infrastructure, constructed the Café and new kitchen additions, built (with Lee Vining local “Frenchy” Davis) the stone fireplace (travertine stones were taken from the Mono Basin, crystal from Maul and Treble Lakes, obsidian from the Mono Craters, and the exterior granite from the Blue Slide on Tioga Pass Road). During their ownership, the Berglands also built the Saddlebag Lake Resort. In 1957, the Berglands sold the Tioga Pass Resort to Raymond and Margaret Yawman (the Berglands kept the Saddlebag Lake Resort), who operated the resort until 1963.

In 1963 Neil and Georgia Kelly took over, and for 31 years the old “Camp Tioga” was slowly molded into the “Tioga Pass Resort” of today. In 1994, Kelly sold the resort to Tioga Pass Resort, Inc., a company headed by Bob and Claudette Agard, who had managed the resort for Kelly for several years. Among other things, the Agards were responsible for starting the first winter operation at the Tioga Pass Resort.

In 2002, Tioga Pass Resort, LLC, a company formed by a group of outdoor enthusiasts headed by John Landsberger, Michael Entin, and Ron Cohen took over operation of TPR. Our goal is to cement TPR’s reputation as the first and finest Eastern Sierra resort. We hope you enjoy the improvements we have instituted!