Sonora Pass

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Sonora Pass is the second-highest pass in the Sierra Nevada. The road tops out at 9,624 ft (2,933 m) high, only about 300 ft (90m) lower than Tioga Pass to the south. California State Highway 108 crosses over the summit, providing an alternate route to motorists seeking to cross the Sierra, but not pass through Yosemite National Park. However, like most high mountain passes in the Sierra, the highway is closed in winter due to heavy snowfall and snow accumulations. Usually, the pass opens before the higher and snowier Tioga Pass to the south.

In the 1880(s) the California and Nevada Railroad and its predecessor, the California and Mount Diablo Railroad, proposed to run a narrow gauge railroad over Sonora Pass with a line running from Emeryville - Stockton and then connecting with the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in Utah. The railroad never built track beyond the San Francisco Bay Area.