Post by elementary on Aug 8, 2011 17:22:26 GMT -5
Hey all,
A bunch of my family and inlaws and inlaws of inlaws traveled up to June Lake (just a shot north of Mammoth Mountain) for a little vacation. We had everyone from tykes to grandmothers, who came in from such diverse places as New Hampshire, Philadelphia, Orange County, and Santa Barbara.
To get up there from where I live (ventura ca), you get to travel past a ton of famous rockhounding sites. We didn't stop (330 mile trips don't lend much time for rock hunting - just eat/gas/pit stop), but the drive up the 14 Freeway to the 395 and up to the town of Bishop provides an incredible amount of geology to look at - from the topography and colors of Red Rock Canyon, to the lava fields farther up, to the mountainous vistas that are the Eastern Sierras.
Our first real stop was Lone Pine - which has a very active gem club. Here's the view from where we ate:
I even got to step into a lil shop that sold rocks:
but found nothing of interest.
We arrived at June Lake and fell in love with the campsite:
We were about 7000+ feet up.
Pretty soon we had a visitor walk through our camp and the three little ones were fascinated by their proximity to the native. The center one is my daughter. The other two are her identical twin cousins.
The next day we headed up to the ghost town of Bodie:
It is a fascinating ghost town that's tricky to photograph that way. I swear there were several hundred people there when we went and trying to get atmospheric shots of the 'ghost' town is hard when you get people mingling in front of every edifice. As a side note - this must be a hot spot for the international tourist as we heard german, russian, and french spoken by different groups.
Anyway, I took a few pictures of the town and the hillside about it pock-marked with mines and tailings.
I love the little outhouses that hunker by the bigger buildings. It's like the baby fawn trying to stay near its mother.
In fact, there were several types of outhouses this place used to have:
It had the leaner:
and the dual action cheer your neighbor version - otherwise known as the 'Rooter - Tooter'.
Okay, okay, they're not all outhouses, but the humor works better that way.
Inside each building, a different set of relics sat behind the windows. There was the school, a hotel, a store, and other businesses you'd find in a place like this - all with artifacts you could gawk at:
The little ones had a great time:
On the way back to the campsite we passed Mono Lake:
.
The next day was a slow one. The most interesting sight came on a trip my wife and I made up to the little town near where we were staying. Up above the town is a beautiful waterfall. We went to see it because my wife's parents were staying at a motel with a view of the cascade. (My mother and father-in-law don't 'camp'.)
The next day I chose to drive out alone while the others went down to the lake for some water sports. I wanted to head out to Coaldale to explore a little, which was about 80 miles from our camp.
So I took off on Highway 120 that met up with highway 6 that led to Coaldale.
On the 6, I traveled through forest:
and high desert scrub:
passed through the historic town of Benton with its hot springs
before turning onto the 6:
From here I crossed into Nevada through the Montgomery Pass (obsidian site located nearby but not stopped at)
and dropped down into true desert:
My goal was the Sump. It doesn't sound too enticing, but I had read much about it and was eager to visit it. I only had time to crawl over from the highway to its top visa, but what a site it is:
It was worth every mile I drove.
At the base of the canyons are some poorly petrified tree trunks that I couldn't see, and this site is well known for the blue chalcedony limb casts that can sometimes be found in the cement-like sandstone.
I stayed a while to roam about the area above the canyons and found a fair number of small apache tears.
I headed back to the 6. I was going to explore the mountains north of Coaldale, but I was drawn down a very colorful valley where I hunted for additional apache tears.
This road leads into Fish Lake Valley where Tears can be collected by the bucketful, if you have time to pick that many up.
The road is easy to travel and the landscape not very difficult to explore on foot. Here's a brief look:
I picked up a ziplock full and had to get back for dinner.
On the way home I got to watch a dustdevil dance across the desert basin:
The next day was our last. A doe and her two fawns decided to wish us good luck:
And we were off.
It was an excellent trip and the landscape and topography and geology is all incredibly beautiful and interesting. There's mining history, obsidian deposits, rich forests, the beautiful and odd Mono Lake, and fish and ... and ... and...
You get the picture.
I hope you enjoyed the photos,
Lowell
A bunch of my family and inlaws and inlaws of inlaws traveled up to June Lake (just a shot north of Mammoth Mountain) for a little vacation. We had everyone from tykes to grandmothers, who came in from such diverse places as New Hampshire, Philadelphia, Orange County, and Santa Barbara.
To get up there from where I live (ventura ca), you get to travel past a ton of famous rockhounding sites. We didn't stop (330 mile trips don't lend much time for rock hunting - just eat/gas/pit stop), but the drive up the 14 Freeway to the 395 and up to the town of Bishop provides an incredible amount of geology to look at - from the topography and colors of Red Rock Canyon, to the lava fields farther up, to the mountainous vistas that are the Eastern Sierras.
Our first real stop was Lone Pine - which has a very active gem club. Here's the view from where we ate:
I even got to step into a lil shop that sold rocks:
but found nothing of interest.
We arrived at June Lake and fell in love with the campsite:
We were about 7000+ feet up.
Pretty soon we had a visitor walk through our camp and the three little ones were fascinated by their proximity to the native. The center one is my daughter. The other two are her identical twin cousins.
The next day we headed up to the ghost town of Bodie:
It is a fascinating ghost town that's tricky to photograph that way. I swear there were several hundred people there when we went and trying to get atmospheric shots of the 'ghost' town is hard when you get people mingling in front of every edifice. As a side note - this must be a hot spot for the international tourist as we heard german, russian, and french spoken by different groups.
Anyway, I took a few pictures of the town and the hillside about it pock-marked with mines and tailings.
I love the little outhouses that hunker by the bigger buildings. It's like the baby fawn trying to stay near its mother.
In fact, there were several types of outhouses this place used to have:
It had the leaner:
and the dual action cheer your neighbor version - otherwise known as the 'Rooter - Tooter'.
Okay, okay, they're not all outhouses, but the humor works better that way.
Inside each building, a different set of relics sat behind the windows. There was the school, a hotel, a store, and other businesses you'd find in a place like this - all with artifacts you could gawk at:
The little ones had a great time:
On the way back to the campsite we passed Mono Lake:
.The next day was a slow one. The most interesting sight came on a trip my wife and I made up to the little town near where we were staying. Up above the town is a beautiful waterfall. We went to see it because my wife's parents were staying at a motel with a view of the cascade. (My mother and father-in-law don't 'camp'.)
The next day I chose to drive out alone while the others went down to the lake for some water sports. I wanted to head out to Coaldale to explore a little, which was about 80 miles from our camp.
So I took off on Highway 120 that met up with highway 6 that led to Coaldale.
On the 6, I traveled through forest:
and high desert scrub:
passed through the historic town of Benton with its hot springs
before turning onto the 6:
From here I crossed into Nevada through the Montgomery Pass (obsidian site located nearby but not stopped at)
and dropped down into true desert:
My goal was the Sump. It doesn't sound too enticing, but I had read much about it and was eager to visit it. I only had time to crawl over from the highway to its top visa, but what a site it is:
It was worth every mile I drove.
At the base of the canyons are some poorly petrified tree trunks that I couldn't see, and this site is well known for the blue chalcedony limb casts that can sometimes be found in the cement-like sandstone.
I stayed a while to roam about the area above the canyons and found a fair number of small apache tears.
I headed back to the 6. I was going to explore the mountains north of Coaldale, but I was drawn down a very colorful valley where I hunted for additional apache tears.
This road leads into Fish Lake Valley where Tears can be collected by the bucketful, if you have time to pick that many up.
The road is easy to travel and the landscape not very difficult to explore on foot. Here's a brief look:
I picked up a ziplock full and had to get back for dinner.
On the way home I got to watch a dustdevil dance across the desert basin:
The next day was our last. A doe and her two fawns decided to wish us good luck:
And we were off.
It was an excellent trip and the landscape and topography and geology is all incredibly beautiful and interesting. There's mining history, obsidian deposits, rich forests, the beautiful and odd Mono Lake, and fish and ... and ... and...
You get the picture.
I hope you enjoyed the photos,
Lowell
