From Lake Tahoe to June Lake, Via Mono Lake!

It's all lakes, mountains and deserts on this side of the Sierra Nevadas. Having spent two nights by Lake Tahoe, we pressed on to route 395, which runs North/South on the other side of the mountains. As soon as the mountains drop away you enter desert, which is broken only by a series of lakes, the most notable of which is Mono Lake. About 10 miles south is one of the most beautiful lakes in the world - June Lake. We first saw this in 1997 when we toured the West with the kids. We wanted to return, and now we have. We have found a nice campsite on the north end of the lake, with just a bit of a view of the lake. The Campground is called 'Oh! Ridge', we presume because as you drive up a desert incline you cannot see the lake, then over the ridge at the end of the lake, when you see the lake for the first time and it is difficult not to say 'Oh!' as the view is amazing. Its emerald green water is framed perfectly by pine covered slopes and high mountain peaks.
On Friday we had a wander round the lake side beach and then drove the 'June Lake Loop Road', a back road which goes past the lake and through some narrow valleys past another three lakes, before coming back out onto Route 395 and so back to June Lake.


Yesterday (Saturday) Mono Lake and Bodie.
Today we drove out for the day, back past Mono Lake, which is a large lake, maybe 10 miles wide, with no obvious way out for the water, although Los Angeles (300 miles away) has been extracting water from it since about 1964. It is a surreal landscape, the lake is surrounded by desert, with mountains all around. Beautiful, but stark. Hopeless to photograph as the scenery is far too subtle. We drove on to our goal, a ghost town, one of the most famous, called Bodie. In the 1880's it was still producing gold as many other goldfields were being worked out, thus attracting 10,000 gold workers and hangers on, the town lasted at that size for about 3 years and then declined and was abandoned by 1920. It is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, up a 13 mile dead end road. The summers are over 100 degrees, the winters get up to 20 ft of snow and 30-40 degrees below (who cares in both F and C that is cold). All wood and food had to be hauled in by mule train, so as soon as the gold ran out there was not a lot to keep people there, and since there was not means of transport they just left everything. Despite having been ravaged by fire and weather there ar still some 100 buildings still standing, complete with the bits and pieces that were left. It was a fascinating place, we really enjoyed wandering around and imagining what life must have been like in 1880 there. On the way back to the trailer we decided to eat out. A friend, called Randy Sheldon had recommended. It looks out over Mono Lake and is known as the Tioga Gas Mart, but called the Whoa Nellie Deli. It looks pretty much like a gas station, in fact it is a gas station, but the food is quite amazing, we settled for pork chop with apricot and cranberry sauce, but could have had Elk Chop, Buffalo Meatloaf or Lobster Taco. We just beat the rush, but by five-o-clock the place was packed. Great advice Randy.

Today, Sunday, Mammoth and The Devils Post Pile
We had a different venue on our menu. It was time to hit Mammoth! We wanted to visit The Devils Post Pile, i.e. a pile of posts. It is a volcanic formation which cooled very slowly underground and when the surrounding area was eroded away it left a basalt formation that was like a whole pile of wooden posts set vertically, each one roughly hexagonal in shape, very similar to the Giants Causeway in Ireland, only instead of seeing the top, you saw them from the side. As well as this outstanding formation there was also Soda Lake, where Carbon Dioxide bubbles out from the rock up through the stream, as it escapes under pressure some the Carbon Dioxide dissolves in the water, making a naturally sparkling water! We loved that.

Add into this the most amazing mountain vista of what is called the Minaret Peaks and we had quite a day.

Driving back through Mammoth we drove past the ski lifts which are currently in use for mountain bikers. this is where our son Andrew rented a bike and rode the Kamakazi Run when we were there in 1997. Now that brought back memories. After doing some shopping we again decided to eat out, this time in Roberto's, a well known Mexican cafe, where I succumbed to a Chimmychanga (a deep fried tortilla filled with meat and beans), Sally had a nice chicken salad with rice and beans. Trouble is that we could only eat half, so we have brought the rest home for dinner tomorrow.