California Dreaming, Part 1

Note: I was going to make this a super-long post but I ran out of time to finish it tonight. So I have decided to divide this post into two, because it was that great of a vacation. Expect to see Part 2 sometime next week, followed by a post about what I’ve been up to recently. It’s been busy here!

Last September, we went on vacation to the Eastern Sierra and had a wonderful time. The Sierra, and Owens Valley and eastern slopes in general, are extremely beautiful and worthy of weeks, months, years, maybe even a lifetime of exploration.

Wendy’s parents live in Ridgecrest, California - a place known mostly for being the home of a gigantic Navy base (in the desert!). This is where Wendy grew up, and her parents have lived in the same house since before Wendy was born.

As Ridgecrest is only 2-3 hours south of the high Sierra peaks, it makes for a great vacation to have Wendy’s parents meet us somewhere, whether it be Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, or June Lake. We’ve now been to this area three times in the past 16 months, and we’ve met in all three. We love this area so much that we considered moving down there to be closer to Wendy’s parents, then reconsidered when we looked the cost of living (it isn’t any cheaper than here), the lack of jobs, and the extremely hot summers. That being said, it’s a wonderful place to visit.

For this trip, we flew into Reno and picked up our rental car. From there, we drove south on US 395 into California and to June Lake, where we met Darrel and Martha for a four night stay in a rental cabin. It is extremely, brutally hot in Ridgecrest during the summer, but up in the mountains, it was blissfully cool - almost cold during the mornings even. June Lake is located at an elevation of 7,654 feet above sea level - or around the elevation of the summit of Three-Fingered Jack in the Oregon Cascades. It was nice to escape the heat in such a beautiful location.

On the first day, we drove up to Tioga Pass in Yosemite National Park and continued to Tuolomne Meadows, high in the mountains above the famed Yosemite Valley. The drive up to Tioga Pass is utterly spectacular from the moment you leave Lee Vining:

When we reached Tioga Pass, we were already at an elevation of 9,945 feet above sea level - or just a bit below the elevation of the Three Sisters in Oregon. Being at a high elevation would be the theme of our trip, and it took a few days to adjust.

The Tuolomne Meadows area is a crossroads in the wilderness, as both the John Muir Trail and Pacific Crest Trail pass through the area, in addition to many other trails. With Darrel and Martha firmly aged out of hiking, we set out on a short walk along the Dana Fork of the Tuolomne River. We found a beautiful cascade on the river just beyond the parking lot:

After a picnic lunch, we followed the Tioga Pass Road west to the Olmsted Viewpoint, which offers views down to Yosemite Valley. What a spectacular place this is!

We had to do a family photo here, and I love how this turned out:

While we were there we watched a marmot absolutely chow down on flowers, almost oblivious to the crowds watching it, and oblivious to the busy road only a few meters away. What a life.

The next day we went to Bodie, a ghost town in the absolute middle of nowhere about 15 miles northeast of Lee Vining. I’d always wanted to visit Bodie, as I love ghost towns and Bodie is one of the best-preserved ghost towns in the West. I encourage you to read the Wikipedia article I linked above if you’re interested in learning more about Bodie, because there’s more about it that is fascinating than I could possibly explain here. I’m already quite verbose! I will repeat again that this place is in the absolute middle of nowhere, with one of the harshest climates imaginable. It snowed there the week before we visited…in late June.

Rather than get more into the story of Bodie, I’m just going to share a bunch of pictures, so get ready:

So if you’re ever in this part of California, I STRONGLY recommend visiting Bodie. It’s worth the time and effort it takes to get there.

We spent the next day in the Mammoth area. We visited Twin Lakes, which has a massive waterfall on the far side of the lake:

We drove up to the Minarets viewpoint afterwards, for a view of the Minarets. It’s wild to drive to viewpoints in this area; we topped out here at an elevation of 9,200 feet, or taller than the summit of Broken Top. The Minarets are absolutely amazing:

It was a mellow day, and very enjoyable. For dinner we went to June Lake Brewing, which I strongly recommend. The beer was excellent, the taco truck at the brewery was excellent, and they were playing punk the whole time we were there. I was in heaven.

The next day we drove down to Bishop and had lunch with Wendy’s parents before we drove back to Ridgecrest, then Wendy and I drove back up to Mammoth for the second part of our vacation, three days of camping and hiking followed by two days driving back towards Reno.

I was hoping to get this post done tonight, but it got to be too long. Stay tuned for the second part and brace yourself friends, because you’re going to see lots of photos.

For now, here’s a photo to preview the second part of this saga:

Stay tuned! We’re headed up to the Goat Rocks area this weekend, so we’ll talk soon.

As always, thanks for reading!