Archive for October 2006
You are browsing the archives of 2006 October.
Deadwood
(Click photo for all 30 photos)
Today I took a drive up Foresthill Divide Road and explored that area a bit. It’s a twisty road through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and 150 years ago the area was overrun with gold miners searching for the mother lode. I stopped for a geocache here and there, but mostly just wandered along the road to see what there was to see. I’ve always enjoyed stopping and reading those historical markers that you see alongside the road, as they add a bit of flavor to the area. Sometimes the information is mundane and sometimes it’s unexpectedly weird. Today presented a weird one, a memorial marker to a horse–yes, a horse–he was shot during a stage coach robbery in the year 1901. Old Joe was so well liked, that residents still place flowers on his marker today! The town of Foresthill is a small town left over from the gold mining days. I checked out one of the historical cemeteries, because a geocache led me there (what can I say!). Past the town of Foresthill, Deadwood Road sounded interesting, so down the dirt road I bounced. About 7 or 8 miles later I came to the end of the road and found the Deadwood Cemetery, of which nothing remains today except for a historical marker that was placed in 1937; they already considered it a historical site 70 years ago. There must not be too many people traveling this road, as the deer just stood there looking at me… gotta love it.
Historical markers I found today and logged into the Historical Marker Database (click on the links to see and read the markers):
Road Trip — Devils Postpile
(Click for all 63 photos)
Packing up and heading home today, but first I drive down the canyon and visit Devils Postpile National Monument. The postpiles are hexagon shaped columns of basalt that have pushed up from beneath the ground; from the top, they look like patio pavers. They are pretty cool to look at. Going to the end of the road, there is Sotcher Lake and Red’s Meadow to also check out; Red’s was closed though. Now it’s time to head home. North and over Monitor Pass again, however this time I was able to enjoy the glowing aspens on Monitor Pass. That is until a heavy rainstorm broke out at almost the same spot the storm broke on my way up here! Ahh well, the days between storms were gorgeous. 
Highway 168 Near Sand Canyon
Left-click and hold your mouse to scroll around the photo in a 360 degree loop.
The Apple QuickTime Viewer is required to view the QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) panorama 360 degree images on this page. If needed, the free software plugin can be downloaded from: http://www.quicktime.com
* If the QTVR doesn’t load properly, click the refresh button to have it load again.
Road Trip — Bishop Area
(Click for all 82 photos)
I ended up camping in Brown’s Town Campground in Bishop last night. By the time I finished playing around Mammoth Lakes last night, all the motel rooms where booked, so I headed over to Bishop and they were all booked too! The police officer was nice enough to tell me about this place and I enjoyed a nice night along with the motorcycle riders, classic car show participants and bicycle event riders–no wonder the motels were all full! And they have hot showers, so all is good with me.
I stopped at the Visitor Center before I headed out of town and checked to see if there are any interesting looking geocaches around. I decided to look for one that was on the west side of town since I hadn’t been there before. Well, this led me away from Highway 395 and on over to Highway 168. After checking the brochure map of the area, I decided to continue west along Highway 168 to go check out some of the many alpine lakes on this side of the Sierra Mountains. And this turned out to be the day of glorious fall colors. The tiny town of Aspendell lived up to it’s name and there were aspens showing their gold and orange colors in every direction. Aspens are like a yellow highlighter marker on the mountain sides… if there is a river or stream coming down the mountain, the aspens highlight them and show you were they are. Following Bishop Creek, Lake Sabrina is the first lake I visited. Everyone I met has either a camera in hand or a fishing pole; this is big time fishing territory and lots of trout were being caught. Next I headed towards South Lake and along the way I saw a striking waterfall shooting out of the side of a mountain and, if you can believe it, someone has a house right below it–I would love for that to be my backyard. South Lake is gorgeous and the meadows by the creek are very pretty and relaxing. The last lake on my list as I head back towards Mammoth Lakes is Convict Lake. My boss recommended I see this lake if I got the chance, as it’s very pretty and he was very right, it is very pretty. It’s called Convict Lake because this is where the posse encountered a group of escaped convicts back in the 1800’s. And I’ve learned that “Star Trek: Insurrection”, the ninth movie in the series, was filmed here and at Lake Sabrina… hmmm, gonna have to put that one on the rental list. LOL
Minaret Vista - East QTVR
Left-click and hold your mouse to scroll around the photo in a 360 degree loop.
The Apple QuickTime Viewer is required to view the QuickTime Virtual Reality (QTVR) panorama 360 degree images on this page. If needed, the free software plugin can be downloaded from: http://www.quicktime.com
* If the QTVR doesn’t load properly, click the refresh button to have it load again.
