Road Trip — Mono Lake
(50 photos)
Heading home, it’s the final day of my road trip. My first stop was at the Mono Lake visitor center in Lee Vining. It was a crystal clear day, so the view of the lake was gorgeous and bright. My visit was just a short rest break, so I just walked around the visitor center and didn’t get closer to the lake this time.
Road Trip — Laws Museum, Bishop
(192 photos)
Just outside of the town of Bishop, is Laws Museum. Now, I’ve driven by it a few times in the past, but it’s always been closed; this morning I made a point to check it out and I am so glad I did. This museum is huge and has one of the best collections of American historical artifacts I’ve seen. Laws started life as a railroad town in the 1800s and the original depot and agents house still remain. Other buildings from were brought there for preservation and it resembles a little railroad town now. Most of the building were open and have exhibits in them, from general merchandise to photography equipment, to typesetting and newspaper equipment, to medical equipment to a collection of bottles. There’s also Siamese twin lambs that have been stuffed–an unexpected sight for me! There’s a lot to explore on the 11 acres of the museum and the docents are nice and friendly. There were also shooting a television commercial there at the depot the day I visited, that was interesting to watch. I’m glad I spent a few hours checking it out, it’s well worth a visit.
Mammoth Lakes and Independence
(Click on photo for all 119 photos)
I’ll be meeting up with Paige way later tonight, so I have a whole day to spend exploring the area and decide to look for a few geocaches because they can take you to interesting spots you might not otherwise see. Traveling down the Old Mammoth Road, I searched for a found a geocache that took me to the Historic Knight Wheel. Continuing down the road, the next geocache would have taken me to old stamp mill, just a short hike off the road. I found the parking spot next to two old grave sites and started the short hike and was doing good until I had to cross a creek… oh no no no… can’t get the cast wet, so I turned around and went back. The road led me to the several beautiful lakes and I now understand why the town is called Mammoth Lakes. The first lake I stopped at was Horseshoe Lake, where a geological anomaly has caused carbon dioxide to seep into the ground and kill all the trees and plant life within a certain area next to the lake–it was very eerie looking. Lake Mamie, Lake George and Twin Lakes were the next lakes I checked out. They are all very beautiful lakes with lots of trout fishermen going for it on every lake edge. At Twin Lakes, there is an outdoor chapel, with log pews and a podium, and there was a wedding being set up, so I enjoyed music while I searched for the nearby geocache. Time to head up the road towards Lone Pine to meet up later with Paige. Along the way I check out a few historical markers in Bishop and unfortunately the Laws Museum was closed, but it looked interesting and I’ll have to go back another time. In the waning hour of sunlight, I tour Manzanar National Historic Site. The Manzanar War Relocation Center was one of ten internment camps where anyone of Japanese descent, citizen or not, were detained in 1942 after Pearl Harbor was bombed. While I love the eastern Sierra landscape, I can’t imagine being forced to leave my home and having to live in military style barracks out in this desolate area as they were forced to do. I’m glad to see they have built an interpretive center here and that efforts are being made to remember and preserve this sad portion of our history. We must never forget, least we don’t repeat the same tragedies.
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. 
