For our vacation this year, hubby and I decided to take his mother on a road trip around California. Hubby takes a trip with his mother, but her mobility has been deteriorating in recent years, and she did not want to leave her dog behind this time. So somebody got the brilliant idea of going on a road trip in her home state. While usually I don’t go on these mother/son trips, I agreed to come along this time, which was good for hubby, since I could drive when he got tired and vice versa.
The itinerary was entirely up to my mother-in-law, and she came up with a circle route going up the east side of California, around the wine country, and then down the coast. So you are hereby invited to see the sights that we saw (as well as learn some history that I didn’t know previous to this trip) in a series of diaries. Tonight: the Owens Valley.
Geographically, California can be seen to have roughly three ranges of mountains ranging from north to south. First, there’s the coastal range, that separates the coast from the Central Valley (aka the San Joachin Valley), then, going east, the Sierra Nevada, which separate the Central Valley from the Owens Valley. Finally, there is another range of mountains, the White Mountains, to the east of the Sierras that separate Owens Valley from Death Valley. As you go east, the environment gets progressively more arid. Our trip started by going up the east side of California in that next to driest valley in California, the Owens Valley. Please make the jump for more…
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Most of our first day on the road (US 395) was to make it to the town of Bishop, where we spent our first night. Along the way, we passed Manzanar, the site of the camp where Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II, and the exit to go to see the bristle-cone pines, the oldest living things in the world. I wanted to see both of these places, but I was not the one who had made up the itinerary, so I kept my mouth shut. I’ll return someday to visit them.
The next day, we headed north from Bishop. In early June, we could still see snow on the Sierras to the west.
Our first stop was a California State Park called Convict Lake, where hubby’s family would regularly go camping and fishing many years ago. It’s a fairly small lake, but it’s in a stunning valley. One of my mother-in-law’s brothers had his ashes spread by this lake.
Slightly further north, and to the east, we then visited Hot Creek. The creek got its name from the hot springs and upwellings that feed it in a certain region. Decades ago, people would soak in the creek, but after an earthquake some years ago, the temperature of the water increased to the point where people were getting injured, so soaking in the creek is now forbidden. In the photo below, you can see steam rising, near the center of the photo, from one of the hot springs feeding the creek.
There were also pools where some kind of bluish mineral was being deposited as the water that brought the stuff to the surface evaporated.
Upstream from the heat sources, the creek was very lovely.
Our next objective was Mammoth Lakes, where there was still a lot of snow lying around. It is almost paradisiacal.
We then headed to the Obsidian Dome, a bit further north still. My mother-in-law is a rock hound (among other things) and can’t resist an opportunity to pick up some attractive rocks. In this case, there was no lack of rocks, since the mountain is essentially a pile of rocks, all of them obsidian.
We then visited Mono Lake, just east of Yosemite National Park. Back in May, owktree wrote a comprehensive diary about Mono Lake, so I’ll send you there for further details. Following are my best photos. By the way, the tall solid formations are called tufas—see owktree’s diary for details of how they’re formed.
Later that same day, we visited a ghost town, but that’s a story in itself, so I’ll save that for the next diary.
Now, on to the comments!
Top Comments (June 21, 2016):
From Crashing Vor:
BethesDave mashes up Grover and Donald for pure comedy gold.
From revbludge:
a2nite creates a new word to describe Trump’s recent activity.
From Yasuragi:
Chitown Kev posted a magnificent reply to It’s the Supreme Court Stupid’s post of part of Sonya Sotomayor's dissent in Utah v Strieff.
From allergywoman:
slappymagoo's response to the hate church's lease not being renewed made me laugh like hell and engage in a bit of a pun-fest, too. Take a gander at it.
Top Mojo (June 20, 2016):
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Top Pictures (June 20, 2018):
Tonight’s picture quilt is courtesy of jotter!