Mammoth Lakes
June Lake
Monday, October 29 - the afternoon
With the morning behind us and a couple hours to go, we stopped for lunch..and some extra layers before making it to Mammoth Lakes. June Lake was the first stop and we missed the fall aspen colors by a few days…thanks to the wind storm. Although the leaves had fallen, it was still a beautiful sight and fun to stomp around for a short bit.
As sunset was quickly approaching, we headed back south to Convict Lake to prepare for a Milky Way shot I had been planning since day 1. If you have to pick one of the Mammoth Lakes, Convict is it. This place was absolutely stunning and a great way to end the day.
Kelly was very supportive here in helping make sure we were both warm and fed while I worked on the images for my Milky Way compilation. We ended up being by ourselves for the entire night with nothing but a quiet mountain and a glassy lake.
After grabbing the shot, we made our way up to Mono Lake for another night of boondocking. A long day in the books…with 6 days remaining.
Mono Lake Sunrise
Tuesday, October 29 - the morning
One thing I haven’t mentioned yet is the darkness when driving through this area. It’s almost a little unnerving when you look to the side of the road and aren’t sure if it’s woods, a cliff, or a deer family waiting to make your day more interesting. I say this because when we parked for the night at Mono, we did not realize how close to the lake we actually were.
When we woke up that morning, we were welcomed to an overlook of the entire lake under glowing stars. After scraping ice off of the windows and the crust out of our eyes, we headed down to the lake front to check out the tufa formations by sunrise.
Mono Lake is very stark in contrast to Convict Lake. Mono presented itself like an other worldly terrain with high levels of salt, brine shrimp, and alkali flies (underwater walking flies). I wanted to get out in the water for the shot, but thought I would come out looking like Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) at the end of The Shining.
Kelly also used this stop as an opportunity to work on her cold weather “tolerance”, aka covering up in every piece of clothing and gear she owns, wrapping up in her quilt, and shielding the wind with her pack. I think we were quite the sight for those also at the lake that were from the surrounding areas.
With the lakes behind us, it was now time to make our way to Yosemite National Park.
