Cooler at Glass Creek Campground

We left the 100 degree plus weather in Bishop and headed north to Glass Creek Campground, which is between Mammoth and June Lake just off the 395. At 7,650 elevation, we will still have warm weather, but high 80s is much better than 100. Glass Creek is a lovely forest service campground with about 50 large sites in a forest setting with some sites on the Owens River. It is first come first serve and it looks like we got one of the last sites. There are no hookups or water or dump and pack in pack out your trash. However, this is no problem as the camping is FREE!! There are several campgrounds in this area with free camping but I think this might be the only one with large sites for the bigger rv's such as ours. We are loving it and are planning on spending our time here through out the Holiday weekend.

 

 

 

We took a ride into Mammoth Lakes, which is just 9 miles south of our campground. We brought Savannah and so had lunch at the Old New York Deli and Bagel Co in the Village of Mammoth, where we could sit outside and enjoy the nice weather.

We drove around the lakes of Mammoth. We are planning on kayaking at Lake Mary in the next few days. It is the largest of the many lakes in the area and we have kayaked there before as well as Twin Lakes. Twin Lakes is smaller but is pretty neat as you paddle with a view of the snow covered mountains with a beautiful waterfall. We have spent a lot of time in Mammoth in sumer and winter and just love it. One new thing we noticed is that they now have bike trails everywhere. You can even take a special shuttle bus that takes you and your bike up the road and you can just coast on down by lakes and forest land. We drove around the Sherwin Lake area.

 

 

 

We decided to drive on one of the backroads, Owens River Road but it wasn't too exciting, though we did see some wildlife. Moo.

Another day we stopped at the Visitor Center and got some literature including a 4 Wheel Drive Book for Northern California. We decided to take the 4.8 mile road up to Laurel Lake. It is considered a moderate one, but seemed a little worse than that. It wasn't hard, per se, but more than half the road is covered in rocks and I got tired of being bounced around so much and so we only went about half way. We stopped at a pull out and had lunch while enjoying the views.

 

 

 

 

 

There were some nice wild flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the ATVers really come down this road fast.

 

 

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More Time in Lone Pine

We made a trip back to the Alabama Hills, this time to check out some arches. Mobius Arch is the most well known arch in the Eastern Sierra, especially for the fact that it is a perfect frame for Mt Whitney. To find it, we headed back to Movie Flat Road and went about 1 1/2 miles until we reached a fork in the road. To the right is a parking area and signs to the Arch Trail. You can see another arch, the Heart Arch, from the parking area.

 

There are two ways down. We took the path on the right which loops around, and eventually reaches the arches. It then continues another 1/4 mile back to the top. It was a nice hike with lots of cool rock formations.

 

 

 

Mobius Arch is about 6 and 1/2 feet tall by 17 wide. We have seen a lot of interesting arches, especially in the Moab area, but this is still an impressive one with it's view of Mt Whitney.

Below is a picture while we were waiting for our turn to take some pictures. There weren't that many people on the trail, but there was one family group that got there right before us and were taking a lot of pictures.But no problem.

 

 

And a picture from the other side.

 

Around the corner is another arch, the Lathe Arch. Savannah liked it's nice shady spot.

 

 

The one above we saw the other day when we were checking out movie sites. There are dozens of arches in the area.

We also took a few drives. One was up Whitney Portal Road. It is paved but narrow with many steep switchbacks. A famous Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz movie, The Long, Long Trailer, was filmed on this road. the road was also featured in the classic Humphrey Bogart movie, the High Sierra.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you get higher, more trees appear and it gets a little cooler, which is nice. The peak is at an elevation of 8,631 feet and is the trail head for those who make the strenuous 22 mile round trip to the summit of Mt Whitney. We thought about making the hike. NOT!! We just headed back down the road.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another day we drove from our campsite back onto the Horseshoe Meadows Road and continued up it away from town. It is another extremely steep mountain face with many switchbacks. We had more great views of the mostly dry Owens Lake below.

 

 

We passed a pullout that is a popular launch site for hang gliders. WOW!! Imagine soaring over the jagged rocks and trees.

 

 

 

Again as we got closer to the top, trees such as lodgepole pines and mountain hemlocks become abundant.

We got to the top and had some snacks we brought at one of the picnic tables there.

Spent some more time relaxing in my little spot by the rushing stream and got some pictures of a lovely Sierra sunset.

 

 

 

We spent a few nights at Horton Creek Campground, another BLM campground near Bishop. We had lunch on Wednesday in Bishop at Holy Smokes, a great little Texas style barbeque. We both had pulled pork which was delicious with its sweet and smokey taste. Soooo good. We drove to Mammoth to check out some places to camp. We have been to Mammoth many, many times but since we got our 40' beast have only stayed at the Mammoth Mountain RV Park, right close to town. It is nice in that you can walk into town. We even stayed once there once, walking into town with our ski equipment to catch the bus to the resort.

We also checked out Lake Crowley, but we thought about it and came up with some other ideas. Anyway, we are headed out on Thursday. It is just too hot in Bishop, being in the high nineties and temperatures in the 100's starting on Thursday. We definitely are looking for a little cooler area and the Mammoth or June Lake looks a little better and so that is where we are headed. Stay tune for our further adventures on HWY 395.

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