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Published: October 13th 2006
Lundy Canyon
Lundy Lake at dusk 7th & 8th October 2006
Would this trip even happen? I was thinking about this sometime back. I had made reservations for the previous week. But there weren’t as much fall colors then. So, with lots of difficulty, I made reservations for this weekend.
Every day I would check
this site This was the peak time for the fall colors. Any later, we would have missed. Ram and his father joined us for this trip. Four of us with 4 different cameras…
Coming to think of it now, its way too much 😊
Where is Mammoth Lakes? Anyways, we started off early, 4:00 am on 7th morning from Bay area to reach Yosemite entrance around 7.30 am. We rented a Kia Optima for this trip. It could comfortably hold all our stuff. We saw a board at the entrance station saying “Tioga Road closed”. 😞
Tioga road connects the Western and Eastern Sierras via Tioga Pass. While crossing the Sierras, the road climbs up to almost 10,000ft elevation. There was a winter-like snowstorm 2 days earlier and there was snow above 7000ft. So, the road was closed Friday night due to icy road conditions. We checked with the Ranger station
Lee Vinning Canyon
Our first Off road experience by 8:00 pm to get the happy news that the road was opened. 😊
We took Tioga road and in a short while saw at least 25 cars in the parking lot. Tioga road was closed 😱
But, we saw something that took our mind off the road closure. There was so much fog on one side of the road, in the meadows. On closer look, it was frost. All the grasses were covered in ice. The sun slowly came up and was melting away the ice. We got some good shots. By the time we got back to the parking lot, Tioga road opened up. So, we took the long drive in the Sierras.
Ram took the steering and at about 8000ft or so, we saw snow; and obviously, some ice on the road. Car was swinging away to glory. Gladly, not for long enough. We stopped every once in a while for some snapshots.
Crossing over the Tioga pass, we checked with the Ranger to know if snow was in the forecast; we had to get back home the same way tomorrow. "Doesn’t seem to, but at 10,000 ft you never know", he replied😞.
Interesting!
Clouds watering the mountain Tomorrow seemed distant to us. Just while getting down to Mono Lake, we stopped to see some Aspens down the canyon. We took the off road and soon came across this beautiful drive with Aspens on either side. We took several shots. With Ram & Ganesh getting out often to take pictures, I took to the wheels. These guys were practically hopping in and out of the car, literally, the whole day. Ganesh later informed us that it was the
Lee Vinning canyon. It was already late and all of us were hungry. So, we pulled over at the first rest are in 395 south. Had our lunch at around 2:00 pm. We headed straight over to Bishop, our first stop. The Ranger station was right at Main street. The Ranger gave us some tips on what to see and where to see.
There was a car parade happening and people with custom design cars were going all long the road (blocking traffic, though). Fun parade! It was a very neat city.
We wanted to finish off the Owens valley. The directions were not too good; soon enough, we got lost. It was all unpaved, but the drive was beautiful.
Lee Vinning Canyon
Yellow yellow dirty fellow Not one Cottonwood though...
We had lost at least 30 min in getting lost. We had to rush to Bishop Creek canyon (South Lake, North Lake and Lake Sabrina). Canyons are the best place to see Aspens. They seem to grow right there; maybe it’s the water!
South Lake was magnificent. Beautiful colors! The trick is to take the road less traveled. So, we started hitting all unpaved roads. The place was magical! Out of a dreamland.
It was not everywhere, though. Patches, down most of the canyons. We were looking for Aspens along the lake, so that we could get reflections. We saw just that (though not too much) at North Lake. The Sun was just going down and we were getting real busy.
Too bad! We did not have time to just sit and enjoy being there 😞
We caught sunset at Lake Sabrina. I was tired soon enough. It got dark immediately. And we had another 50 miles to Mammoth Lakes before hitting the bed. Ram, our Saviour, took to the wheels. When we reached Swiss Chalet Motel, it was almost 8:00 pm. We had our dinner and Ram wanted to get a moonlight
Lee Vinning Canyon
Unpaved road leading to wonderland! shot (Just 2 days past full moon). So, we headed to Minaret Vista point some 4 miles away. It should have been at least 9500 ft above sea level and it showed.
All of us were freezing. No shot would change my mind. I sat in the car while Ram and Ganesh were out in the cold taking 30 sec exposure shots(duh!). Ram’s father probably made the right decision in staying back.
It was 10:30pm by the time we came to our rooms. I had to take a shower. Almost 11:30pm by the time I hit the bed. Ganesh had his eyes fixed on Tom Hanks in that lonely island (on TV, of course).
8th October morning, we wanted to catch sunrise at the same place. So, I got up at 5:30 am to get ready. By 7:00 pm, we were having our breakfast. The sun was already up by then. A couple minutes later, we were heading back to the visitor center. There, we got the information that Mammoth Lakes was late in fall color. So, we were heading to Convict Lake, 6 miles south, later.
Convict Lake was beautiful, with a lot
of Aspen trees along the edge of the lake. We met an interesting guy, who was fishing at the Lake. He asked us to look closely at the mountains. Indeed, it looked like a guy sleeping. We even saw a squirrel standing upside down. The mountain had so much to say. Wishing him a good catch, we stopped at various other places on the way to McGee Creek canyon.
McGee creek canyon was the most beautiful place I’d seen.
McGee Creek flowing by,
Yellow aspen leaves on the ground,
Aspen trees on either side;
It was like out of a movie set. None of us wanted to get out of that place. Again, we did not have time to hike to McGee Lake.
We still had Rock creek Canyon. There were some aspens lining either sides of the road. All our drive through, we saw clouds of Aspen trees high up all mountains. Just no way we could get to them.
It was past noon and we had to get back to Bay area later that day. Not until we were done with the June Lake loop (hwy 158
Lake Sabrina
Sun is setting from 395 north). We stopped for a hot chocolate break and found an interesting place. They had air hockey (at least Ram told me that). I hit 3 goals until we got to our coffees and hot chocolates. We had our drinks while chatting with him. He informed us that the water in June Lake was controlled from 3 dams constructed up above in the mountains in the early 1900’s. And that, his shop was more than 150 years old! Solid construction, my friend! He shared how much he hated Mammoth Lakes for its crowd. A contented man, I would say!
Thanking him for the drinks and how to figure out Cottonwoods and aspens, we continued our drive to Silver Lake. By the time we came back to the car, we saw at least 6 other people with heavy camera equipments taking shots.
The sun was going down and it was very beautiful. Not stopping too long at Grant Lake, we headed north from Lee Vinning to Lundy Canyon. A long drive took us up to the lake. Too late! All the leaves had fallen off.
The day ended and so had our trip. That was all we
on the way to Rock creek canyon
another hike down to find the river...
boy! were we adventurous? could see in 2 days. So, we turned back home in the dark. It wasn’t until midnight that we reached home.
The trip was great. We really enjoyed Ram and his father’s company and food 😉
Uncle cooks very well.
Unpacking for this trip and packing for the next one next weekend!!! The Grand Canyon.
Get back in a bit,
travelbuffs
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