Mammoth Lakes - Twin Lakes
From Silver Lake it was yet another short easy drive to
Mammoth Lakes. I turned off 395 onto the Mammoth Lakes Scenic Loop and saw lots
of potential free campsites in the Inyo National Forest. I decided to try to
drive up to Devil's Postpile National Monument, but had to turn back as the
road was still closed at Mammoth Mountain. After driving back to the town
of Mammoth Lakes and driving around every lake thereabouts, I settled on the
only open campground, the one at Twin Lakes.
On the drive in, I was VERY SURPRISED to see folks still skiing, on June 1st,
at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Resort!
When I arrived, I went for a short
2 hour - 3 mile hike, around the lake and up Twin Falls to Lake Mamie,
to the Old Mammoth Mine and back to camp. That afternoon
I also tried some more (unsuccessful) fishing :-)
This seemed to be the trip for waterfalls. Here was another beautiful one, in its
full glory. Mmmm mmm mmmm ....
Iwent off-trail to get to and up the falls. It was actually a little hairy because there
were snow covered rocks to deal with, but once
again, I made it with little or no damage :-)
When I got to the top of the falls I was rewarded with a really
nice view of Twin Lakes.
Then as I was walking the road back to camp I used the GPS to determine that
it was only a few hundred yards up the hill to Old Mammoth Mine, so I hiked up
to it. I also used the GPS to determine that I could cut off some of the hike
by shortcutting the road's switchbacks. I really like that little device.
Once again, there was no way for me to capture on film the beauty of this
setting as it was lit by the full moon that night. At 9200 ft, the air was clear
and cool, and when the moon rose it shone like a street light. There
was a nice little hill next to my camp site and I went up on it to
watch the moon that night. You could see the little wild flowers and
the huge mountains in the distance. It was a very memorable scene and
one I only reluctantly gave up to return home the next morning.
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