Quick Trip to the Moon

Driving up over Tioga Pass in California is beautiful and intimidating... especially when you drop down on the East side. This is when you ask yourself, "Why in the world would anyone even think to build a road up here?" After you drive through Tuolumne Meadows and climb up to the pass and then down past Tioga and Ellery Lake the landscape starts to change. You start down a very steep grade and into the Mono Basin. You finally reach highway 395.
We turned north and drove through the town of Lee Vining, to the Mono Basin Visitor Center.

It's a good overview of the lake but quite a distance from the shore. I remembered, on another trip years ago, that the Prospector and I had driven out on a long road to the south shore of the lake where you could walk among the Tufa.  So, inside the center, we asked someone behind a desk and he gave us directions to the South Tufa area. It's about 10 miles off the freeway and now has parking, a small information center and board walks out the the lake. Now, you also pay a $3.00 fee.
The lake level has dropped considerably in the years since I had been there.

The reason visitors see so much tufa around Mono Lake today is because the lake level fell dramatically after water diversions began in 1941.

Let me tell you a little about this Tufa. Geologists call this tufa (too'-fah... not Tofu). Tufa is common limestone.

 Underwater springs rich in calcium  mix with the lakewater that is rich with carbonates.

  As the calcium comes in contact with carbonates in the lake,a chemical reaction occurs resulting in calcium carbonate--limestone. The calcium carbonate settles out of  as a solid around the spring, and over the centuries, a tufa tower grows.

 Tufa towers grow exclusively underwater, and some grow to over 30 feet tall.

 Tufa is essentially common limestone. Dead plants, dead birds and anything that ends up in the lake will become fossilized with this calcium mix and basically turn to stone in this lake. Interesting stuff? Beer cans will be found millions of years from now and geologists will theorize about the origin of these small pumice boulders. But, by then, the lake will likely be gone. At the end of the last ice age it was five times bigger than it is today! So, I'm thinking that there won't be any lake left in 1.8 million years, if the planet lasts that long.

We had a great time crawling all over this place. "D" looked very professional in this shot...

She's bracing the camera against the wind. It was blowing from the south and never stopped.
I turned and took this shot toward the west and the Sierra Mountains from which we had come...

It truly was like being in another world... but interesting and not without its own beauty.

Nearly 2,000,000 waterbirds, including 35 species of shorebirds, use Mono Lake to rest and eat for at least part of the year.
One small Audubon's Warbler peered at us from the top of a tufa.

And a few squirrels were sunning themselves, and looking out at the mountains.

 

They did not seem bothered by the people coming and going on the trail. Again... the wildlife seems surprisingly at ease with humans.

We walked back to the car against a cold wind.

 The place took on a different feel. 

Probably because we were cold, tired and hungry.

We drove the 10 miles back to the highway and then into Lee Vining to eat an early dinner. We had not eaten since the cafe in Coulterville that morning... except for some crackers and a coke. Yeah... I know. It was time for some real food. We found a restaurant and got some hot tea and BIG Chinese Chicken salad. Salad never tasted so good. 

As we passed this motel, walking to the car,

  I kind of wished that I could just pay for an hour's worth of sleep. Just a short  nap... but it was 4:00 p.m. and we still had to drive back into the park, over the pass and into Yosemite Valley before dark. "D" drove. We said goodbye to Mono Basin and climbed up the grade toward the east entrance to the park.

We wanted some "good light" and we got it at Olmsted Point. This was the "Golden hour" in  photography terms. The sun was setting in the Valley and I was in the right place and the it was the right time. 

I got the "money " shot. 

It was magical. Being there was magical...

The light was perfect. This is what Yosemite is all about. This is Half Dome as the sun was setting. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. 

The wind had died down and the light was perfect. 

What more could I ask for?

Sometimes life gives you a moment that stays with you forever. This was one of them. 

Next time... The Valley of Yosemite.

Traveling Sisterhood

What a week it was.
My friend "D", from Montana, arrived at Sacramento Airport last Friday night, with a heavy bag and a weary expression. She had all her big camera equipment in her "carry on"  and wanted to keep her luggage with her, so she didn't check her bags... she carried them and they were heavy.  She had a long layover in Seattle where she had to switch planes. She was really glad to be done with being "in the air". We drove back up to Jackson and settled in.
We rested up on the weekend, only going to the River Reflections celebration at Pardee Reservoir on Saturday and going to dinner at Teresa's for dinner on Mother's Day.

 This was one of the really creative artists that contributed to the River Reflections festivities. Her name is Leslie Vasquez and this is an interpretation of the beautiful Mokelumne River.

Amazing costume. Amazing idea. She is the river.

She is all the parts of the river that make it what it is... the rocks, the flora and fauna, the water...flowing from her finger tips. I'm not sure how this was done, but it was mesmerizing.
We had a good time and enjoyed the beautiful day.
Sunday I showed "D" how to blow out eggs and create little ornaments out of them. She even did some Squeekie eggs. One of the reasons that she came down was to learn how to make these eggs... kind of like a Mother's Day special workshop. She was inspired by my post on my mom's eggs at Easter. We had a great time working on them. She was an egg-obssessed woman. She created 6 or 7 of them and then we packed them up and sent them to Montana. When the mail guy asked if we had anything "fragile" in the package... we laughed and said "Oh, yeah." at the same time. I forgot to take a picture of them before we packaged them. They were beautiful.

On Monday we left for Yosemite. We drove south on highway 49 through Angels Camp and Jamestown, continued south to Coulterville where we stopped for coffee and information. The place is called Mary Lou's Cup of Brew and it was just what we needed.  We were able to stop and stretch, use her bathroom, drink some good coffee, eat a blueberry scone and... she gave us some great information about getting to Yosemite.

She  recommended the route east, over to 120 instead of the really winding highway 49 into Mariposa. So we drove east to 120... which was a nicer drive and went into the park at the north entrance. 

We drove through the Rim fire area, the fire that started in August of 2013. It's such a scar on the landscape.

 It was the third largest wildfire in California's history and burned 257,314 acres (402.053 sq. miles). It was the largest wildfire on record in the Sierra Nevada mountain range.Yes, there's some green growth on the ground but the trees are burned beyond anything you can imagine. It's very sad. As far as you can see, there is nothing but scorched earth.
Even after we entered the park the burned area continued. The fire consumed 78,895 acres of parkland on its North edge.
We drove to Crane Flat and decided to drive east to the upper part of Yosemite. We had reservations in Yosemite Valley but couldn't get into our room until 5:00 p.m. anyway, so we thought that a drive east on Tioga Rd. would be fun. Donna had never seen any of this and it has been years since I had traveled in the upper part of the park.This is an amazingly beautiful drive.
We stopped many times. There were trees growing out of the granite.

 Looking like someone just stuck them in place.

These are, I believe called Bristlecone pines. Some are more than 5,000 years old.

These beautiful twisted trees sometimes have roots that are growing out on the rock, as if they didn't need dirt... as if the elements are giving them what they need and they are completely adapted to their environment. This is deceptive though. They are really kind of endangered because of their low rate of reproduction and regeneration. It is thought that under present climatic and environmental conditions the rate of regeneration may be insufficient to sustain its population.

We parked and got out at Olmsted Point.  It was very cold and extremely windy.  It was so cold that I forgot to reset the settings on my camera and over exposed every photo at the lookout. I did get better results coming back that night. I will show some photos of this later.

Then we drove up through Tuolumne Meadows where the Pacific Coast Trail and the John Muir Trail come through. This is a beautiful high mountain valley... with a visitor's center and facilities (yes... bathrooms.)

With a beautiful Coyote that greeted us on the highway.

This Coyote was way too use to people. It was weary but not that afraid.

I think it was young and thought we might have some food. There is up to a $5,000. fine for feeding the animals in the park, but still... this animal acted like he had been fed before. 

What a beautiful creature .

It stuck around for quite a while... waiting and watching  for anyone who might give it something to eat. We loved being so close to something so wild but it's a shame that they aren't afraid of humans.

The Stellar Jay was the same. Waiting in the rest area for someone to throw bread or food in its direction.
Looking annoyed about the situation...

Demanding attention...

 ... looking for food and making a lot of noise about it. "D" wanted those blue feathers to decorate her eggs, but there weren't any lying around so... here are your feathers, m' dear. Frame them and enjoy. The bird didn't want to give them up. You know I tried. I talked to him.  He said "No... no food, no feathers."

The scenery is awesome on Tioga Pass. It's so huge and wild.

Every turn in the road takes your breath away.

This is somewhere near Tioga Pass and the eastern entrance to the park. I'm going to stop now and save Lee Vining and Mono Lake for another post. I'm still tired from all the activity and need my beauty sleep.
Haven't really caught up yet. It's all Donna's fault. She's been dragging me around and getting me in trouble since we were 10 years old.... but I love it.