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I am so grateful to those who recommended a trip to California and to Kevin Rooney for his help in planning. We ended up going to Mammoth Lakes which is a bit SE of Yosemite and without the crowds, though it's a pretty town that lacks for nothing and is ringed by granite peaks. A mountain lion was spotted walking the street at 5 am several mornings in a row. I had gone with a set itinerary but constantly changed it as we met fellow hikers telling us, "You have got to go to...!" So we did.
The really touristy hike we did was Devil's Postpile and Rainbow Falls/Lower Falls with a stop at wet Agnew Meadows to savor the jungle of flowers 6 feet high (totally deserted). We had to take a bus down from Mammoth Ski Area into the San Joaquin River Valley and were happily surprised by the bus driver with his wealth of tree-flower-history-geology knowledge.
We climbed a good deal but never quite made any peaks. There were just too many flowers, lakes, beaver ponds, and views to take in. The beauty of this area is that Rte 395 bisects two very different regions, the granite Sierras to the west and the fascinating desert peaks bordering Nevada to the east. The desert peaks are no slouch - White Mountain Peak is over 14K, and the Sweetwater Range to the north is astoundingly beautiful, with shades of green, beige, orange, and even purple. The sagebrush flats of the Great Basin merge into the alpine greenery of the Sierra Nevada.
We even got lucky with the weather. The faint smell of smoke from the wildfires was banished after a bit of rain, and the almost-daily thunderstorms usually stalled over the Sierra as they came west and never reached us except to provide some fabulous photo-ops.
Pics are here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/567050313YTyoBA
The really touristy hike we did was Devil's Postpile and Rainbow Falls/Lower Falls with a stop at wet Agnew Meadows to savor the jungle of flowers 6 feet high (totally deserted). We had to take a bus down from Mammoth Ski Area into the San Joaquin River Valley and were happily surprised by the bus driver with his wealth of tree-flower-history-geology knowledge.
We climbed a good deal but never quite made any peaks. There were just too many flowers, lakes, beaver ponds, and views to take in. The beauty of this area is that Rte 395 bisects two very different regions, the granite Sierras to the west and the fascinating desert peaks bordering Nevada to the east. The desert peaks are no slouch - White Mountain Peak is over 14K, and the Sweetwater Range to the north is astoundingly beautiful, with shades of green, beige, orange, and even purple. The sagebrush flats of the Great Basin merge into the alpine greenery of the Sierra Nevada.
We even got lucky with the weather. The faint smell of smoke from the wildfires was banished after a bit of rain, and the almost-daily thunderstorms usually stalled over the Sierra as they came west and never reached us except to provide some fabulous photo-ops.
Pics are here:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/567050313YTyoBA
