Back in July we spent a week camping near Bishop, CA. There are a bunch of trails up in the mountains nearby and we were lucky to have time to explore many of them. Basically, lots of pretty scenery.
And a bit of wildlife - there were rodents of various size running around us at the French Camp campground, and I believe this one is a chipmunk (although I often get the little ones confused). It has stripes on the top of its head, if that matters. Regardless - it's cute!
One of many little lakes we hiked and ran to:
Trails like this make me want to get out and run:
John climbed up high one day, and this might be Tamarack Lake, or I might be remembering wrong:
The day we hiked up and over Mono Pass, looking down at the lovely Ruby Lake:
Happy to be here, although maybe not quite awake yet?
"Mono" means "one"; maybe that one thing is a rock:
That could be a bleak tarn:
More wonderful mountains on the other side:
We split up so John could roam around off-trail and I could seek out the Fourth Recess. Last year we saw glimpses of the First/Second Recesses as we were finishing our JMT/SHR loop, and I thought it would be fun to reach one of the lakes in the same area but from a completely different direction.
Bye John, have fun!
A bit of rain for a mountain morning, nothing a good rain jacket can't handle:
The peaceful and beautiful Fourth Recess - worth the work to get here:
John had some good views of his own:
In between high mountain hiking, we spent a couple days in Bishop for WiFi and road running. The name of this adopt-a-highway crew made me laugh:
The sign is overgrown, but it says something about the ramp to nowhere in front of the fence:
Something made a hole - and some tracks:
Yard art:
Not sure what this is, but perhaps we'll hear about Pythom's "Human Space Exploration" someday:
While poking around on Google Maps for places to run, John came across an interesting photo over at Crowley Lake across the way. Looks like something we should inspect closer! Called the Stone Columns, it's just another one of those "how come we haven't heard about this before?" things. It takes a bit of a hike to get there but totally worth it:
(peering in from the side) - "what are these things?"
From lake level - these things are so cool! Columns still standing, plus rocks littering the beach from columns that have fallen over:
I'm sure a geologist could explain how this happened. Or perhaps Google... definitely volcanic in nature, which is always appealing to us.
Things that make you go "hmmm..."
You can even walk around between the columns for a closer look:
A little "cave" goes further into the bank:
View of the lake:
Columns in the making:
Eroded columns:
Little bitty columns further from shore:
How many more of these types of things are still out there, waiting for us to "discover" them? I guess we just need to keep looking.
I'm sure there's a reason I took a picture of this large bird soaring high overhead - I suspect I was thinking it was a condor. Perhaps it was:
For sure, John spotted a bald eagle sitting not far from the columns, although it was a bit far for his camera's zoomability:
Back to the mountains! We drove up the road from Bishop to the North Lake trailhead and climbed up toward Piute Pass. Another beautiful day in the neighborhood.
I just love these rocks, especially when there's a creek flowing over them:
The other side of the pass:
On my way to Desolation Lake, because it was calling to me for some reason:
More gurgling water:
Yep, I could do this all day:
Thank you, Sierras!
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