"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul."

Its only appropriate to start this one out with a John Muir quote, as he traveled to and loved all the places in the Sierra that I'm about to show you (and many others that I haven't had the opportunity to visit yet...), but more than that, he is quite possibly the reason many of them still exist today.

Friday:

Spent the morning at work, that afternoon packing, and the evening on the road to Mammoth.  Here's a shot from my morning at work, taken of Lake Tahoe from the Upper Truckee Marsh...if you look closely you can see a raising hot air balloon in the center of the photo:

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Saturday:

My first day in Mammoth!  We spent the morning on the Owens River (me learning to fly fish, everyone else successfully fly-fishing...) after a few hours I got impatient with the wind impeding my learning and read a book instead.  So as not to feel as though I was wasting the $12.50 I had spent on a fishing license for that day I gave it another go before lunch and then threw in the towel after lunch and we took off to check out some local attractions:

The Owens River (aka. our fishin' spot)

Convict Lake (where we went after, so named for a gang of fugitives who escaped Carson City Prison in the 1870's and holed up in the mountains around this lake)

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Sunday:

After getting up early to hit the dusty trail, we hiked into the John Muir Wilderness and out to Sherwin Lakes, then to a pond, followed by Valentine Lake.  We met a couple on the way who warned us that Valentine lake was small and disappointing, all grown in and not that exciting.  We think maybe they made it to the pond and mistook it for Valentine Lake...What do you think?

John Muir Wilderness!

The Pond (still pretty beautiful...)

Valentine Lake (even more gorgeous than this picture in person and, in my opinion, well worth the 10 mile hike)

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Monday:

That brings us to today!  Another morning spent fishing by the Owens but since my fishing License was expired I spent it reading a book and painting in the beautiful river valley.  After we left Mammoth at lunch time we headed off to Lee Vining to see the famous Mono Lake (a Sierra salt lake whose glassy surface and unique "tufa" make it a California favorite) which I found to be incredibly beautiful despite its large fly population and pungent odor.  Next we headed home over Monitor Pass and then it was "back to life" time and I spent the evening unpacking and unwinding and getting ready for work tomorrow.  

Mono Lake

View from the top of the Eastern Slope of Monitor Pass

View down of the Western Slope. if you click and enlarge you can see smoke in the middle of the mountains from what we can only assume is a small forest fire...apparently they are commonplace to these parts but I'll never find then anything short of arresting and unnerving..)

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