After leaving Goldfield, we went back up the 95, through Tonopah and continued on until we reached the (completely abandoned) town of Coaldale, where we turned west and headed out on the 6. California, here we come! Not too long after crossing into California, even though Google was telling us to go a different route, at the cute little town of Benton, we turned and headed up the 120. This turned out to be a great choice. There was very little traffic (we saw maybe 4 or 5 cars altogether) and, for a mountain road, it had a lot of stretches that were straight for miles and miles and miles.
As we got closer to our destination (the town of Lee Vining), we had an incredible view of our true destination, Mono Lake.
We got into Lee Vining and found our hotel. It was too early to check in. What should we do? Instead of heading for the lake, I suggested heading up to the ghost town of Bodie. Off we went. However, when we got there, the road was closed (there was a gate blocking it) because it had not been cleared of snow. It was expected to open within the month though. ARGH!
We headed back to town and saw another great view of the lake.
We decided to stop at the Mono Lake Visitors Center on the way back to town.
We went on a roundabout way back to the hotel and passed a museum (that was closed) that featured a very unusual tourist attraction (also closed), the Upside-Down Cabin. A peek in the windows showed us that everything was upside down inside. Ha!
Back at the hotel, our room was finally ready.
We rested a bit after our long drive, I went to the little market next door for postcards and snacks...
...and then we took off to visit the lake and what it is known for...the tufa. Tufa are columns of rock and minerals. Similar to stalactites in caves that are formed by minerals in water dripping down into a cave, the tufa are created by the minerals in of geothermal hot springs pushing their way up through lake beds. The lake's water level is down so much from what it had been hundreds of years ago, the ancient tufa are now above water level and are incredible. Walking among them is like being in a very alien landscape.
While visiting the tufa, we had a visitor of our own...a coyote! Zowie!
After checking out the tufa, we took a scenic drive around a series of lakes. Known as the June Lake Loop, it was just gorgeous! The first shot is Grant Lake...followed by Silver Lake (my favorite of the lakes we saw), and then the town of June Lake, where we stopped to have dinner (eh).
That was pretty much it for that day.
The next day was the long, long, L-O-N-G trek home. UGH! We started off with breakfast in Mammoth at The Stove and then headed out on our long, 6+ hour drive.
We got home, cleaned out the car, got it returned...and the next day I was up at 5 a.m. and back at work by 7 a.m. UGH! But it was an amazing trip.
Thanks for taking it with me.
CHEERS!
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