Well I woke to a misty gray morning . I sat in the muted light & sipped my freshly brewed coffee, enjoying the silence. I had already surrendered to the inevitable. I was okay, it's a happy day in Charityland when I've seen clouds, and that was the view out my window. The neatly gathered pile sitting on the kitchen counter was not going to be used, well not today anyway, or that's what I thought.
However as Jeff came down the stairs he said, "why not? What's a little rain gonna do?" So it was go-time, off we went on our great adventurous return to the Eastern Sierras. We went through Yosemite, Over Tioga Pass. We stopped to check out the beautiful Tenaya Lake for a bit of inspiration. At Olmsted Point we took the short hike to check out the amazing view of the backside of Yosemite's Valley and the canyon below, promising a certain death (in the rain), it's just so beautiful, we risked it none-the-less.
We then exited onto 395, we exhaled with a nice view of Mono Lake as we made our way a little further down to the June Lake Loop in June CA. We like to enter through the north side of this incredible area. You are entertained by viewing high desert, an aspen forest and then a pine forest, returning to high desert as you leave this secret jewel. Yet not before passing four pristine lakes and a quaint little village. We had our lunch at the beach of June Lake in our 4runner, because it was raining pretty good.
As we sat there looking into the clear/ turquoise water and beautiful pebbles below, Ricky began his campaign in getting us to let him swim out to a boulder in this alpine ICE COLD glacier gem. Remembering, of course the rain & cold, COLD wind. As I circled my head around the Switzerland looking snow capped, heavily misted high mountain peaks. As I looked at the steam rising from the lake, I found myself saying...fine...go ahead. The rest of us readied towels, underneath our clothing to keep the rain off, while Ricky swam out to a boulder he set his eyes on. He Climbed out, stood up & shouted his victory! He then swam back to shore, where we wrapped him and stuffed him the car.
After a quick stop at the visitor center for some literature for a newspaper article we drove on to Mammoth. On this route we spotted snow along the highway. We had never been to this area before, but knew there was quit a bit to it, so we just picked one destination.We hiked the amazing Devils Postpile Monument trail. (both in front and overlook). On the way back we stopped at the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. Very clear. Very cold. Very beautiful. I was humbled to realize how far up we were & that this very river cuts all the way across Fresno, out by 99. Wow. oh, and yes, it stopped raining so we could take our hike. Absolutely incredible.
We had to ride with the bus service from the town of Mammoth all the way down the Red Meadow Canyon because only certain privileged few were allowed to use the road. Summer road trips usually bring roads we crawl on carefully passing over hairpin turns on steep mountain roads, but this was two way traffic on a one way road, on the side of a canyon...in buses!!!. I was clinging to an arm hold the whole time. The good news is we lived! Hee-hee. Actually, the good news is we had two drivers that really wanted to share their knowledge of the area...you know me, I took plenty of notes! Let us not forget the most excellent news of all...there was snow...in August! Thank you Lord Jesus for the respite.
However as Jeff came down the stairs he said, "why not? What's a little rain gonna do?" So it was go-time, off we went on our great adventurous return to the Eastern Sierras. We went through Yosemite, Over Tioga Pass. We stopped to check out the beautiful Tenaya Lake for a bit of inspiration. At Olmsted Point we took the short hike to check out the amazing view of the backside of Yosemite's Valley and the canyon below, promising a certain death (in the rain), it's just so beautiful, we risked it none-the-less.
We then exited onto 395, we exhaled with a nice view of Mono Lake as we made our way a little further down to the June Lake Loop in June CA. We like to enter through the north side of this incredible area. You are entertained by viewing high desert, an aspen forest and then a pine forest, returning to high desert as you leave this secret jewel. Yet not before passing four pristine lakes and a quaint little village. We had our lunch at the beach of June Lake in our 4runner, because it was raining pretty good.
As we sat there looking into the clear/ turquoise water and beautiful pebbles below, Ricky began his campaign in getting us to let him swim out to a boulder in this alpine ICE COLD glacier gem. Remembering, of course the rain & cold, COLD wind. As I circled my head around the Switzerland looking snow capped, heavily misted high mountain peaks. As I looked at the steam rising from the lake, I found myself saying...fine...go ahead. The rest of us readied towels, underneath our clothing to keep the rain off, while Ricky swam out to a boulder he set his eyes on. He Climbed out, stood up & shouted his victory! He then swam back to shore, where we wrapped him and stuffed him the car.
After a quick stop at the visitor center for some literature for a newspaper article we drove on to Mammoth. On this route we spotted snow along the highway. We had never been to this area before, but knew there was quit a bit to it, so we just picked one destination.We hiked the amazing Devils Postpile Monument trail. (both in front and overlook). On the way back we stopped at the South Fork of the San Joaquin River. Very clear. Very cold. Very beautiful. I was humbled to realize how far up we were & that this very river cuts all the way across Fresno, out by 99. Wow. oh, and yes, it stopped raining so we could take our hike. Absolutely incredible.
We had to ride with the bus service from the town of Mammoth all the way down the Red Meadow Canyon because only certain privileged few were allowed to use the road. Summer road trips usually bring roads we crawl on carefully passing over hairpin turns on steep mountain roads, but this was two way traffic on a one way road, on the side of a canyon...in buses!!!. I was clinging to an arm hold the whole time. The good news is we lived! Hee-hee. Actually, the good news is we had two drivers that really wanted to share their knowledge of the area...you know me, I took plenty of notes! Let us not forget the most excellent news of all...there was snow...in August! Thank you Lord Jesus for the respite.
1 comment:
As always a field trip with Charity Anne is a wonderful experience, and this one I'll treasure always.
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