More from the 395

Here's some more of the unique beauty of the eastern Sierra Nevada.

Convict Lake is a small gem in the middle of a bunch of high mountains.

There's a story about how it got it's name. It involves convicts and 

wild west shenanigans; people gettin' killed and whatnot.

This is another forest service campground in the mountains. 

It was called something like Intake 2. The host closed 

the campground once everyone left. Thanks teaparty.

The Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest is also a federal

operation, so they were also closed but you could hike the trails.

Some of these trees are among the oldest living things on Earth.

Over 4000 years old they look half dead. At 10,000 feet elevation

the environment is harshbut they continue to live. They thrive on hardship.

Also Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in California, and the Alabama Hills.

Adrift in the Northwest Part II

I spent a few days at Deer Harbor. Literally. At the harbor. 

Here's a nice first quarter moon evening shot.

And I actually got on a boat for extended periods of time without nausea! 

I bought dramamine and wrist bands but needed neither. Yea!

I even did some sound cruising with Captain McLoudhailer.

Heading south from the farthest reaches of the continental US, 

I proceeded to parts of the Cascade Range I had not yet visited. 

Lava Beds National Monument has lots of small volcanoes instead of 
one big cone because the pressures holding the magma down and 
the resulting uplift are more diffuse. It's called a shield volcano 
because it's convex kind of like a shield. There are also lava tubes 
you can explore. You need a flashlight and a helmet to enter. 
There's one you can walk into at one end and walk out the other, 
maybe 1000 yards away. I was thinking 
I should have brought a backup flashlight. Or two.

Then on to Lassen Volcanic National Park. 
There's a hiking trail to the summit. 
A hiking trail! No Sherpas; no special gear; no oxygen. 
You can just walk to the top of a 10,462 ft volcano!

After a soak in a hot spring near Bridgeport I drove 20 miles to Bodie. 
A former booming gold mining town, now a ghost town 
and state park. Very interesting. It looks like people 
just up and left without their stuff. Eerie and beautiful 
in that fabled Old-West kind of way.

Then it's only about 30 miles to Mono Lake, another wonder 
of nature. The tufas were created under water when the lake was 
much higher and exposed when the runoff that replenishes the 
lake was diverted to Los Angeles and the lake began to dry up. 
The runoff emerges in the lake as freshwater springs. The calcium
 rich freshwater combines with the carbon rich, salty lake water to 
form calcium carbonate, and shazam! A thousand years later: tufas! 
Eerie and beautiful in that eerie and beautiful kind of way. These 
photos were shot at dawn and the early morning.

And... the Sierra Nevada mountains are. Right. There. And they are amazing!