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Yosemite and Mono LakeOct 3, 2009
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First Look at Mono Lake
Starting West toward Tioga Pass
On the Way to Tioga Pass
Yesterday morning we left South Lake Tahoe headed for Pahrump Nevada by way of Hawthorne. But Sue looked at the map and decided we should turn right instead and head for the small town of Lee Vining, CA.
The motivation for the turn was to have a chance to revisit Yosemite National Park (in part motivated by Ken Burns National Park series). To our surprise as we came over the pass to descend into the Mono Valley, where Lee Vining is located, we were amazed as Mono Lake came into view in a bright shade of blue.
We left early this morning for the drive to Yosemite Valley via Tioga Pass. Although we visited the park a couple of years ago, we spent all of our time on the west side, so this was new territory for us. The early part of the drive was especially scenic as the sun shown on the side of the mountains.
We arrived at the valley and decided to walk on the paved bicycle paths where Arnie was allowed to join us. It was a good way to explore the valley as we headed toward Half Dome and Mirror Lake. Because we had been warned we were not surprised to find that the lake was bone dry!
October is a good time to visit Yosemite because the traffic is down, but a bad time to see its water features. The especially dry summer left the water falls as trickles of their former selves. Nevertheless Yosemite is an awesome place.
We stopped as we climbed back out of the valley to look at some fire damage in a large section of Big Meadow. It turned out that the fire had occurred a month earlier when a prescribed burn got out of control!
As we drove back toward Tioga Pass we had one more great view spot at Olmsted Point. Although we had driven about 50 miles out of Yosemite Valley, Olmsted Point provided one more excellent view of Half Dome. But that view (to the south) was not the best view there. As we looked to the north and east we had a super view of Tenaya Peak and Tenaya Lake below.
We got back to Lee Vining in time to spend a little time at the visitors center at Mono Lake. We learned how Los Angeles’ thirst for water had once threatened the lake, lowering the level by 44 feet. They are now in the process, under a court settlement, of cooperatively working to raise the level by nineteen feet from that low point.
Tomorrow we plan to head toward Death Valley.
