This was a fantastic long weekend exploring the eastern Sierras with the Dixon family! Du, Cato, and Breana headed over earlier on Friday in order to check out Alabama Hills in Lone Pine (very worthy camping area to spend more time hiking around looking for arches…as well as getting to know the movie history more). We woke up to a beautiful sunrise on Mt. Whitney right from our tent window!
On Saturday, we met up with Barb, Dave, and Colby to explore the back roads of the Owen’s Valley trying to follow the route that Mammoth Lakes Pack Outfit uses to drive the horses from winter pastures in Independence up to summer jobs in Mammoth Lakes. We found some cool ruins and only a couple gates (mostly unlocked). The surpise highlight was stumbling upon the Black Rock Fish Hatchery and getting a private tour including feeding the Rainbow Trout! We were super excited to find the actual camping spot marked on Barb’s map where the horses spent one of the nights along the horse drive. The last stop of the day was driving on the beach at Crowley Lake to view the stone columns (Cato was more interested in wading in the water with Grandma). We found a fantastic camping spot up on the bluff overlooking the lake and out to Mammoth Mountain. Cato was super excited to help Grandma make the shish kabob’s for dinner.
On Sunday, we drove on into Mammoth to take care of some errands (including Colby dropping some money at the mountaineering store) and grab lunch at Distant Brewing. After lunch, we aired down the truck tires and started the four-wheel drive climb up to Laurel Lakes at 9700′ of elevation. It was a fun drive that included lots of rocks, some nail biting cross slopes, and a 5+ point turn to get around a switch back (not intended for long crew cab Tacomas, but they did it!). The lake was stunning but windy and Colby got to go sailing across the water on an air matress while Cato threw LOTS of rocks.
Monday morning, the group opted to skip cooking breakfast (cold and still breezy) to just head down the mountain. We had a lovely brunch at Tom’s Place and did some recon of the cabins for a future East Side trip. To wrap up the trip, it was a loooong drive home including sitting in Labor Day traffic on Hwy 395 for an hour. What a jam-packed, fun weekend!
