Blog - Frugal RV Travel

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Boondocking Guides
  • Contact Us

The Sierra Nevada Mountains are Blocking the View!

May 26, 2017 By frugalrvT! 3 Comments

After hanging around Mammoth Lakes for the past week, we can see why some of the locals we met arrived years ago to do the same. But they just never left.

We’re at higher elevations here and the views and our activities have changed.  We replaced desert with forest, rocks with lakes, and museums with hot springs. But those snow-capped Sierra Nevada Mountains continue to be our constant companions.

Boondocking in Inyo National Forest

We’re camping for free every night. This week we spent 6 nights in the Inyo National Forest and one on BLM land.

Inyo National Forest Boondocking
Camped on the Owens River Gorge

And virtually all our waking hours have been outdoors with beautiful daytime temperatures. We even lucked into four evening campfires.

Inyo National Forest Boondocking

We don’t have room to carry firewood but we take full advantage when previous campers leave it behind.

Inyo National Forest dispersed campsite
Big fire ring and a pile of firewood. A real bonus!

Convict Lake

This beautiful lake is tucked into the mountains, only two miles in but not visible from Hwy 395. We spent the day here, paddled our kayak around the lake but still didn’t get enough. We also hiked the three-mile trail.

Convict Lake

Kayaking on Convict Lake
Definitely appreciate our inflatable boat at times like this

On the hiking trail, we met a young man hiking back.  He wore ski-boots and  was carrying ski poles. His downhill skis were strapped to his back. It’s not the first time we’ve met such extreme sportsmen and women here. Back-country downhill skiing requires a lot of work.  There’s no lift; they walk up the mountainside (with skins on their skis) to get one run down. Wow!

Our hike around Convict Lake
By comparison, our hike was pretty lame… Even though we had to detour as the trail crossed a few patches of snow.
Convict Lake trail
A full hug for these trees requires 3 or 4 people my size.

Hot Creek Geologic Site

We marveled at geology in action on the east side of Hwy 395, off Hot Creek Fish Hatchery Road.

The seemingly innocent creek bed opens into a gorge where visitors marvel at boiling water, fumaroles, mud pots, and periodic geyser eruptions. We followed the walking trail – always keeping a safe distance, of course.

Hot Springs Geologic site
Very hot. Wow!

We considered this sort of a preview for Yellowstone National Park, which we hope to visit next month on our way home.

We found camping just outside the restricted area – in the National Forest overlooking the gorge.

Hot Creek Gorge
The view of the gorge from our site

Here we witnessed another strange phenomena. Just after sundown each night, eleven egrets flew in to roost in the tree directly above the steam from the boiling waters.

Egrets at Hot Creek
The white dots in the tree are Egrets
Egrets at Hot Creek Geological Site
A closer view

Hot Springs Social Time

Not far away, we soaked in similar mineral waters  (but at much more tolerable temperatures). We visited four tubs and soaked in three of them. Each time offered a new social encounter.

Crab Cooker Hot Springs
This spring is called Crab Cooker. And for good reason!
Hilltop Hot Springs
Hilltop  Hot Springs

I went back in the morning to take the above photo of our favorite tub. But imagine it the night before, when there were 8 of us in the tub from sundown until the stars came out. A 40-year old French Canadian tourist, a young man from South Lake Tahoe on his way to San Diego, two local men in the Construction business (they were close to our age), and a young couple from Colorado who freely passed around what they can now legally purchase in their state.

I like Randy’s phrase to describe what you learn in these type of conversations with strangers: “Hot tub wisdom”.

Almost everyone we met this week is very much into outdoor sports.  Or, if they’re older, like us, they used to be. Our hiking and paddling stories seem pretty tame when the talk goes from skiing to snow boarding, snowshoeing, snow tubing, river rafting, rock climbing, and mountain biking. Nevertheless, we loved being included in these always polite and sometimes amusing conversations.

June Lake Loop

Just a few miles north, we left Hwy 395 to drive a scenic detour: the June Lake Loop.

June Lake
There are four amazing mountain lakes on this drive. We walked the beach at June Lake
Rush Creek Waterfalls
And marveled at the very active Rush Creek Waterfalls

Tonight we’re camped near the end of that scenic drive – on the south shore of Grant Lake. It’s the northern-most lake on the loop. Once again, we’re boondocking courtesy of Inyo National Forest. The big fire ring and free firewood are courtesy of whoever was here last.

Grant Lake on June Lake Loop
Tonight’s boondocking site

Grateful? You bet we are! Every minute of every beautiful day!

We’ll continue north from here. After all, we can’t go west; the mountain passes won’t be open until much later than usual this year.

If we stand a chance at finding a campsite at Lake Tahoe, we don’t want to arrive during the Memorial Day weekend so we’ll continue on – but slowly. And we’ll have those Sierra Nevada Mountains within sight for a few days yet.

Darn it, though, they’re blocking the view 😉

Days on the road at time of posting: 76
Total camping costs to date: $62

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

Related

Share on Facebook Share
Share on TwitterTweet
Share on Pinterest Share

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Comments

  1. Sunny Harvy says

    May 26, 2017 at 12:57 pm

    You are making me want to go back!

    Reply
  2. Lisa McInnis says

    June 15, 2017 at 11:46 am

    We seem to travel in the same circles and at about the same speed.
    And at the same hot tubs…life just keeps getting better! Safe travels to you.
    Lisa

    Reply
    • frugalrvT! says

      June 16, 2017 at 10:29 pm

      Thanks. You too!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CAPTCHA
Refresh

*

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Recent Posts

  • Just Cruising Along when Suddenly Everything Changed
  • White Sand Beaches as Far as the Eye can See
  • RVillage Rally 2020 – A Bit of a Lovefest
  • Old and New Friends – All in New Places
  • Florida – what we came for

Archives

  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016

Categories

  • Arizona
  • Boondocking
  • California
  • Campground
  • Camping
  • Canada
  • Festival
  • Free Camping
  • Hiking
  • New Brunswick
  • Newfoundland
  • Nova Scotia
  • Ontario
  • Overnight RV Parking
  • Prince Edward Islan
  • Prince Edward Island
  • Quebec
  • Road Trip
  • RV – General
  • RV Travel Budget
  • RV Travels
  • Scenic Camping
  • Scenic Hike
  • Uncategorized
  • USA
  • Web Site and Blog

Older Blog Posts

Older Blog Posts
My older blog entries are hiding here.

Keep Updated

Subscribe to my RSS

Copyright © 2021 · Daily Dish Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in