The day we arrived in Lee Vining and stopped at the Mono Basin Visitor Center, the ranger gave us lots of information on hiking in the area. One of the hikes he highly recommended was Lundy Canyon, off Lundy Lake Rd about 7 miles north of town.
Past the campground, lake, and rustic “resort”, the road turns to dirt and rocks for about 2 miles and dead ends at the trail head. It sure is nice to have the Subaru.
It was a perfect day for a hike. The wind shifted and cleared the smoke, and at 8,000’ it was in the mid 60s when we started. This trail has it all. Ponds, beaver dams, wildflowers, cascades, huge waterfalls, stream crossings, and all with a fairly gradual climb up the canyon.
Amazing what beavers can do.
Some of the trail was steep and rocky.
But there were also level sections through the aspen.
The scenery rivaled what we saw last summer in Colorado. We climbed over 800’ feet in about 2.5 miles to get to the upper falls. What a nice place to have a bite to eat before turning back.
We were hoping to run into Clint along the trail, but he probably carved this in his younger days.
Some of the views.
“Indian Rock” on the road out of the resort.
Many people have recommended eating at the Mobil Station’s Whoa Nellie Deli at the intersection of Tioga Pass Rd and 395, so we stopped there for dinner last night. It may be fine if you’re not a vegetarian, as Debbie enjoyed her fish tacos, but it is busy, very expensive, and just okay in our opinion. Our choices were a veggie sandwich or vegetarian chili. The chili and cornbread were good, but $10 for a bowl of chili? It was a large bowl, and we took half home so at least we have another meal out of it.
As we pulled up to our site, we noticed a car off the road that appeared to be stuck in the sand. Jim got out a bag of Lynx levelers and walked down to see if he could help. They got the guy out of the original spot, but as he tried to pull forward he got stuck even worse. He was planning to spend the night in his car and wait for someone with a truck to drive by, and we just saw him drive off this morning, so apparently he found help.
At least he was stuck in a beautiful spot.
Ha. You made me laugh about the Clint joke.
ReplyDeleteGreat hike and it looked solitary.
Thanks!
Wonderful hike. You got us all fired up. We are leaving here the first of September headed for Utah. We are both having hiking withdrawal. Can't wait to get back on the trails.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful hike! Another one to add to my list. Actually I should just follow you around in Winnona, you find the best places. I'll have to get her seriously solarized before I can do it though. That's on THE LIST.
ReplyDeleteOh say it isn't so that Clint would carve his name in a tree trunk. :-))
You were right, that hike had it all. Oh, how I wish I had a few boulders to scramble! What a great hike! Those were very busy beavers for sure.
ReplyDeleteThat's my kind of hike! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteMetamorphosis Lisa
We absolutely love camping along Hwy 395. We've made a stop at Mono Lake each the past 2 years, since purchasing our camper, there in route to Death Valley. We usually stay at Topaz Lake for the hook-ups because of the November coldness. This spring we finally got to stop at Mono Lake. I hope you get to hike at these places once the kids head back to school: http://greatwhiteadventures.blogspot.com/2013/07/june-1-2013-leaving-santa-rosa.html
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about your travels as I planned our trip to the southwest earlier this year. I look forward to your posts in my e-mail.