Virginia Lakes Trail and More

 

After every hike and drive we’ve done so far in the Eastern Sierra, we think it isn’t possible for the scenery to get any better. Then another day dawns, another drive, another trail, and more incredible places. We made a very good decision to come here. Plus no rain, no mud and no humidity.

Yesterday we drove a bit north of Lee Vining to the Virginia Lakes Trail, down a dirt road past a campground and rustic resort, to another set of high country lakes. The guide said the first 1.4 miles was easy, so we thought we would at least go that far and see how we felt.

We didn’t think it was all that easy, and after hiking above Blue Lake and Cooney Lake, then getting off on the wrong trail for a while, we finally came to the Frog Lakes, stopped for a bite to eat, and decided to head back. We ended up walking 3.8 miles, a good workout in another lovely area. Sure beats going to the gym.

An accidental shot.                                     A nice tree-o.

                              

Can’t remember which lake is which, not that it matters. We enjoyed looking at all of them. Gave us a good excuse to stop and catch our breath.

An old miner’s cabin.

The roof was covered with rocks.

Colorful wildflowers were blooming amongst the colorful rocks.

Today we took a drive south along the June Lake Loop for a short hike and to scope out some campgrounds. Oh! Ridge Campground had some okay sites, but they were very close together. One of the empty sites came with a deer.

We liked the views from Silver Lake Campground, and we could stay there if we have to, but we are still searching for another place to boondock after we leave Mono Lake. If anyone has a suggestion for a good spot between here and Mammoth Lake, shoot us an email. We promise not to divulge anyone’s secret place;)

We stopped at Gull Lake for a two mile loop hike.

The trail isn’t all that easy to follow as it goes through some private property and a campground, or more likely we missed some signs. We met a nice woman on the trail who has a cabin on the lake. Said she helped build the trail. Her dog, Tank, had some booties on his back feet to keep out the stickers. She said she has a hard time getting them on his front paws but they aren’t as problematic as the back.

We came across a large group of people jumping into the lake from a rope swing.

This is a ski resort in the winter.

Elaborate carved wood furniture by the marina, surrounding a fire pit.

I suppose one of these days we should do laundry and pick up some groceries, but we feel like we’re on vacation since there is so much to see and do around here. Guess there’s always tomorrow.

Gaylor Lakes Trail, Yosemite National Park

 

Yesterday was cool and clear, and we were in the mood for a high country hike, so we drove to the highest trail head in Yosemite, the Gaylor Lakes Trail, just inside the Tioga Pass entrance. There was a long line of cars waiting to get in, so we just parked at a pull off outside the park and walked in.

We read that the trail climbed in the beginning, but it seemed relentless at times. Eight tenths of a mile gaining over 600 feet doesn’t sound like much on paper, but at 10,000 feet it was quite a struggle. Debbie didn’t join us, as her knees were feeling our previous day’s hike, and we joked on the way up that she would not have been very happy on this trail. I just can’t understand why she doesn’t enjoy gasping for breath on steep trails like I do!

To me, this is what makes it all worthwhile. Our first glimpse of Middle Gaylor Lake, after surviving the climb.

Of course, we still had to get down there.

Being Yosemite National Park, we knew we would be sharing the trail with other hikers, but we really expected that there would be more. We actually met several very nice folks along the way, including two polite young men from LA who led groups for the YMCA, and assured us on the climb up that they were both certified in CPR. They were a little faster than us, but we made sure to keep them in our sights for most of the 6 mile hike, just in case.

Our original plan was to just do the loop around the lake, for a nice three mile hike, but the “CPR Guys” and a foreign gentleman we spoke with told us we should take a side trail to a couple other lakes and an old mine.

It was a much gentler climb to Upper Gaylor Lake, so we stopped for lunch in the shelter of some trees, then continued on to the mine. It was at our lunch break that Jim realized one of the lenses in his prescription sunglasses had fallen out while he had them hanging around his neck.

Rocky shores of Upper Gaylor Lake.

Gaylor Peak across the lake.

Somewhere along here we ran into a couple we had met earlier on the steep part of the trail, and Jim jokingly asked if they had found a sunglass lens. Wouldn’t you know they had! But the guy said he didn’t know what to do with it and just left it on the ground.

It was a bit more of a climb up to the remnants of the Great Sierra Mine.

But the views were worth every step.

Another friendly hiker asked if we would like our picture taken.

But I kind of like the one I took of Jim alone better. You just can’t appreciate how high we were from these photos, close to 11,000’.

We decided to hike a little farther to get a view of Granite Lake, and thought it best to turn back at that point.

On the hike back we had to finish the loop around both of the Gaylor Lakes, and had forgotten about the lens at that point.

Just as we came around the lower lake to make the climb back out, I caught a glimpse of something black sitting on a rock. Jim had already passed it by, and I almost didn’t bend over to get a good look, but for some reason I did, at which point I realized it was Jim’s lens. And amazingly it wasn’t scratched!

It was a slow downhill back to the car, almost seemed steeper than going up.

As we got off the trail and walked by the park entrance, a young woman came up and asked if we had found a small silver camera on the trail. Sorry, but no. Jim then told her his sunglass lens story, and she laughed. Said she saw it sitting on the rock! It’s a small world sometimes.

I heard the ranger tell these people all the campgrounds in the park were full. I sure hope they had reservations as they had a carload of kids.

And this is how we felt last night, tired but good from all those negative ions in the air. You learn the most interesting things from reading blogs. Thanks, Life With Kurumi.

Lundy Canyon Trail

 

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.

Tufa Time

 

Mono Lake is famous for the tufa towers along part of its shoreline. No, we didn’t know what a tufa was, either, so we decided to take the 10am naturalist guided hike at the South Tufa Area. This is a fee area ($3.00 pp) but Jim’s senior pass got us in for free. It’s so nice that he’s old(er).

Here are some of the things we learned: Mono Lake is thought to be at least 760,000 years old and has no outlet. The streams that flow into it carry salt and other minerals, and as the water naturally evaporates, the minerals are left behind. As a result Mono Lake is extremely salty and alkaline. No fish can live in it, but alkali flies and brine shrimp thrive here. Tufa is a limestone deposit that forms when fresh water springs containing calcium flow up from beneath the lake and react with the carbonate-rich lake water, which means they can only form under water.

We wouldn’t have been able to see the tufa today had the city of Los Angeles not purchased the water rights to the streams that flow into Mono Lake in the 1940s. As a result of diverting this water, the level of Mono Lake eventually dropped more than 40 feet, exposing the tufa. The environmentalists began to take action in the late 70s and finally succeeded, although it took until 1994. LA is still diverting water, but in much smaller amounts to allow the lake to refill. They are only going to let it refill to 1963 levels, which will keep most of the tufa exposed. Have to keep those tourism dollars coming in, I suppose.

Enough history. These alkali flies feed on algae along the shoreline, and are high in fat and protein. Unlike regular flies they have no interest in humans, but they attract over 300 species of birds, many of them migratory.

Good eating!

The birds also feed on artemia monica, a type of tiny brine shrimp that live in the lake.

We had a fun and educational morning. I’ll leave you with some photos of a few of the birds we saw.

Mono Lake is a nesting place for many osprey. A volunteer had a scope set up so we could see these fledglings.

This is really a beautiful place.