Finished off the summer with a trip to Red’s Meadow. Until the snow starts falling, you can drive yourself down the mega-scary mostly one-lane road to the Devil’s Postpile trailhead. From there, it’s a short and easy walk to the monument and a longer, more strenuous trek over to Rainbow Falls.
You can also drive farther into Red’s Meadow to reach the Rainbow Falls Trailhead, if you’re not interested in hiking from one to the next.
When you live in Mammoth Lakes, you will eventually find a need (or want) for something that can’t be purchased at Rite Aid, Vons, or even the K-Mart in Bishop. When that happens, a roadtrip is in order.
Carson City, Nevada is about 2.5-3 hours away, and has all the things you inexplicably miss about living in the city, even though you totally hate living in the city.
We headed out yesterday morning to pick up a fancy new camera (and a burger at In-n-Out Burger, of course) with our eager-to-tag-along dog in tow. It was about 87 degrees in Carson City, according to the sign on one of the buildings, so we took turns popping into Best Buy so one of us could stay outside with the pup, and ultimately decided to head back after lunch instead of making our typical Trader Joe’s & Target stops.
As we approached the turn for State Route 270 into Bodie SHP, we decided that a detour was in order. I’d heard dogs were allowed into the park, so it seemed like the perfect time to visit.
Bodie is an old abandoned mining town located in pretty much the middle of nowhere. I’ve never been one for visiting ghost towns, but this was actually pretty much awesome.
We parked out on the street leading up to the entrance (not sure why, it just looked like everyone else was doing it), but you can (and probably should) drive in and park in a lot within the park. As we walked toward the entrance to pay our admission fees ($7 for each adult; the doggie was FREEEEE!), I fumbled around with the new fancy camera before realizing I’d forgotten to pick up a memory card. Figures.
Luckily, I had my handy Harinezumi with me. Its super blown-out and mega-saturated images actually captured Bodie pretty well, in my estimation. What do you think? It was running out of batteries (talk about unprepared), so I didn’t get to take as many photos as I would have liked, and I’m pretty sure the dwindling power was doing something crazy to the photos.
We wandered around the dusty streets for a while, peeking in windows and avoiding cow pies (I wore flip-flops). Our 90-pound pansy of a dog was dragging us to any shady spots he could find to flop down in, including various porches and outhouses.
Eventually, the heat got the best of us, and we decided a second trip with the fancy camera was necessary before the end of the summer. Next time, we’ll (by “we’ll,” I really mean “I’ll”) remember to wear appropriate footwear and bring some extra water bottles.
And I’ll also be springing for the $2 guidebook next time.
Roadtripped down to Southern California over the weekend. A long and lovely drive, as always.
Fun and easy hike from Horseshoe Lake up to McCloud Lake today. If you’re in Mammoth and you’re wondering where all the snow is, it’s at McCloud.
Hopped a last minute flight to LA on Friday. I’ve taken this flight many times, but this year’s summer flight schedule is such that you get to take off from Mammoth Yosemite Airport during the glittery pre-sunset hours.
& now, one of my new favorite summer Mammoth activities is leaving.
