Mammoth: Pt 2

I left off with part one about a visit to something associated to EARTHQUAKES…The famous, San Andreas Fault Line.  Yes, I was actually standing directly over it and next to it.

Look how wide this sucker is!  I’ve actually seen this fault line in several different places including the Mojave Desert and San Diego.  It’s truly amazing to see how it can change the face of the earth!

Oh yeah, and there is totally snow still at the bottom of it!  I actually learned that early settlers took advantage of the year round snow down there to freeze their meat during the summer!  How cool is that…free refrigerator.

Just down the road is another amazing aspect of volcanic activity in the area: the Inyo Craters.  I haven’t been here since I was a kid (like, not a teenager) and it’s still amazing to look at.

We had to hike to get to the craters and I showed Whit one of my favorite things about Mammoth…Jeffrey Pines.  When you stick your nose in the bark, it smells like VANILLA.  Yes, the entire forest smells like vanilla.  How delicious does that sound?!

I’m totally digg’n it.  And the bird watching of course.  Look at my crazy self. You’ll never know how bird nuts I am until you spend an early morning or evening with me out in the forest or the beach or the marsh or anywhere there are birds.

Standing atop one of the craters!

The insides of one of the craters:

We have a tradition in my family that whenever we go to Mammoth, the first night is always designated for dinner at our favorite pizza joint, Giovanni’s.  I opted to have it on the second night after our long hike to Devil’s Postpile and Rainbow Falls because obviously we need carbs!

I got the veggie with soy crumbles, sans cheese.  It was on a thin wheat pizza crust with a spicy italian sauce.  Totally worth the price (Mammoth is expensive…everywhere!  I paid $4.25 a gallon for gas!  Thank god for my Hybrid!)

To help digest our food we headed off to my favorite lake of all: Lake George.  I even have my own rock where I fish every time I come. Ok, it’s not my rock, but lets just say I get up way before the crack of dawn to get out there, run half way around the lake and claim that rock as mine for the morning for fishing.  Lots of people are mad when they discover I got there before them.

The hike was just over a mile long and just what we needed after the pizza.  It was super buggy though and we were both covered in mosquito bites after we were done!

Our last stop of the night was to Horseshoe Lake…which actually has no fish and is a carbon dioxide sink.

See the dead trees? It’s not the lack of water, it’s the over-abundance of CO2.

And the end to day two!  It was a nice day of hiking, but would have been nicer if we’d had a few more days because the elevation difference is something that Whit had a hard time getting used to…not me though.  I’d only gone up another 4,000 – 5,000 ft in elevation whereas he went up 8,000 – 9,000ft!  Yikes!

I’ll show you day three tomorrow!  For now, bed time!