This morning was distinctly cooler, but still quite clear. Since we had a long way to go, we cleaned up the cottage, packed up the car, and started our way north reasonably early. Our destination for the day was Lake Tahoe.
Our only real stop along the way was at Mono Lake. I have many memories of Mono Lake over the years. My first time to see the lake was perhaps twenty years ago when John and I were at Yosemite. We were driving down the Tioga Pass when the brakes on the car gave out. John somehow managed to get us down the hill to the town of Lee Vining but we had to spend three days there while the local garage ordered the parts to fix the brakes. I still cringe at that memory. Fortunately, most of the other times I have spent by the shore of Mono Lake have been just lovely. Today was no exception.
If you are a seagull, the attraction of this great inland salt lake is the abundant food – brine shrimp and flies. For humans, the attractions are the great tufa towers. These strange rock formations are actually a kind of very porous limestone formed by underwater springs. Since the lake has become significantly smaller than it once was because of water diversions by the LA Department of Water and Power, many of these tufa stands are now on land.
In fourth grade, students study California history and geography. We have a unit of study in the Science book on brine shrimp and Mono Lake. So, when I found a plastic water bottle which some less environmentally sensitive person had just left on the ground, I filled it up with water from Mono Lake to take back to the class. That’s what I’m holding in my right hand in the picture below.
Mostly we wandered around and just looked at the scenery. The place was almost completely deserted.
The landscape surrounding the lake is almost as amazing as the lake itself. There are always huge clouds moving over the landscape, particularly clinging to the Sierras on the east side.
We had hoped to stop at the ghost town of Bodie, but the road to this state park is closed for both weather and for the dismal state budget. So we drove on through Bridgeport. There’s not much to really see or do in Bridgeport, but it is the scene of one of my favorite film noir movies, Out of the Past. We drove through some extraordinary mountain scenery by Walker Creek and Topaz Lake. We came came through the Gardnerville, probably the greenest corner of Nevada, and then climbed the steep and winding road up the mountain and down to Lake Tahoe. John found us a reasonably priced cottage just on the other side of the road from the Lake. It is so cute it almost induces insulin shock.
The dogs were ready to stretch their legs a little, so we first took them over to the lake. They liked the fresh water here a little better than the salt water at Mono Lake.
We drove a little down the South Shore to explore. We went past State Line and through South Lake Tahoe. This is more of a ski destination than I remembered from years ago, though I think this is the first time I have been here during ski season. Traffic was not as slow as Los Angeles, but it took us a while to find Fallen Leaf Lake. I had a nice hike planned here, but just after I took this picture the weather turned awful and we were pelted with hail. So we beat a hasty retreat back to the car.
When the hail had at least stopped, we made another short hike, this one through the Tallac Historical Site on the lake. This was the site of the summer home of the Baldwin family. Elias “Lucky” Baldwin made his first fortune as the principal owner of the Comstock Mine in Nevada, and then took those earning and made a second fortune in Southern California real estate. This was his daughter’s summer place.
In the evening, we did some exploration of South Lake Tahoe. We looked without much success for some extra woolen socks, and we had a pretty unimpressive buffet meal at Harrah’s, supposedly the best buffet in town. The dogs were glad to get back to the cottage.
