Eastern Sierra Nevada

pmatusov

AK6PM
During the last eight years or so, every long trip began with a heated argument – which vehicle to take. The female half of our family was dead set against spending hours in the old beat-up Disco or even in the LWB Classic; the male half, with just as much resolve, refused to be seen in the swedish comfort of an XC70. This year we’ve finally came to an agreement – in the form of a 2010 Land Rover LR4 with 17 kmi on the clock.
Then the time came for a Christmas break… in Souther California the Winter is not a temporal, but rather a spatial term: while the coast is basking in mid-70s and sunshine, the mountains just might get cold and snowy. So off we went from San Diego to Mammoth Lakes, a town in Eastern Sierra Nevada.

Eastern Sierra Nevada

By that name we usually mean the Eastern slopes of Sierra Nevada Mountains and the valley between Sierra Nevada and White Mountains and Panamint Ranges. The “High” Sierra begins North of Highway 14 and includes Mount Whitney (the highest peak in continental U.S.), several National Parks and Forests, and gradually tapers off towards Northern California.
White Mountains on the other side of the valley are only barely lower than Sierra Nevada – the highest peak, called, well, the White Mountain, is only about 200 feet lower than Mt.Whitney – and it is in the direct line of sight from it. Unlike Mt.Whitney, one could drive almost up to the top of White Mountain.
The snowmelt runoff from Mammoth mountain and nearby peaks feeds the Owens River – the former primary water source of the city of Los Angeles. North of Deadman Summit on U.S.395, the valley is part of the Great Basin that includes Mono Lake; the waters from the Great Basin don’t reach any of the oceans.
Mammoth mountain – home to a popular year-round resort – is approximately at the same latitude as San Francisco, about seven hours’ drive from San Diego or San Francisco, and five – from Los Angeles.
This year, we took a brand new for us LR4 to the trip; loaded with six adults and a choke-full 18-cubic-foot Yakima box on the roof rack, it made it from San Diego to Mammoth Lakes in seven hours flat, including a stop near downtown Los Angeles.

Saw a nice old Plymouth in Mojave –
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Between Big Pine and Bishop, the haze gave the sunset outline of Sierras a little mystic feeling:
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Next morning at Mammoth Lakes our party split. The skiers hit the slopes, and I went to roam the valley. During most winters, the valley North of Bishop is buried under several feet of snow; this time, snow was all but inexistent, so many places I could never get to in Winter and never cared to get to in Summer became accessible.

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Inyo Craters

The road leading to the trail to Inyo Craters is usually buried under deep snow in winter, and groomed as a snowmobile trail. This time it seemed to be in “mixed use” – with foot traffic, Nordic ski tracks, and snowmobile tracks present. All of those were crisscrossed by some deep ruts – indicating a possibility to drive to the trailhead. We took the road – and the Land Rover made it, drawing curious looks of people on skis.

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From there – on foot, fairly steep uphill.

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The edge of the crater shows up without much of a warning. If you fall – rather, slide – into it, you’d have to work quite a bit to get out.

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There are several craters altogether, but we were too lazy to see more than two of them.

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On our way back we had a bit of an argument with a snowmobile driver on the subject of rights of way; not that this issue is common (snowmobile vs. wheeled vehicle), but I have not been able to get a definitive answer from Forest Service people back in town. One mentioned that he had a huge 4x4 truck and wouldn’t dare drive there; when I told him that I just did, he suggested the appearance of the snowmobile trail as a guide (“if it’s groomed, don’t drive on it.”). Whatever, all I care for is not to be ticketed by an overzealous law enforcement lacking proper guidance.
In the afternoon, we decided to check the Hot Creek.
 

pmatusov

AK6PM
Hot Creek

Years ago, the public was allowed to bathe in the Creek – since then the geologic activity increased, and the water temperature in the streams feeding the creek rose. A few fumaroles sprung up as well – as a result, safety- (or lawsuit-) conscious Forest Service fenced everything around and posted “No Entry” signs wherever possible.

Here are the leftovers of the old path to the creek:
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A few photos from the creek – some taken from the other side, which takes a few more miles on the dirt roads to get to:

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In the evening, we watched fireworks on the occasion of the Mammoth Mountain’s ski resort 60-th anniversary.

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pmatusov

AK6PM
Hot Tubs

From a few grizzled locals I heard that somewhere, between the Hot Creek and Crowley Lake, there are hot tubs. Pretty much, holes in the ground with hot water. Ever since Hot Creek was closed for bathing, I wanted to find them – but my want faded on our Summer trips, for it was hot enough, and remained unsatisfied in Winter trips: most roads were buried under a couple of feet of snow. This snowless Christmas, a disaster or ski lift operators, was a boon for us – a whole new area opened up.
Aimed just with a general sense of direction (“we've got to pull off the Hot Creek Road to the right, wherever there's an opportunity”), we meandered about the low hills between Hot Creek and Benton Crossing Road, scouted out a bunch of excellent campsites, and finally hit the paydirt. In an hour, we've uncovered four different hot tubs, and headed back to scoop the rest of our party.

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All of them were taken, however; after some mulling about, we decided to be bold and invited ourselves into the company of a software developer from Bay Area (of Irish descent) and his girlfriend (of Russian Far East - Korean descent). As we discussed some important stuff like world peace, a heard of ten or more deer came to the watering spot up a creek, a hundred or so yards away from us.

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After we pretty much melted down in the tub, we collected ourselves and hit the road to the next one – known as Wild Willy's – populated with a herd of a different kind:

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To round off the day, we roamed the Owens River Valley a little longer and took in the evening views.

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The new (to us) Land Rover had to be photographed as well:

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The highest peak in this shot is White Mountain, 14252 ft high:

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Convict Lake

We went out of our usual way, and booked a table in a restaurant at Convict Lake Resort – we already knew how great the food was from earlier trips.
The road to the lake splits off U.S.395 near Crowley Lake, and picks up elevation quickly. The lake is beautiful at any time of the day and the year, but winter evenings make the views simply outstanding:

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The restaurant requires some planning – it opens at 5:30 pm, and is pretty busy during the holidays. This time, the duck, lamb, and filet mignon were absolutely beyond reproach.
 

pmatusov

AK6PM
Mono Lake

In the morning, the skiers decided to stiff the sport, and all six of us piled up in the Land Rover and headed to Mono Lake.
The lake is in about half an hour drive North of Mammoth Lakes along U.S.395, but we decided to deviate from the blacktop. There's a vast network of forest and desert roads between the highway and the mountain ridge to the East, and we have never had a chance to take any of them because of deep snow – the elevation is between seven and eight thousand feet.

We turned East off 395 to Bald Mountain Road. The road is shown on most local maps, but equally poorly represented on both Google and Bing Maps. The poor old Garmin was left behind in San Diego, so once again we decided to use our sense of direction and head generally towards North-East.
The road gradually rose and fell with 100-200ft changes in elevation. In the shadows and on the northern slopes, snow covered the road, but nothing we'd worry about.

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A few miles into the forest, we stopped for a quick stroll:

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Most if not all forest roads in this area are well-marked and represented on local maps. We didn't pay much attention to either, and finally came to Highway 120 about a mile from the remains of Mono Mills.

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Less than five minutes later, Mono Craters showed up at the left:

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and finally Mono Lake appeared.

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By the way, Highway 120 is normally closed in winter – and this winter was no exception. However, we weren't the first who bypassed the gates on the shoulder. To our excuse – from where we came, no signs indicated the status of the road.
 
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pmatusov

AK6PM
Mono Lake no less deserves a single dedicated day or several, than, say, Death Valley. In the past, we’ve circumnavigated it a few times on the sandy roads – every time it was a good
adventure in itself.
Enough is written about the geology and biology of Mono Lake – it attracts the mad photographers no less than Zabriskie Point or Mesa Arch in Canyonlands. This day we came to South Tufa Beach in the middle of the day – not too many photo aficionados, but still quite a few visitors with kids and expensive equipment. The day was gorgeous – calm and sunny. We dropped our dues to the steel box, and went to the shore.

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Found even the delicacy of the indigenous people of the area – larvae of a fly that only lives near Mono Lake:

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Usually there’s plenty of birds near the lake, but this time we only saw a lone(ly) duck:

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The lake is 2.5 times saltier, and 1000 times more alkaline, than the ocean, so even the snow is somewhat different:

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One more time, stopped to marvel at the Barge Haulers on the Volga:

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At this point, the ladies felt hungry, and that companionship may be outright dangerous. We headed to Lee Vining for lunch, and found that everything, every single place, was locked up for Christmas. I still had a vague hope to visit the ghost town of Bodie, so I suggested Bridgeport as a closer alternative to going back to Mammoth Lakes. Another 20 miles uphill on 395, and we found the abundance of Christmas dining establishments in Bridgeport: a gas station and a deli, to close in half an hour.
We spent an equivalent of a two-star restaurant lunch on bread, sausage, cheese, wine, and whatnot, and took residence at the picnic table behind the gas station.
On the way back, my significant other loudly protested the idea of a side trip to Bodie (and what a sunset that might have been!), and we turned West off 395 towards Virginia Lakes.

The road to the lakes was unplowed and gated off:

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Being of trusting nature, we followed an advice of a local skier who said the lakes were only a quarter a mile from the gate. It was only about three times as much, all in ankle-deep snow:

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Our somewhat decimated troop made it to the lake – which didn’t really look all that sexy:

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We stopped mid-way downhill into the Mono Lake valley to look at the panorama of the lake:

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… and that was that for the day.
In the morning we said our goodbyes to the mountains, and took our seven hours to drive home to San Diego. What do I do to get back?


Now, what about our ride?

It would be unfair not to say anything about our new “travel peacemaker” – the LR4.

Blacktop – no comparison with the Land Rovers of old. And I’m not talking about Series, but about what I still consider fairly modern and comfortable vehicles (so what if they are 18 years old). There’s no comparison with the Volvo, or a brand new Grand Cherokee, either. Everything happens in the quiet, without any drama whatsoever, and very fast. On average, LR4 allows to move about 15-20mph faster – despite the maximum speeds limited by the same margin about $400 ticket North of the speed limit. Partly it is a combination of reduced driver fatigue, and an ability to physically see speed traps before the “protect and serve” guys have a chance to use their microwave devices. Not the least is the abundance of power from that Jaguar 5-liter V8 – as an example, there is ten-mile grade North of Bishop, that would leave my old trusty Disco lumbering hopelessly in the right lane, at 50 mph in the second gear, with tachometer and temperature needles in the undesirable parts of their real estate. The LR4, with six adults inside, an 18-cubic-foot Yakima box on the roof rack, and plenty of junk in every nook and cranny, cruised up the same grade in the sixth gear, turning barely 2200 rpm. I wouldn’t quote the speed in order not to incriminate myself.

Graded dirt roads and washboard
Here, the LR4 floats in turns just as much as the old Disco or a Classic. Of course there’s a lot less of the soundtrack, but the passengers become antsy. Ridiculous for a Land Rover, the low-profile rubber forces to slow down for every little rock that I wouldn’t think twice about in the old D1. I have to give credit to the new Rover’s ABS – it is a lot, and I do mean a lot, less intrusive on and off pavement, and actually allows you to brake when you want to.

Off road
No serious off-road activity was planned or carried out. The truck didn’t have a problem with a 20-degree slope with sand and ice under the wheels – although, as it has been observed many times, the positions of the knob near the gear shifter do not necessarily correspond to the right way to drive. So far, “Mud and ruts” is my favorite in nearly all situations – otherwise, leave it in default, and it’ll sort itself out.
The modern brute-force way to deal with the wheelspin – traction control – does its number on the brakes. After about 10 minutes of aggressive hillclimbing, a light “HDC temporarily unavailable” came on, indicating brake pads and fluid close to overheating. I definitely see a TrueTrac or a locker at least in one axle in near future.
With that insane motor, the LR4 rarely even needs low range. It feels fine in about a foot and a half of heavy snow, after being raised 2” over the highway setting.

Here I have to spoil the otherwise rosy picture: for the reasons I cannot comprehend, Land Rover chose very expensive and very fast-wearing rubber that is borderline useless off pavement, and outright dangerous in heavy rain – I mean Continental 4x4 Contact. If it serves as a gauge, eBay is full of very lightly-used Contis in the very same 255/55R19 size. People, if you’re in the same boat, ditch them, especially since now there are several good tire models to choose from.

Gasoline… Everything must be paid for. The average gas mileage on that 1200-mile trip turned out to be near 13.3 mpg; not too bad, but nothing to write to Sierra Club about. At least, you getting a whole lot more transportation capacity per decomposed dynosaur than with older Land Rovers.
 

roverrocks

Expedition Leader
Great pictures. That warm water looks so inviting too. Winter is the ultra quiet time to see many places. Nice truck. Thanks for posting.
 

A3M0N

Observer
Great pictures! My family and l will be driving up that way when we move to northern California from Florida in a few months.
 

wgyouree

KK6LZW
Great report and photos! Thanks for sharing! Mono Lake and those hot springs are definitely on my list now :)
 

pmatusov

AK6PM
I wish I had more time to roam around Bridgeport. There seems to be plenty of things to do beyond fly-fishing; hope to get to the area either later this year, or next year. Thanks for the kind words!
 

SIZZLE

Pro-party
You did a great job capturing the eastern sierras. They are so dramatic, from most places on the 395, the range looks like it was just thrust up last week. Beautiful area.
 

Imager993

Pixel Monkey
Great report! I've been going to the Eastern Sierra, and specifically Mammoth and Convict Lake at least once a year since I was 5, so it was great to read about and see your experiences. Do you happen to have the coords of the hot springs? I went there when I was a kid with my parents but haven't been back since. I'd love to find where they are again and bring the wife. Thanks for sharing!
 

pmatusov

AK6PM
From Google Earth:
Shepard's hot spring: 37.666929, -118.803336
Crab Cooker: 37.662849, -118.800130
Wild Willy's: 37.661255, -118.767821
 

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