We noticed a signpost to Keough Hot Springs and turned off to investigate. Down the tiny road we discovered a huge swimming pool (Olympic size) constructed just to hold free-flowing hot water from the spring. We spent most of the day there; swimming around in warm, mineral water!
Further north isthe ghost town of Bodie. This wa a boom town in the 1870s when gold attracted thousands to this out-of-the-way location. It was so far away from anywhere (but so busy) that this became the first place on earth where electricity was supplied from a distance. The poles carrying the electricity were constructed across the hills in a straight line as no-one knew whether electricity could travel around bends! All that remains of the town (about 5% of the original) is preserved: this is a photo taken from the nearby hill containing the interesting cemetery.
Examples of original houses:
... and early transport with fuel supply
and one of the many unusual gravestones to be found in the cemetery
Near Bodie is the amazing, surreal, 700,000 year old Lake Mono. The water there tastes of salt and baking powder! We REALLY liked it here ... very quiet and a totally unique and isolated eco-system. On the southern end of the lake are a huge display of tufas. These are calcium towers that have grown up as gas escapes through the water.
Examples of original houses:
... and early transport with fuel supply
and one of the many unusual gravestones to be found in the cemetery
Near Bodie is the amazing, surreal, 700,000 year old Lake Mono. The water there tastes of salt and baking powder! We REALLY liked it here ... very quiet and a totally unique and isolated eco-system. On the southern end of the lake are a huge display of tufas. These are calcium towers that have grown up as gas escapes through the water.
They are HUGE! As the lake was partially drained (to feed the Los Angeles water supply) many of the tufas now stand on dry land.
Here is an entire curtain of these strange structures.
We stayed a few days in Mammoth Lakes where skiing was taking place on the mountainside whilst we stood, only a few hundred feet away, in shorts and tee-shirt because of the sun's heat. The landscape around Mammoth Lakes is beautiful. We hiked around for about 5 miles:
and visited the Devil's Postpile: an extraodinary display of volcanic rocks
... and here you can see the rocks that have broken away and look just like children's building bricks.
Further on the hike we came across an area that had been subjected to a forest fire. These are not unusual (frequently started by lightining strikes on trees that have seen no rain for a long time). Another surreal landscape!
Near the end of our hike we came to Rainbow Falls ... easy to see why it has its name.
After Mammoth Lakes, we travelled into Yosemite National Park. Here the landscape is dominated by imposing granite edifices surrounding attractive valleys.
Here in the Bridalveil Falls .... spectacular heights from which these waters tumble...
.. and Sentinal Falls.
After leaving Yosemite, we stayed in the quaint town of Groveland before continiung north into Redwood country again. Of course this time we were inland, so the redwoods are sequoias that do not grown quite as high as their coastal cousins ... but tend to have much thicker trunks.
We continued north and visited an extraordinary cavern: massive stalagmites, stalactites and every possible calcified structure one could image (sorry, no photos) and are currently staying overnight in a near-deserted ski lodge (Bear Valley). We will definitely move on tomorrow.
Here is an entire curtain of these strange structures.
We stayed a few days in Mammoth Lakes where skiing was taking place on the mountainside whilst we stood, only a few hundred feet away, in shorts and tee-shirt because of the sun's heat. The landscape around Mammoth Lakes is beautiful. We hiked around for about 5 miles:
and visited the Devil's Postpile: an extraodinary display of volcanic rocks
... and here you can see the rocks that have broken away and look just like children's building bricks.
Further on the hike we came across an area that had been subjected to a forest fire. These are not unusual (frequently started by lightining strikes on trees that have seen no rain for a long time). Another surreal landscape!
Near the end of our hike we came to Rainbow Falls ... easy to see why it has its name.
After Mammoth Lakes, we travelled into Yosemite National Park. Here the landscape is dominated by imposing granite edifices surrounding attractive valleys.
Here in the Bridalveil Falls .... spectacular heights from which these waters tumble...
.. and Sentinal Falls.
After leaving Yosemite, we stayed in the quaint town of Groveland before continiung north into Redwood country again. Of course this time we were inland, so the redwoods are sequoias that do not grown quite as high as their coastal cousins ... but tend to have much thicker trunks.
We continued north and visited an extraordinary cavern: massive stalagmites, stalactites and every possible calcified structure one could image (sorry, no photos) and are currently staying overnight in a near-deserted ski lodge (Bear Valley). We will definitely move on tomorrow.
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