Photographs © Peter Mansbach, no commercial use without written permission.

Mammoth Lakes, California, is located just east of Yosemite National Park, and south of Reno, NV, where the Sierra Nevada mountains drop off into the Nevada desert. We flew into San Francisco, and drove through Yosemite on the way. We stopped and hiked around Tenaya Lake, in Yosemite. This is arguably the single most picturesque location of the trip. This first photo is of Jean and myself in front of Tenaya Lake:

And here's a shot from the other side of Tenaya Lake
The mountain on the left of the first shot, and on the right of the second,
is called Stately Pleasure Dome, I assume in reference to Coleridge's Kubla Khan:
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure dome decree..."

In the town of Mammoth Lakes we stayed at the charming Austria Hof Lodge

The next day we visited Devil's Postpile National Monument. We hiked from the Postpile to Rainbow Falls, through what used to be forest until it burned down in 1994. It's just starting to recover. That's Jean on the Rainbow Falls Trail, left, and me at the Falls, right.

Photo by Jean Austin

In case you're wondering, the background of this page is a photo of the inside of a hollow tree trunk, darkened so it isn't too distracting. It was taken at Red's Meadow, in Devil's Postpile National Monument.

On the following day we drove to the Parker Lake trailhead, off the June Lake Loop.
The trail starts in dry chaparral, but continues through wetter, more alpine forest
until reaching Parker Lake, below.

Parker Lake

We spent much of the next day visiting the preserved frontier town of Bodie.
I've made a separate web page for that side trip.
From there we drove to Bridgeport.

The cows in Bridgeport enjoy a better view than most people get from their homes:

The following day was our longest hike, and with the highest elevation, too.
We started at Sonora Pass, and followed the Pacific Crest Trail south, reaching nearly 11,000 ft.

photo by Jean Austin

We ended the trip in San Francisco, where we enjoyed a wonderful seafood dinner at McCormick and Kuleto's, in Ghirardelli Sq overlooking Fisherman's Wharf.

My home page with links to other trips
Some photos of Bodie from this trip
You can email me at pmansbach@aol.com