Places, Earth Eastern Sierras - The Loose Ends Trip

Eastern Sierras - The Loose Ends Trip

It took about another half hour before we began the descent into Panamint Valley. We passed the ghost town of Ballarat which we had seen two years earlier and went straight at the turnoff to Panamint Valley Road and began climbing up into Wildrose Canyon, entering Death Valley National Park. As the map had shown, about ten miles along, the road turned rough for about four miles until we intersected with Immigrant Canyon Road. We turned right and the road was good for a few more miles, then got very rough for the last four. I guessed that we were close when I noticed my car overheating for the first time in its 128,000 miles. It was hot, but not vary hot and there was a bit of a breeze while we waited for the engine to cool, but I guess the thin air and steep grade got to be too much for the old car. I flagged down a car coming back from the Charcoal Kilns and was told I was almost there and to keep going. It wasn't until later that I realized that the bit of rock I saw between the trees at a curve in the road a thousand feet ahead

The kilns were just around the bend. Waiting for the engine to cool.

was one of the ovens. Had I known, I would have walked the rest of the way while the engine cooled.

Anyway, after about fifteen minutes and a little added water later, we pushed on the last short distance to the kilns. There was something intriguing about these 10 beehive shaped structures about 30 feet in diameter and 30 feet high in a neat row a few hundred feet long beside the road. They all had a small doorway on the side that faced the road and most had an opening high on the other side. There were also numerous small square holes around the base. On the inside, some still smelled of pine pitch

We almost canceled the trip because my wife hadn't finished her homework, but she was all done by the time we got home.

and they provided a vivid echo. Beside the first kiln, a trail head begins that runs several miles up the mountain and, I am informed, provides an incredible view of Death Valley far below. We stayed about an hour and headed back to the intersection but this time, continued straight along Immigrant Canyon Road for a scenic drive until, a little passed the turnoff to Skidoo Ghost Town, we met Highway 190. Highway 190 is one of the main roads into Death Valley, but we now took it back out, going around Owans Lake on the northeast,

Owans Lake.

and eventually reaching the Lone Pine Visitor Center at the intersection of Highway 395 and 136.

Lone Pine Visitor Center interior recently opened.

We had stopped at the Lone Pine Visitor Center two years earlier when it was newly completed, today it was all moved in and we got some updated information on the area. One point of interest was the Lone Pine Film Museum which opened shortly after our previous visit and that, is where we went next. When we pulled in, there was only one car and the museum looked closed. I shot some photos of the exterior and we were about to move on when the door opened and we were invited inside. Lone Pine have been long been a location for motion picture, TV,

commercials, and still shoots. The Alabama Hills on the west edge of town were used since silent screen days in countless westerns as well as films set in India, science fiction films, and other film genres. The museum had a lobby filled with items, including a stage coach. To one side is a theater showing an informative film and beyond the lobby, a large space was filled with more memorabilia including several cars. A small exhibit area was devoted to the movie Tremors and another to the recent Ironman. We spend about an hour here and pressed on.

Lone Pine Film Museum.

We stopped for gas in Big Pine and continued. A bit north of Big Pine are four large antenna dishes. They look like satellite or space craft tracking antennas, but I don't know for sure. We finally reached our accommodations for the first two nights in Bishop, probably the largest town in the area. We settled in and my wife worked on homework for a class she had just finished, but somehow the homework got lost in e-mail. About 9:00 we drove about two blocks and found the spot where everyone was gathering to watch the

Fireworks in Bishop.

Bishop Fire Department Fireworks Display at the Bishop Airport. It was a bit of an obstacle course driving between all the amateur firework displays in the street, but we found a spot. Finally the fireworks display started and we were a bit disappointed. Everything was low and we could barely see it so we started to leave. Then it got better and we quickly pulled over and stayed to the end. Back in the room, we got off to sleep.

Two years earlier, we arrived in Bodie at 8:00 am and it was quiet, today it was almost 11:30 and quickly filling with visitors. I dropped my wife off to get the Mill Tour tickets and headed for the parking lot. I paused to photograph a building from the car and was passed by a car which got the last parking space. I had to park on the road further on. I found my wife and we looked around a bit before the tour. Waterman S. Body (AKA William S. Bodey) and his partner discovered gold in Bodie (note that when the town was chartered, Body was changed to Bodie) in 1859. In 1879, Bodie had a population of 10,000, by the time it became a state park in 1962, only a few people remained. Since we had seen most of Bodie two years earlier
Looking at Bodie from the Cemetery.	A path in Bodie.
when it was cooler and less crowded, we were mostly interested in the Mill Tour. Our guide, Dave, first showed us the back side of the mill with the track overhead for ore cars, explained a bit about ore crushing, and showed us tons (literally) of old equipment and explained their uses. Dave also explained about the railroad built to bring in fire wood for the steam boilers that ran the equipment and how the water used for the steam was ground water that needed to be pumped out of the mine anyway. Town water came from a spring several miles away that still serves Bodie. Dave also discussed the difficulty of hauling these tons of equipment by mule or horse from Carson City and San Francisco. Then we went inside the mill where we saw the machine shop with the largest drop center machine lathe in the west and early electrical equipment that made the mill profitable again as gold and silver production slowed. We saw the stamps that crushed the ore into small pieces and Dave explained the various ways that gold was extracted from ore using a variety of mechanical and chemical processes. We also learned about mill safety and how the mill cared for injured employees. In short, little attention was paid to safety and nothing was paid to injured employees, they we given the boot. Once the tour was over, we headed back to the car, with me stopping a bit at the cemetery which we had missed the previous time. As we drove out the gate, I remembered two years ago while in Bodie, we heard sirens and right at the gate, saw a car with a head size hole in the passenger side windshield. We double checked our seatbelts and prayed for safe travels.
Exterior of Mill.	Interior of Mill.

We had been in too much of a hurry to get to Bodie in the morning to stop at Mono Lake, but now we had a little time and made several stops at the lake. At Old Harbor, I was photographing the brine flies and sea gulls when a man in a kayak pulled up and asked for my assistance in helping him land his craft. It turned out he was giving a lecture that evening at the Visitor Center on "Birding from Kayak." He had a long camera lens that simply made me jealous. We did stop at the Mono Basin Scenic Area Visitor Center, but had to leave

West shore of Mono Lake.

long before the lecture as we were trying to get to Devil's Postpile. I made a quick stop at the Mono Lake Committee Visitor Center and Book Store. I've been a member for many years, but never saw the building before. We continued south on Highway395 admiring more scenery.

We turned right at Mammoth Lakes Scenic Loop through a beautiful pine forest and turned right at Highway 203 west. I made a quick stop at Earthquake Fault, a rift in the earth so deep that the ice at the bottom never melts. The entire region is seismically active and a few years back, geologists were predicting a possible major volcanic event. It never happened but eventually will. The large volcano in the middle of Mono Lake is only 300 years old, young in mountain years. A popular warm springs in the area is no longer open to the public because it is dangerously hot. Don't put off a visit too long, it may no be here. We continued on and as we rounded a bend, I thought some Sci-fi movie was shooting a spacecraft scene, but it turned out to be the aerodynamic shape of a lower station of a ski lift. When we got to Mammoth resort, we were disappointed that the mandatory shuttle to Devil's Postpile was

sold out for the day. The last shuttle leaves at 7:30, and it was only 4:30. There was a aerial tram taking people to the top of the mountain, I assume for the view, but we were now too discouraged to take it. We photographed a large, life-size, bronze mammoth to send to my friends at the Page Museum (La Brea Tar Pits) and turned around. The Mammoth Lakes Visitor Center closed only a few minutes before we got there so we headed back to Bishop, stopping quite often to photograph the spectacular scenery.

Tickets to Devil's Postpile were sold out.

The north end of Law's Railroad Museum and Historic Site.

Train at Law's Railroad Museum and Historic Site.

Tuolumne Meadow.

Rock surface scratched by claciers thousands of years ago at Olmsted Point.

We got as far as the Yosemite Chapel before we tuned around and headed out, this time on Highway 140 to Mariposa. We had a slight detour about half way crossing to the other side of the river and back again and as I looked across the river to the main road, I was shocked to see several hundred feet of road buried under a landslide. We arrived in Mariposa, a former mining towen, about 7:00. We had planned to stay at the Best Western but somehow I dialed the wrong number when I made the reservations and ended up in

Mariposa Gazette in Mariposa.

another motel which we didn't care for, so we were glad it was only for one night. We did enjoy a wonderful diner at Miner's Inn Restaurant, part of another motel in town. Having cut several stops from our plans, we had arrived in Mariposa early and had a more leisurely evening than is usual for us while traveling.

Mariposa County Courthouse, oldest continuously operating west of the Mississippi.

Mariposa Museum and History Center

Bridalveil Fall.

We headed back to Yosemite along Highway 140 again past that rock slide and finally found Bridalveil Fall which I couldn't find the day before. Because we were afraid to turn off the engine, we took the short walk to the base of the falls in shifts so one of use could watch the car. This was a loose end from the year before when we planned to stop on the way out but ran out of time. Bridalveil Fall is a year round waterfall unlike some others and is easily reached from the road. We now left Yosemite Valley and headed to Glacier Point which looks down on Yosemite Valley and afforded breathtaking views of Half Dome, the highlands beyond the valley to the north, and the highlands to the south. It also allows a view down to Vernal Fall and Nevada Fall which are otherwise reached by a difficult trail. The year before, we had hiked as far as Vernal, but my wife turned back before we reached Nevada Fall. My wife decided

to pass on the view so that we could get on our way sooner and we headed out of the park. As we headed downhill on Highway 41, we suddenly found ourselves in the middle of a small traffic jamb. Since I had to stop anyway and I assumed it was to watch an animal, I looked around to see. Then up the hill, I saw the bear which looked like a juvenile, turning over rocks and debris looking for food. I took a photo and the bear decided it was time to move on, and so we did too. We decided to skip one other loose end, The Mariposa

Vernal Fall

Grove, because we didn't want to shut off the engine and we were both too tired for a long hike in such hot weather.

This site maintained by Kenneth A. Larson. Copyright © 2004 - 2023, Kenneth A. Larson. All Rights Reserved. Website content including photographic and graphic images may not be redistributed for use on another website.