Eastern Sierra Tour – Second Stop

When we left Carson City, Nevada, we were at an elevation of about 4,800 feet above sea level. Our route was simple – US395 south for about 130 miles, then turn west on CA203 (exit 263). Along the way, we crossed Conway Summit at 8,143 feet above sea level. Our destination was Mammoth Mountain RV Park at Mammoth Lakes, California – a total distance of about 140 miles.

The RV park has mostly large, loosely defined, back-in sites among pine trees. It’s at an elevation of about 7,800 feet above sea level. When I checked in, I asked where the best place to unload the Midget from the trailer would be. The guy told me not to worry – the lane in front of our site was very wide and it would be no problem to unload there and back the trailer in to drop it in the site.

He’s obviously never driven a big rig. The “wide” lane was lined with trees and wasn’t wide enough for two coaches to pass each other. The easy back-in to drop the trailer was also complicated by trees. But, we got it done.

It looks wide open from here, but believe me the trees behind where I’m standing made it tough

On Tuesday morning, Donna rode with Steve, Gayle, Chuck and Barbara up to Devil’s Postpile National Monument. They were just in time for a ranger-led tour. From there, they hiked to Rainbow Falls and then to Red’s Meadow. I stayed behind as I needed some down time.

We had a happy hour with the group later that day, then had dinner on our own back at the coach. The weather in Mammoth Lakes was mostly pleasant during the day if you were in direct sun. But in the shade, the temperature was noticeably cooler and the wind could create a chill. The temperature over the four nights we were there ranged from the mid-to-upper 60s during the day and low 30s overnight.

On Wednesday morning, there was an optional Mammoth Mountain Ski Area gondola ride. We passed – we didn’t think we had the right clothing for a ride up to 11,000+ feet above sea level. I heard it was just above freezing temperature at the top. Donna and I took a ride in Midget-San through town and out to the ski area. There was a potluck dinner on the schedule and I had prepped two racks of babyback ribs the day before. Around 2pm, I got the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker-grill out of the trailer and put the ribs on.

With the limited grill space on our small Traeger, I couldn’t provide enough ribs for everyone. I cut the ribs into single bone servings so as many people as possible could sample them.

Potluck dinner at Mammoth Mountain RV Park

Thursday’s scheduled activity was a trip to Bodie State Park. Bodie is a California gold-mining ghost town. It was over an hour away by car. Donna and I didn’t want to make the long drive to spend the day at a ghost town. We opted to drive out Lake Mary Road and get a look at some of the lakes. We drove by Lake Mamie and stopped at the Twin Falls overlook.

Twin Lake viewed from Twin Falls overlook
Another view of Twin Lake

We drove up to Horseshoe Lake – probably the most interesting of the many lakes in the area. What makes Horseshoe Lake so interesting is the high concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2). It is thought that a large reservoir of CO2 exists deep under the mountain. The gas was identified in 1994 and it is believed that an earthquake in 1989 opened channels in the earth releasing the gas in this area. About 120 acres of trees died when the CO2 deprived their roots of oxygen.

Dead forest at Horseshoe Lake
Horseshoe Lake

Horseshoe Lake is about 9,000 feet above sea level. I was happy with how well the Nissan A15 engine in Midget-San performed. The Weber DGV carburetor continued to run cleanly at this altitude although I could feel the power loss from the thin air.

We drove the loop around Lake Mary. We came across several people from the Alpine Coach group – I guess we weren’t the only ones taking a self-guided tour of the area.

On Thursday evening, I was hoping the watch the NFL Thursday Night Game. But, with all of the trees I couldn’t get a satellite signal and the park cable TV didn’t have the NFL Network. I was out of luck. Then I figured out that I could stream the game on my smart phone. It didn’t take long to get used to the small screen and I watched the second half as Tampa Bay beat Carolina.

Friday morning we packed up, hitched the trailer and hit the road. We had a short run of about 40 miles to Bishop California and the Highlands RV Park. The ride down US395 included a six-mile descent of 6% taking us down to about 4,200 feet above sea level. I made the entire six-mile descent without touching the brake pedal as the Jacobs Engineering (Jake) engine compression brake came through again. I had the Jake brake set on low and targeted 55mph. When my speed crept up to about 58-59mph, I switched the Jake to high and it brought us back down to 55. I toggled the low-high setting all the way down with no worries.

At check-in, the guy at the counter was surprised by the overall length of our rig. He said we would take the pull-through site from end-to-end, but it would be okay. It took a bit of doing to get into the narrow pull-through, but we got in, although we’re extended a little beyond the site boundary at both ends. The weather forecast for the weekend here calls for highs in the low 90s and overnight lows in the upper 50s. Much warmer than Mammoth Lakes – we’ll be running the air conditioners!

2 thoughts on “Eastern Sierra Tour – Second Stop

  1. Don and Karen

    We are currently in Santa Barbara. Staying at a cousin’s house in Camarillo. We are traveling between here and our daughter’s house in Santa Clarita. We will be traveling down to Yuma Arizona to an RV Resort down there in the middle of October to the middle of November. We would love to catch up with you and Donna if possible during that time.

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