We started in Ridgecrest at the Motel 6, en route to June Lake, to photograph the Sierras from the back seat of the car. Now I’m sure we could’ve stayed at a place with a better neon sign and cool name like ‘China White Inn’ or whatever. To bypass this hurly-burly, click Photos.
Groan, sometimes you just wanna sleep in a clean place. Motel 6 delivers on that.
We set up the cameras, one in the driver side backseat and one in the center dashboard and hit the road early. The cameras were both set up to take one still every 20 seconds. This was the first time for the side camera, so we weren’t sure how to set it up or how well it would work. Here’s the dashboard movie.
And the side movie.
Breakfast in Olancha at the Ranch House Cafe was our first meal. It’s our place of choice before we head into Death Valley. Pay no attention to the negative reviews on Yelp; the food here is decent, the service is ok, and the place is a hoot. A giant stuffed bear greets you when you walk in and, if you’re lucky, you’ll catch of a couple of praying mantis’ outside your window, hunting, you know, for prey. Still, if you need your behind kissed until it’s cracker white, then drive about 24 miles north to Lone Pine or 50 miles south to Ridgecrest, where there’s a Denny’s. You’ll be slammed, bammed, and thank you maam’d for less than 20 bucks.
We made a stop into Manzanar. It’s not my favorite place. I have problems living in a country where people have, and continue to be treated poorly then make monuments of the locations where it happened. I also don’t like being reminded how double standard the U.S. government is and how ignorant the U.S. people can be, especially in the current global climate. However, Shellyeah’s opinion is that it’s important for people to remember and to be aware of these things.
Creepy kitchen audio at the Manzanar mess hall.
Once in June Lake, we went to the Tiger Bar had burgers, cocktails and beer (Mammoth Brewing Company beers on tap).
We camped at Reverse Creek Campground. It’s lush and green with a little creek reversing through it. And it was empty. It was nice having the whole place to ourselves. Come dinner time, our stove refused to work, so we cooked turkey burgers on the fire pit which actually turned out to work better…too bad the burgers themselves weren’t better. Yuck. Then we froze all night.
On the second day, we hit Devils Postpile in Mammoth Lakes. Only Bryce Canyon is more alien looking than this land mass in my opinion. I can see why the locals called it ‘Devils Postplie.’ It must have scared the liquid out of them. It was formed by a basalt lava flow that pooled by a natural dam millions of years ago, then exposed by glaciers. Here’s a detailed explanation of how it happened.
Later that evening we checked out Obsidian Dome and all either of us could think about was how to grab a couple of these glass rocks and take them home to our succulent garden.
Dousing the fire