Mammoth Lakes and down Highway 395...

We found a shower at the Mammoth Lake RV Park - just at the entry of town.  I had always been curious to check Mammoth Lakes out because many years ago, I worked on a job for Intrawest marketing some exclusive properties.  This place is quite similar to Whistler.  It is advertised as a 4 seasons resort.  Summer has loads of mountain bikers, fishers and hikers.  We happened to pull into town the day before a beer and blues festival was going to start up - Bluesapalooza.  It sounded fun but not really kid appropriate.  They had some name acts performing and it was tempting.

It’s high up - around 8800 feet - and one could tell.  It was hard to catch a breath.  In addition, it was extremely warm.  We had a number of people say that the heat was unusual for them and we expected it to warm up substantially in the evening but that didn’t happen.  Thank goodness for the air conditioner David rigged up - helped greatly.

Love the little air conditioner sticking out of the window!

Biking and hanging out at Mammoth Village.

The first day we arrived we just nosed around - feeling the effects of our epic hike - and the kids cooled off in the necessary pool.  The next day, we planned to check out a National Monument they had there called the Devil’s Postpile which is basically some cool rock formation formed millions of years ago.  As they don’t want cars going into the monument area, they bus you in.  It’s about a 15 mile bus ride.  The bus is caught at the base of the ski mountain where they have a large mountain bike park - similar, again, to Whistler.  But... I just wasn’t feeling well.  Turns out, I was feeling effects of the altitude.  So, back to the van to rest.

Finally, on the third day, we got to check the Postpile out.  It was interesting and we decided to do a small hike - about 4 miles round trip - to Rainbow Falls.  The kids weren’t too impressed with that idea but we’re here to explore.  We were treated to quite the lightning and thunder show that evening.

Devil's Postpile

Rainbow Falls

A junction of the Pacific Crest Trail.

It was time to leave.  We carried on down Highway 395 (along with most everyone else who had been at Mammoth Lakes) because it was now a Sunday.  This highway was called “historic” on the internet and I expected a nice slow moving 2 lane highway but it was just the opposite.  It was a fast highway, not overly busy, with beautiful scenery.

Breakfast at the side of Highway 395

Our next stop was to be a small town called Lone Pine.  Enroute we stopped at a place called “Manzanar” which was a Japanese internment camp in World War II.  It was very interesting.  At one point, 10,000 people lived here.  It didn't look like it but at one point, this particular location was a fertile valley but the water was re-routed to Los Angeles - a pity.  They used to grow apples here.  At any rate, it was bloody hot.  We listened to the ranger speak and then we did the driving tour.  Both kids got something out of this one.

Manzanar Cemetery

Once at Lone Pine, which is the turn off point for Death Valley, we stopped for the night at a nice RV Park called Boulder Creek.

HOT!

5 a.m. - Leaving for Death Valley.  Gulp!

Our plan for the next day was to get up super early and drive through Death Valley enroute for Las Vegas.  I didn’t sleep very well that night...