I have attended my first of the month event, so it’s time to think about gettin out on the road and gettin me some Autumn!
A feature of the social media age is that you can be much more closely wired to your passions simply by “liking” the right pages. I like Mono County Tourism‘s page, and it has turned out to be one of the small happinesses of life many days. Right now for instance, they are posting daily picturea about where the fall colors are peak and where they are past or not yet there. I can’t take it any more, I must get out there and see them!
So I plan a 395 quickie with the always magical June Lake Loop as the centerpiece. I have always wanted to stay in the campgrounds on the west side of Tahoe, so now, when it is offseason but they’re still open seems like a great opportunity. The fact that Mono Tourism tells me that the high valleys at Monitor Pass are peak cements the decision.
Thursday (Oct 8)
I have done many small trips lately so I have finally got my leaving ritual pretty streamlined. I am warming up the van at 1:30! Since I’m going to Tahoe first, I head west in 80 rather than south on 395.
Everywhere I go in Nor Cal, the state of California is fixing its roads – every last blanking one of my recent trips have traffic stops as part of the narrative. Today, traffic narrows to one lane for about eight miles of I-80 on the way to Truckee. Then there are two full stops with the 40 car backups that I know so well from 299 between Redding and Eureka. Good thing I don’t have far to go today, because this s–t wears me out.
The route after I-80 is my good friend Route 89, the same highway that took me to Lake Almanor and over Lassen Peak a few weeks ago .Today I am following 89 south as it parallels the Truckee to its headwaters, Lake Tahoe. The river is really sad up here, almost no water. It’s even worse than it is in Reno, so I guess it gets a little boost from Boca or Stampede Reservoirs along the way down the mountain.
After Tahoe City the drive on 89 down the west side of the lake is postcard perfect. I check out Kent Campground, which looks like a good place for the next time – the campground is west of the road, but there is a sweet little public beach on the lake side of the road, so it would be pretty cool. Today I am pressing on to Meeks Bay.
WHUFU page for: Meeks Bay
On the lake side of 89, a little harbor and campground next to the Native American-owned resort next door. The marina is closed because of the lake level.
The highway to the south curves around the campground, so you are closer to the noisy trucks and fleets of motorcycles than you would at first think - not a good thing.
tonight:
No beach--goers this time of year so it's pleasantly uncrowded. It was fun to walk around here and the closed for the season resort across the inlet.
Interesting spot. The road hugs the lake pretty closely so it makes a horseshoe to follow the distinct contour of Meeks Bay. The campground is in the middle of this horseshoe, so the traffic noise has an unfortunate surround-sound effect since it’s coming from three directions. The campground beach is large and quite nice. The marina is not quite landlocked, but there is not enough water to support anything deeper than a kayak.
Friday
Down in the 30’s last night, supposed to be in the 80’s today – whew!
Another blanking 10 minutes parked at a road repair stoppage. It’s almost like they’re hurrying before a blizzard stops them in their tracks or something.
I stop at the first likely coffee shop that Yelp tells me has wifi – Alpina. It’s pretty good. The wifi is intermittent and slow, but good enough and I had excellent pecan chewy thing with my coffee.
89 joins up with US 50 and I follow them both as far as Meyer, where I take a left to stick with 89 and head up into the higher mountains.
Finally some relief from the endless Ponderosa pines. There are some roadside stands of aspens, which means … fall color!
I love the name Hope Valley. I’ve just read a Louis L’Amour where they trekked the road from Placerville to Virginia City a couple of times, so my imagination is piqued! Woodfords was a stop to spend the night and change horses on that road. I’m having fun imagining these wide valleys back in the day…
I cruise through downtown Markleeville, to find that a few miles onward my campground is closed for the season. ARGHH. I decide to bite the bullet and pay $25 at the hot springs:
WHUFU page for: Grover Hot Springs
The springs at Grover gurgle out of the hillside into a beautiful U-shaped alpine meadow. So it should be a groovy, enchanted place, but sadly it is managed by the State Parks system, who do their darnedest to make it prosaic and institutional.
The pools are a couple of rectangular concrete tubs - a big one with lukewarm water, and a shallow (3 feet) one, maybe 40x20 which they keep at a pleasantly toasty 104°. You can look over the fence on the uphill side and see the water burble out of the ground and down a sluice to you.
There are showers and cubbyholes to store your stuff.
There is a campground, which I have never used since it's CA State Parks expensive and there is boondocking three miles down the road.
tonight:
Soaking is $7/day.
As the inset just told you, the story has a happier ending :) Here I am, set up for the night in bathroom-less style for the excellent price of FREE. The hot spring was kind of an adventure also. When I got there around 4:30, the kid said “did you hear about the mouse?”. I had not heard about the mouse, but turns out that an unfortunate rodent had fallen into the very hot water, uphill and more to the point, upstream from the soaking tubs.
His parboiled body popped out in the hot pool, and shut the place down! This might have messed up the day at any commercial pool, but I like to think that the fact this is a state enterprise made the clusterf–k worse. Anyway, the Standard Operating Procedure for this event apparently is to completely drain the pool and scrub it out, and wait for it to refill. When I arrived the pool had filled to the depth of first step, about a foot of water. The kid’s utterly uninformed estimate was more 25 minutes to re-entry. Turned out to be more like 75 minutes – that is, it’s 4:30 and no one got in the pool til 5:45.
This made for a lot of cranky frowning Russians. When I got there there were a couple of japanese men, a hispanic family, and a gringo couple, but the great majority of folks hanging around waiting to get back in the pool were some kind of eastern europeans. I am quite sure I can’t tell one slavic language from another, so I will call them Russians.
WHUFU page for: Grover Hot Springs
The springs at Grover gurgle out of the hillside into a beautiful U-shaped alpine meadow. So it should be a groovy, enchanted place, but sadly it is managed by the State Parks system, who do their darnedest to make it prosaic and institutional.
The pools are a couple of rectangular concrete tubs - a big one with lukewarm water, and a shallow (3 feet) one, maybe 40x20 which they keep at a pleasantly toasty 104°. You can look over the fence on the uphill side and see the water burble out of the ground and down a sluice to you.
There are showers and cubbyholes to store your stuff.
There is a campground, which I have never used since it's CA State Parks expensive and there is boondocking three miles down the road.
tonight:
Soaking is $7/day.
Hot springs is open til 7pm, so I hung out till 6:50. I enjoyed an excellent Sierra sunset from the comfort of the 104° water, then tore myself away with just enough time to have a little dusk-light to drive off the road see my way to a parking spot in an unknown place.
It went well! Here I am sitting in the dark listening to the crickets. It’s almost balmy for early October. It will get down into the high 30’s tonight, but now it’s still in the 60’s.
My only concern about this excellent situation is that ever since Chico I have needed the campground toilet almost every morning … I mean urgently needed it. [update: It was not a small thing, it was actually giardia – yuck] When I eventually decide to disappoint the mosquitoes and go inside the van for the evening I assemble the stupid plastic portapotty I paid too much for last year. Tomorrow morning may be the day it gets its maiden voyage.I will keep the details to a minumum.
Saturday
The stupid plastic portapotty is still virgin! The expensive, complicated overkill double bag it uses is still unsullied :)
My little spot in the woods is awesome in the morning. I’m looking down a little standard-issue eastern Sierra dry canyon, very pretty and restful. I drive back the three miles to the hot springs to retrieve my bathing suit, which I managed to forget despite thinking strong thoughts about being sure to not forget it about three minutes before I left. I believe my :forgetsies” is not a senior thing. For little things like putting your bathing suit on a hook in the changing room and walking out without it I’ve had the attention span of a kitten my whole life.
Nice breakfast and wifi at Ali’s in Markleeville. I wasn’t noticing it yet, but this was my first sign that this was going to be a busier day than I bargained for. The place, and in fact the whole tiny town was hoppin’!
I have followed Route 89 for the last three days, but in few miles we finally leave each other. I go left on 104 to Monitor Pass and 395. 89 goes right to Bear Valley and Gold Country and the Central Valley.
It’s a lovely drive. The first few miles out of Markleeville follow the canyon of the West Fork of the Carson River. When I get to the valley I’ll follow the East Fork of the Walker River … very confusing.
Soon after leaving the river is a little reservoir off to the right that is swarming with activity (isn’t everywhere today?) Apparently this is where the rare Lahontan Cutthroat trout come from. The state harvests their eggs here and raises them in fisheries. Anyway, there’s like 25 cars of pretty stoked fishermen here today.
Onward over 10,200′ Monitor Pass, along the upper rim of a huge valley whose trees are past thir prime color-wise. Down the hill, from 10,000′ to 6,000′, then the familiar run through Antelope Valley and Colesville to … a CLOSED Chris Flat Campground. This too was a preview of the frustrating events of the rest of my day. The USFS webpage for Chris Flat said in plain English that it would be open til Monday October 12, and today is October 10, so WTF!! … My next best idea is to camp at Tioga Lake, at 10,000′ near the Yosemite park entrance. Since I’m early in the season, the colors ought to be good. Very pretty, busy drive again, from the valley floor at 6000′ back up to 10,000′. Super dramatic scenery pretty colors, but … all campgrounds (and the Tioga Lodge) are CLOSED.
Back down the hill, the mid level campgrounds Aspen and others are supposed to open, but a couple of mile drive down the valley shows that they also are CLOSED. Oh well, the campground of last resort Lower Lee Vining is supposed to be open till November 15, so I head to it.
This is the first campground gate that I have seen today that is unbarred, so I get a thrill of joy, but that does not last long. When cruise around the 50 or so sites along the creek there, every last one is occupied. It is so full that three groups have set up camp in the turnaround at the entrance. That too is FULL. This sucks.
So here I am: peak fishing season at a campground on a fishing creek, unseasonably warm Saturday of a three day weekend that is also peak fall color season AND the f–ing Forest Service closes all the other campgrounds! – AARRHG! Fail at the top, fail in the middle, and finally fail at the bottom. A perfect fiasco. I contemplate the June Lake Loop, but decide to try new territory, a free RV campground the web told me about:
WHUFU page for: Glass Creek Campground
Campground is less than a mile off 395 on a good gravel road. It's free and the campsites are quite spacious.
tonight:
This is a real godsend tonight. Some campgrounds have closed for the season (arg!) and the rest are full due to fishing season and fall colors, so that there was really no place to stay in the area on Saturday night.
The turnoff on 395 is unmarked, but I was looking for it. After checking it out a bit, I went back to the first empty site I drove past when I entered, at the southeast corner of the campground.
Its virtue is that it faces outward into the trees rather than inward towards a bunch of RVs.
Boring but nice, and an utter life-saver tonight. One reason I cruised around the campground was to see where the bathrooms are, because that’s the theme of this trip!. They are few. The only one I found was in a congested area with multiple RVs running their generators. Heck with that! I went straight back to quiet pleasant site 38, which was the first site I saw entering the campground. My only close neighbor has a couple of big solar panels, so we will be generatorless over here in our corner, where I am typing and letting the darkness close around me.
Sunday
It got down to 31° last night, but warmed up very quickly. It seemed to go from 31 to 61 in a couple of hours. So now it’s just perfectly pleasant. I have almost no driving to do today, so I enjoy the peace and quiet till almost 1.
Nine miles and 14 minutes later I an at me beloved Looney Beans Coffee at the corner of the first strip mall in Mammoth – what could be more perfect! I enjoy my coffee and my goodie and my wifi for an hour or so, then off to Von’s.
As I have observed before, there is a bright line separating the San Francisco sphere of influence from the Los Angeles sphere of influence, and it is in the empty space between Lee Vining and Mammoth Lakes. Lee Vining visitors come mostly from the north on 395 or the Bay Area over Tioga Pass, in either event from Central California. Mammoth visitors are folks who’ve blasted north on 395 from the LA Basin.
A stack of Sunday papers in Lee Vining would be the SF Chronicle, but alas, in the Mammoth Von’s that stack is of LA Times, whose puzzles are crap. Another casuality of stupid Chris Flat Campground being closed yesterday. If I had stayed there, the next town would’ve been Bridgeport, where I could’ve gotten my puzzle fix . Now, today gets added to the list of puzzles I must copy next time I am at the Eureka Public Library.
Anyway, the state of my gut has forced me completely off my normal diet. Every food item I brought at the Von’s was straight off of the Cleveland Clinic page for diarrhea foods … sigh.
Errands done, twelve miles and 16 minutes later I am at Convict Lake:
WHUFU page for: Convict Lake Campground
Large campground at the foot of Convict Lake. Really cool place, mountains on three sides, nice little bite-sized hike around the perimeter of the lake (2.6 miles). Quite popular, but it's a big campground so there are usually open sites.
Downtown Mammoth is fifteen minutes away.
tonight:
Interesting, they are paving again, four years later. This time it is the lake access road down the south side of the lake that is closed. This is Sunday night of Columbus Day weekend, so all the good (i.e. shaded) spots are taken til tomorrow.
Site 74 gives a pretty view of the valley, you can hear the creek gurgling, at night you see traffic on the road across the valley, the lights of the resort, and sadly the bright lights of the bathroom behind you.
As mentioned in the inset, my choices are limited, but I think my spot will be great for sunset, and won’t suck in the morning. But right now, at 4:30 in the afternoon it is getting pounded by the mountain sun. I am facing almost due west, so the sweet shade spot is behind the van. I guess my van is like a mullet today – “all business up front, party in back” :)
4:45 – nestled in the protective shade of the ole van I suddenly am aware that the whole world is shady! Turns out my spot is pretty near the peak of the shadow of the biggest actual peak in the westerly direction. Soon the whole campground is in shade! I’ve been planning a nice little walk around the area but was waiting for the sun to be less brutal, and now is the time, the sun is gone till tomorrow!
So head out and explore. Down the hill to the end of the campground, up the other stream-side loop, take the bridge over to where the main road is. The middle part of the camp is built in one of those large, impenetrable willow thickets common along the creek beds along 395 (and that are so pretty this time of year!). They did a great job carving the campsites out of the willows without destroying any more than they needed to.
I’ve been hearing the noise of what turns out to be a wedding reception over here at the Convict Lake Resort. They sell beer here at the resort and have picnic tables to drink it, but I decide to explore and drink at home.
Some fishermen are walking back from the resort to the campground, which helps me identify that there is another bridge. I am looking straight at my van on the other side of the little valley (3oo yds line of sight), so what I have identified is a path down the hill, across the creek, up the hill straight to party time at the resort when I am here again.
Onward to the boat launch, then the path down the south side, so pretty. I come upon rows of white folding chairs facing the lake and an alter – today’s wedding – cute! Come to think of it, they had the advantage of extra privacy and parking if they got to use the road which is closed to the rest of us. Hmmm, sounds like an inside job.
Walking back in the stillness and pink glow that the air gets in the deep dusk, the trees and the water and the looming peaks, I thought to myself that this was one of the most perfect moments of happiness I’ve had for a while. excellent!
After dark I find that site 74 gets the direct glare of the very bright lights at the bathroom. Fortunately the solid metal side of my van faces it, but it would be quite annoying without that shield.
9:45, I can hear the wedding party thrumping away across the canyon. I’m betting they stop at the universal quiet time of 10-ish.
Monday
Thin time of year, the bright sun is mighty nice in the morning. Burns the chill right off. I am sitting here on my side of the valley, looking a coupla hundred yards across at the road. It so happens the dump station is directly across from me, so I am watching an endless succession of behemoth RVs leaving the campground at the end of their three day weekend and lining up to dump their stuff. I stay till 1 pm checkout, because I won’t find a finer place to hang out than this.
When it’s my time to leave, up the hill, across the creek, down the other side of the valley – no dump station for me! But I was not to escape Convict Lake that easily. Five minute traffic stoppage for road repair … of course, because traffic stoppages and campground bathrooms are the theme of this trip. Once I do reach 395 I turn north back into Mammoth for another early afternoon of coffee and wifi. I try a different place today, which annoys me and makes me appreciate Looney Beans even more – $7 for a cup of coffee and a brownie, no refills! A gourmet experience I was told, but I just wanted a couple of cups of coffee, not a gourmet experience. I let them know about it on Yelp. :)
I visited the Mono County Public Library just for the heck of it. Didn’t really have anything I needed to do there, just curious. The library does not carry the San Francisco Chronicle! It is very near the Von’s, which is convenient to my Mammoth needs. On to the June Lake Loop.
WHUFU page for: June Lake Campground
The campground itself is pretty shabby, but the location right on the lake right at the edge of town is quite nice.
tonight:
Finally, I am staying here. I've stayed at Gull Lake, Silver Lake, Reversed Creek, but June Lake was always either full or closed.
Site 8 is pretty level, but out in the open, no shade. I'm choosing to think that is a plus this time of year - it will warm up quickly in the morning and the fall scenery is spectacular.
Camp host wasn't very nice.
Once I got settled, my spot was pleasant enough. I have angled the van to face the leafy interior of the loop so I can ignore the traffic and people emptying trash behind me. Really, between the unpleasant hosts, the poor design and the lack of repair and maintenance, this is a pretty crappy campground. It IS in a very nice location however, right next to town, right on the lake. I wish I felt better. Last night for whatever reason I was super energetic and perky, but not tonight. I walked over to the brewery and it was not crowded, but all I did was mope aroudn for a while and go home. I did NOT have a freshly brewed beer – that’s how un-energetic I am.
My neighbors ran a very bright lantern till late in the evening. It was pretty much blinded me coming out of the bathroom. Not cool in my personal handbook of campground behavior.
Tuesday
Hmmm, ATT phone reception disappeared overnight! I had good enough bars to watch Youtube videos in bed last night, but this morning was “No Service”. A little mystery … I hung around till 1pm checkout. Mostly pleasant except for the noisy, smelly overcharged trailer-pulling diesel trucks that seem to want to idle behind me at the dumpsters
Not very pleasant coffee in the not very pleasant little dump up the hill. I also had a ‘meh’ experience the only other time I was here, so that’s probably it for me and that place. Interestingly (or not), I the not very pleasant proprietor was playing Steely Dan both times times I visited, a year or so apart. :)
The leaves around the June Lake Loop were spectacular. Really, really pretty, everything I was hoping for.
All the interesting places in Lee Vining have closed for the season, so as often happens here, there is really no choice but to end up back at Nicely’s, despite it’s dispiriting averageness. I sat at the counter and did get decent service this time and more or less enjoyed my meal. If this keeps up I’ll have to upgrade my opinion of the place!
WHUFU page for: Lower Lee Vining Campground
In the style of Inyo Forest campgrounds(*), this one is hard to find(**) and kind of shabby and rough, but it's in a really beautiful location.
This one is on Lee Vining Creek, in the aspen/pine forest on top of the glacial till. It's the first campground on CA 120 west of Mono Lake heading up to spectacular Tioga Pass.
It's pretty cool. It's very popular with fishermen.
(*) Except the Inyo campgrounds around June Lake/Mammoth. They are run by a concessionare. They are a little nicer, cost twice as much, and have three times as many rules.
(**) There is an arrow for "camping", but you must turn off the road to see the "Lower Lee Vining" sign.
tonight:
A sense of closure! I tried to stay here three nights ago and it was full beyond capacity.
Maybe it's the time of year or my mood, but I am preferring the sites with space around them to the cozy tucked away sites. #9 is at the far western edge of the roundabout where the bathroom is. I can hear the creek and could see it when the leaves fall, and I have lots of sky and pine trees and yellow aspens.
Nice stream. I’ll bet I would be able to see it from the van if I were here after the leaves have fallen.
Wednesday
Good thing I parked close to the bathroom. After I handle my morning’s urgent business I take my chair down to the creek to read for a while. It’s pretty awesome down there – very, very pleasant surrounded by all those greens and yellows and the gurgling brook.
Coffee and wifi at the little euro place in Lee Vining; apparently the only place other than Nicely’s that is not closed for the season, sigh. Then start the trek home.
I make my beloved stop at Topaz Casino because it’s just too awesome not to. The view from the dining room is ridiculously fine, and the steak you get for the steak and eggs special is quite high quality. Today there is a weather system coming up from the south (where I just left), so I am watching it rain on the southeastern part of Antelope Valley, while it is dry and cloudy here.
Unremarkable drive the rest of the way home, just the way you want it to be.