We've Only Just Begun

We've Only Just Begun
More Books Beyond Our Trilogy : We'll Be Filling All These Bookshelves!

Monday

June Lake Loop: Central Sierra Nevada California



Wow did we get lucky! All we did was track the lakes on the mapquest map leading to Death Valley and we found the Mammoth Lakes area and June Lake Loop. It is on the backside of Yosemite and it is spectacular to see the huge rocky mountains meet the lakes beneath them. I wonder if these pictures do them justice, but we'll sure try!

Who would ever know to turn here?
I'm so glad we didn't stay in Mt. Shasta!

The rains were just leaving the area. This mountain looked ominous!


Loop Landscape

June Loop Road

Grant Lake

Grant Lake is a reservoir for the Los Angeles aqueduct system.

Fishing Season in Full Swing - Silver Lake


Check out this WEIRD cloud formation - This photo is completely UNTOUCHED!


We passed Grant Lake, Silver Lake, Gull Lake and arrived at June Lake...

Coming into the town of June Lake -- It's an adorable Alpine Village -- 
like a miniature Lake Placid or Interlaken Switzerland.


This is a photo taken from the other end of town 
(there's not much between the two ends besides what you see in the two photos!) 
Our little motel is The Villager, straight ahead. $65/night bought us a big one bedroom with a full kitchen. Very comfortable!
It was very COLD last night! We could see our breath! Good thing we had our fleece with us and our winter scarves! This morning we took a walk around 6:30 a.m. and the grass was FROZEN!
And tomorrow we head into the FURNACE just three hours away! We'll keep you in the "loop" as we head to Death Valley, Panamint Springs!

Leaving Mount Shasta Heading South

Leaving Mount Shasta on the backroads



Within an hour or so we came upon a huge area scarred by forest fires. It went on for many miles in all directions as far as the eye could see. But as you can see, there is life coming again -- see the mossy green color at the lower left of the picture! Hope springs eternal.


This is becoming a typical view! Just another beautiful mountain road!



To get where we are going, we had to drive into Nevada and back out again. How much the terrain changed along the way! This was north of Reno.
The train seemed camouflaged in the golden landscape.


Most of the towns en route looked a lot like this one, on the outskirts of Reno.


This was the sweetest town of all of them today -- Carson Valley.
Old fashioned lampposts, hanging baskets of flowers... very nice!



This was a beautiful area -- lush with a river running through it. It is known as Antelope Valley.



And Topaz Lake, the first of several lakes in the area.

We're getting closer to our destination. Stay tuned to take a tour of the June Lake Loop with us...