✏ Previous article about Yosemite National Park
⇟ My youtube video about Mammoth Lakes and the van tour introduction ⇟
Mono Lake
We left Yosemite National Park and we went towards the East to the lakes region. The mountains were behind us and in front of us, a stretch of lakes.
9h – The first lake we crosses is called Mono Lake, located 10km east of the Tioga Road. This old lake is salted and it was born 1 to 3 millions years ago and 5 rivers end in this lake. It has more salt than in the Pacific Ocean and its water is more alcaline than potable water, which means that no fish can live in there. We can see the big “tuff towers“, these large limestone formations that emanate from the ground.
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Twin Lakes
11h – The second stop is Twin Lakes near Mammoth Lakes city, around 50km from Mono Lake. Here, the wind is very strong and cool the temperature down. Mammoth Lakes is a little town of 7500 inhabitants with a ski resort created by David McCoy in the 40’s.
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Crystal Trail and Twin Lakes
12h – We ate our pic nic in the van before hike. We put on our speakers and we are ready for a little – but sloping – hike called Crystal Trail. It’s around 4.5km round trip and it’s a very easy path. From up there, we have a beautiful scenic view on the Mammoth Lakes Basin with Twin Lakes.
The best thing here is to see the autumnal colors which begin to appear at the end of September.
◊ Take your warmest clothes because there’s a lot of wind up there, bring water and good speakers. Do not hesitate to bring solar cream as well and a little chocolate bar!
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Hot Creeks
16h – The last stop was surprising. I heard that there was a little Yellowstone with hot water sources, 20km away from here. We headed to this place called «hot creeks » and we were not disappointed! This geological site is 5km above hot magma of an old volcano.
◊ Warning: this is a preserved site opens from the sunrise to the sunset. You can’t have a swim in this water sources because of burns.
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✏ Next article about Death Valley and Las Vegas.
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