Here are a few more photos of my recent, short visit to the mountains:

Sunrise in Tuolumne Meadows, 8/18/14

Moving right along, after exiting Yosemite, we begin the descent to to US 395 & Mono Lake.  This downhill of about 10 miles is one of my all-time favorite drives.

Just east of Yosemite’s eastern entrance station on CA route 120, we see the road winding down toward Mono Lake.

After an instructive visit at the US Forest Service Visitors Center at Mono Lake (where I continue to be amazed and intrigued by the birdlife that passes through, and the lake’s flies, brine shrimp, salinity and history) I drove to the south shore for a tufa viewing.  It was a beautiful time of the day, an hour or so before sunset.

Exposed tufa towers at Mono Lake, CA

A little later, as I was heading to the town of June Lake and a campground, I was impressed by the vista & shadows:

View south near sunset 8/18/14 from Mono Lake’s south shore access road

The next day I drove into Mammoth to explore that resort town, favorited by Southern Californians.  Not bad.

I continued on down 395 a few miles, drove up to Convict Lake for the first time, and was duly impressed.  An attractive lake only 2 miles of paved road from 395, the lake offers hiking, fishing, camping, and boating/kayaking.  It also has a very attractive commercial operation with cabins, restaurant, bar, store, etc.

A few more miles down 395 and I reached Toms Place, a wide spot in the road, and started the 9 mile drive up Rock Creek to the parking lot at the end, known as Mosquito Flat.  It being late in the season, I didn’t detect even one mosquito.

The path begins and after a few hundred yards, it’s up, up, up, although it was just a steady up, not extreme.  The views were good right away.

View south over the a portion of the Rock Creek drainage aka Little Lakes Valley

About halfway to Mono Pass the switchbacks began.  Not as challenging as they might have been, considering the somewhat southern Sierra location.

Typical scene on the switchback portion of the Mono Pass Trail

As you may have noted in the previous entry, I made it to Mono Pass, a nice place to be.  While there is lots to do on any mountain pass, I was on a timetable and turned around after a few minutes.

Looking southwest as the hike from Mono Pass down begins

After returning to the trailhead, changing into my flip-flops, and beginning the drive out, I detoured briefly for a short swim in Rock Creek Lake.  Then it was time to hit the bricks.

In Bishop I couldn’t resist stopping at the wonderful Mountain Light Gallery which features the photography of the noted landscape photographer, Galen Rowell.

I continued south to Lone Pine, the jumping off town for Mount Whitney, the highest summit in the contiguous U.S.   There I saw a familiar name:

Important signage on US 395, Lone Pine, CA

Continuing on as the sun set, I stopped & turned around to catch the sunset of that beautiful, memorable day:

Sunset 8/19/14 from US 395 with southern portion of Sierra Nevada range as backdrop