Scenes of the Owens River Valley -- June 2020

To get to the Eastern Side of the Sierra Nevada (Owens River Valley) one usually thinks to drive the Tioga Pass Road through Yosemite. However, in early June it was still closed, so we went over Highway 108, the Sonora Pass, which was pretty spectacular!

We weren't able to make a campsite reservation (well we had one but it was cancelled because of COVID-19) so we planned on wild camping in forest somewhere.  But we found a private campground at the far end of Twin Lakes outside Bridgeport, CA.  Here's the view at sunset as you drive west towards Twin Lakes.

The view towards the west of Twin Lakes with the Mono Village campground in the distance.

We were lucky in that right as we arrived, the campground opened up a section that was in the trees and along the river.  Secluded and quiet.  Perfect.

Just hanging out and this guy walks by to munch on some grass!

We camped for four nights and on the last night, our friend Mary (and some of her friends) joined us!

This photo taken by Mary's friend in portrait mode clearly shows that the camera on my iPhone 7 is inferior.

Here's the view towards the north end of the Owens River Valley, looking into Nevada

Post Buckeye Hot Springs....feeling h

We spent an afternoon at Convict Lake just south of Mammoth.

Of course I took a dip.  Always.

Someone loves their phone.  If I did this, I would definitely drop my phone in the water.

Over on the other side of the valley is this beautiful blue hot spring. 

No entry....apparently the water can be excessively hot and there have been deaths.

Since we LOVE to just drive, we got in the car one day and drove the three hours (one way) to Death Valley.

As we were approaching the valley, we began to see Joshua Trees.

Starting the descent into the first valley in the park...here is one of the side canyons.

And there it was....Panamint Valley, which is still at 2,000 feet above sea level.

Panamint Valley

We made it to the valley floor where it already was 102 degrees Fahrenheit with a hot desert wind.  To get to the famous lowest point in the continental US required another hour plus drive.  We heard that it's best to come back in the early spring when the wild flowers are out.  So, that's our plan.

It's kind of crazy, the lowest and highest points in elevation in the US are within less than a hundred miles of each other.  We tried to drive up to the Mt. Whitney trail head, but this is as close as we got.

One day, deciding we wanted a bit of civilization, we decided to head north into Reno.  We did some takeout Chinese and tried to go shopping, but REI was doing online ordering only and then the outlets had lines that we didn't want to wait in. So we basically drove a couple hours round trip for $40 worth of Chinese.

Dusk in the Eastern Sierra.  As always, stunning.