Sunset at Mono Lake

In my last post, I explained how the wind died down for a day at the Buttermilk Boulders, and Michael was able to make some delicious Cholaca Camp Chili. It turned out to be a good thing we made the chili that day. Because that night – it was as if, just after dark, someone turned the wind on.

Our fabulous CVT tent has survived 50 mph winds before (in Moab) so I wasn’t worried, but I had to put my earplugs in, the tent rattled and shook so much.

The next morning dawned clear and gorgeous. To the west I could see new snow on the hillside.

We broke down camp and headed in to Bishop. We had work to do. The first stop was the Wash Tub, Bishop’s laundromat, which offers free WiFi. You can also take a shower there for just $5. No time limit, and soap and a towel are included.

I passed on the soap (have my own) but I did accept the towel. Michael and I both carry travel towels – the backpacker version, which is pretty tiny. The size is something I appreciate when I have to stow that towel in the truck, but it’s something I generally despise whenever I have to actually use it as a towel. So wrapping myself in a full-size bath towel felt like quite the luxury.

Clean, and with clean clothes, we filled the water containers at the Chamber of Commerce, then went to Holy Smokes Texas BBQ for lunch. There is a bakery across the street from the BBQ place, called Schatz’s. Apparently they’re famous for their sheepherder’s bread. (Whatever that is.) I figured it must be a gigantic loaf of bread, because all the people we saw leaving were carrying a giant white paper bag. So we went over there to check it out.

I don’t know how big that sheepherder’s loaf is – they were all sold out. But I can tell you that the bakery itself is what’s gigantic. In addition to about 20 different kinds of bread, they churn out muffins, cookies, fudge, donuts, pies, cobblers, and more. We picked out a loaf of pinto bean bread (made with pinto bean flour… should be interesting) and a few sweet treats.

We headed up to the grocery store and I noticed something as we filled our cart. There were a lot of young cowboys at Vons. As in, the 10-gallon hats, the cowboy boots, the Wranglers. Some were sporting red vests with a number on it. But these cowboys looked like kids.

Now, most cowboys tend to be on the young side (there’s not a great deal of longevity in that sport), and as I get older I get worse at guessing young people’s ages. But these cowboys did seem particularly green.

It turns out that the rodeo was in town. And not just any rodeo – the California High School Rodeo. So yeah – it turns out those cowboys really were boys. I wished we were able to go, but it just didn’t fit in with our schedule. Too bad – my Aunt Jackie and Uncle Chuck took me to the Larimer County Fair and Rodeo, years ago when it was still a small venue. I thought it was awesome. Except I’ve never been to another rodeo. I swear, we will make it to a rodeo this summer. Somewhere.

By the time all the errands were done it was late enough in the day that we just headed back up to our previous campsite. The bad weather had passed, and it was hard to beat the views.

The next day we finally made the move north. We made one last stop to refill the water containers (when it’s free, you top off as much as you can) and got a treat: the Rodeo Queens!

I don’t know where the parade was, but this little caravan was parked right next to the Chamber of Commerce. They took off a few minutes later.

Then it was off to Mono Lake. Finally! This was kind of a bucket list item for me. I can’t remember exactly when I learned about Mono Lake but I have always wanted to photograph it. I’ve read that the best times for photographs are sunrise and sunset, for that soft light on the tufa and the best chance for the lake to have that glassy, mirror-like surface.

I have a wonderful husband who said we could stay as long as I wanted to get my sunset shots, that he’d be okay with finding a campsite in the dark. Wheeee!

Unfortunately the wind did not cooperate. There were whitecaps on Mono Lake! But I was still thrilled. This place is amazing.

Mono Lake is similar to the Great Salt Lake in Utah, in that there is no outlet for the water other than evaporation. Water (in the form of snowmelt and from underground springs) seeps in to the lake, but there are no streams leading from it. As the water evaporates, what remains gets saltier every year. Currently Mono Lake is about 2.5 times saltier than the ocean. It’s also alkaline, so no fish live in Mono Lake.

I used the word “tufa” earlier. Tufa towers are calcium-carbonate spires and knobs. They form by the interaction of freshwater springs (found under the lake) and the alkaline lake water. See, the spring water is rich in calcium and the lake water is rich in carbonate. The resulting interaction is insoluble calcium carbonate: limestone.

Tufa towers grow as long as they’re covered in water. But in the 1960’s the city of Los Angeles began diverting water away from Mono Lake, and the levels of the lake dropped dramatically. In 1994 a campaign successfully began saving Mono Lake. The level of the lake is still below the goal, but it’s no longer shrinking.

And we have these amazing limestone formations to walk through.

If you see a little splash of brown in that photo above – yep, that’s Bailey. There were no signs that you couldn’t bring a dog down to the beach. Bailey spends enough time in the truck, so we leashed him up and brought him with.

He’s a very photogenic dog. And even though I feel guilty admitting this, life has been a lot easier with just one dog. Particularly a friendly, obedient dog like Bailey.

Don’t get me wrong! I miss Elvis every single day. And in his youth, Elvis was an exceptionally obedient dog. But he was never good with strangers. You know, there was a point when we were hanging out at our Bishop campsite, just hanging out and reading, and this couple came walking up the road right next to our site. I looked up and waived. They waived and kept going. Bailey looked up at them, then went back to sleep. That was the sum total of our interaction.

Doesn’t that sound normal? Well, Elvis would have given those two people the bum’s rush, barking his head off. It’s one of the reasons we kept him tied up most of the time.

I’m not sure what my point was with that story. I don’t regret any of our time with Elvis. (Well, maybe that time he threw up on my pillow….) He was a challenge as he got older, is all.

We finally left Mono Lake right as the sun went behind the mountains. About 30 minutes later we found a campsite nearby, down a nameless little dirt road. It wasn’t much of a site, but we were only there for one night.

It was time to move on… to Carson City, Nevada.