On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
UncleEbeneezer
On Weds, after finally getting a decent night sleep, we ventured back down to Lone Pine to meet BJ commenter, Dmbeaster, who had offered to join us and show us around the area, highlighting some of the geology of the region. Dave is a regular visitor to Owens Valley and has studied Geology for years. So after a quick introductory breakfast we drove up to Bishop to hop in his car and let him lead our little adventure for the day.
Here is the view from the RV parking lot in Bishop. As you can see the Sierra still had a decent amount of snow on the peaks, despite the temperature in Bishop being in the mid-80’s.
The park in Bishop has a lovely park where the creek heads toward the Owens River. There were several cute ducks enjoying their morning while Dave researched various spots he wanted to show us and downloaded the appropriate maps to find them.
After showing us the area around Lake Crowley reservoir (we sadly forgot to get Andy pix), we headed North to Obsidian Dome. Unfortunately, the main access road was closed due to a controlled fire but Dave was not ready to give up so he figured out an alternative approach to getting there using some more obscure, dirt roads. As it turned out, the way we went ended up giving an even better view of the Obsidian Dome. He told us a lot of interesting geological history and info about it. Hopefully he will chime in and answer any questions or add any details he wants to mention. While we were there he grabbed decent size boulder sample for his collection. It was very heavy. Kelly also grabbed a couple small ones.
Here you can see the different rock layers of Obsidian Dome. I won’t even begin to try and tell you what they are or mean. But it was all interesting, as we were basically standing on top of a gigantic volcano/caldera.
After Obsidian Dome, we headed back to Bishop since Dave still needed to drive up to meet his Daughter and we were pretty exhausted. We had a really fun day, and despite having connected through a Top 10,000 Political Blog, we didn’t even really talk about politics much, at all. It was a fun time and we were very grateful that Dave was so generation with his time and knowledge.
Back at our campground we had dinner and then called it an early-night. Here are some night-time pictures from our camp. Unfortunately, we never plan our trips to the mountains with star-gazing in mind so we never end up there during a New Moon, when the stars are easiest to see. One of these days we will get lucky.
View above the Sierra and trees from our campsite.
We can see stars! But not as many as we could if it were a new moon.
One more and with that, good night!
OzarkHillbilly
Good day and good night.
JeanneT
Sweet! Just a great day exploring. The evening sky photos made me take slow deep breathes – for a moment, I felt like I was there at the campsite with you.
eclare
What an interesting trip!
Yutsano
BABY DUCK!!!
*ahem*
It looks like a wonderful trip! The diversity of the California topography never ceases to amaze me.
WeimarGerman
As an OC resident, thanks for the Eastern Sierra refresher!
If anyone is thinking of going soon, please note that 395 will close for two weeks in September right after Labor Day to finish some needed animal crossings.
https://dot.ca.gov/caltrans-near-me/district-9/district-9-news/2024_8_5-sonora-junction-closure.
StringOnAStick
@Yutsano: The geology of California is incredibly complex and variable, the Coast Range is even more so. Before geologists came up with the concept of plate tectonics, trying to make sense of that area required a LOT of arm waving!*
*Arm Waving = geologic term of art meaning “here’s my complicated guess, what’s yours?”
UncleEbeneezer
@StringOnAStick: It’s hard to even imagine how people thought about Geology before plate tectonics. Must’ve been a lot of “intelligent falling” stuff, lol.
UncleEbeneezer
@WeimarGerman: Thanks for the heads up. We will be heading back up there in October for Fall Foliage.
BigJimSlade
Nice trip!
Last time I drove through Bishop on the way to Mammoth Lakes, it was an oven (we stopped for gas). I mean, like, 103°F. Fortunately Mammoth Lakes is up at 7,880 feet, so it was fine up there. Well, one problem with that elevation is that I had one beer, then I had a headache that wouldn’t quit.
Dan B
@StringOnAStick: I saw a geological map of the North Cascades many years ago. It was a crazy quilt that demonstrated that geologists spend much of their effort in finding new and distinct colors. And it was apparent that the North Cascades are hundreds of subsea mounts and islands accreted onto the Nirth American plate by plate tectonics. The same is true of the San Juan Islands just to the west. They’re partially submerged mountains. The area around Bend, Oregon is equally fascinating especially with regard to vulcanism. From Newberry Caldera, which has its own obsidian hillside I remember seeing hundreds of small volcanic cones stretching off into the distance and then there are the complexities of the John Day Fossil Beds and Strawberry Mountains.
agorabum
A fun fact about Obsidian dome; because it was created in a fairly recent volcanic event (about 675 years ago), in addition to all the obsidian around it, there is also a large amount of pumice. which is very light rock because it has air bubbles trapped inside it. So light that the pumice around the dome will float. Kind of fun to toss rocks in nearby Deadman Creek and watch them float downstream…