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
After our lovely drive in Lee Vining our next destination was Bridgeport, CA, where we got married in 2012 but hadn’t been back to visit in a few years.
Our decision to officially tie the knot in Mono County came down to two main reasons:
1.) We wanted to get married somewhere in the Eastern Sierra
2.) Kelly saw a photo of the Mono County Courthouse and immediately thought it would be a great setting.
After a frustrating drive through town, finding that the legendary bakery known for its’ apple fritters was closed for the day (grrrrrr…we had really been looking forward to trying them, and the bakery was supposed to be open!) we had two options we were considering: 1.) driving up to Leavitt Meadows on Sonora Pass or 2.) driving up to Twin Lakes.
Realizing we probably wouldn’t have time to drive all the way to Leavitt Meadows and back, we decided to try our luck along one of our favorite drives in the Sierra. The road up to Twin Lakes begins with gorgeous views of happy cows, horses, sheep, goats and mules grazing amidst the backdrop of the Sierra in the distance. This drive never disappoints.
While driving, I spotted a red-tail hawk sitting perched on a fence pole and almost screamed at Kelly to try and get a picture. She snapped several, catching it just as it took off for flight. You can see an embiggened version here!
If you look real close you may be able to see some gold and orange on the mountains in the distance. Groves of aspens, already showing some color.
Approaching Lower Twin Lake we finally started to see some aspens along the side of the road.
As we were driving we started to mull over the possibility that we might need to drive up to those beautiful groves of aspens, if the color around Twin Lakes wasn’t enough for our taste.
Indeed. While Twin Lakes was lovely as always, we found that CaliforniaFallColor’s assessment of the area being “Near Peak” was a pretty drastic overstatement. Usually CFC has never steered us wrong but we definitely found that their ratings this year, were often really jumping the gun. It could be because the old guy who ran the site retired and a new person was writing all the posts.
Still…the lakes with the mountains in the background, were beautiful.
Another, nicely framed grove of orange-y aspens in the distance. Let’s go there!
As we drove back towards Bridgeport it was settled; we wanted to get all up in those aspen groves. And we knew just how to get there…
Baud
California is so beautiful.
Ramalama
That courthouse is glorious. The mountain range view ain’t too shabby either.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Beautiful landscape
Albatrossity
Beautiful! And a great shot of that dark-morph western Red-tailed Hawk!
pieceofpeace
What a gorgeous place in CA! And I’m curious about what the CFC stands for? Only reference found was for CA Film Commission.
In considering future road trips, I thank you for giving me more suggestions/ideas than I had previously considered. Keep showing how California shines in this regard.
Yutsano
California really could be its own country just based on the diversity of its biomes.
Interstadial
That’s a beautiful area that has to be seen up close to be fully appreciated.
Picture #7 shows the Sawtooth Ridge in the background. This is the farthest north extremely rugged granite landscape in the Sierra Nevada. If you get up close there are knife-edge ridges that were carved by glaciers on both sides. Father north in the Sierra there was still glaciation, but the landscape is nowhere near as rugged as that ridge. The highest point is Matterhorn Peak, mentioned in Jack Kerouac’s Dharma Bums.
When I first visited in the 1970s there were sizable glaciers on the north (visible) side of the ridge along with extensive permanent icefields. Those are nearly all gone now. I was shocked some years ago when I visited after a long absence and found only a pale shadow of what had once been an impressive display of ice.
The yellow bush in picture #8 is rabbitbush which blooms in the fall. It’s common in the eastern Sierra and across the Great Basin region of the west.
BigJimSlade
I’ve started a couple of backpacking trips from Twin Lakes way back when – beautiful area! Good fishing up at Peeler Lake. I mean, I don’t fish anymore, but 30-40 years ago I loved it.
Origuy
I stayed at the Bridgeport Inn when I went to Bodie. I like the old time hotels, even if there’s no elevator and the shower is down the hall. The inn has some more modern rooms behind it.
The Mono County Museum is tiny but jam-packed with stuff. Check it out if you are there when it’s open.