We got a little bit of a late start and were on the road by 9:30 AM. We travelled down 174 and joined I-80 at Colfax. Due to some construction and narrow travel lanes along I-80 from Truckee to Nevada, we decided to cut over to to Lake Tahoe at Kings Beach, and down the east side of the lake then heading east on US 50 to US 395, just south of Carson City, NV.
There are still several feet of snow on the ground throughout the Sierra but the roads were dry down US 395, which is the main north-south road along the eastern Sierra.. It has some sections of divided highway and several high mountain passes in the 7000' - 8000' range. We did have a few rain and snow showers near Mono Lake, but nothing significant. It was a spectacular drive with constant views of the high, snow-covered eastern Sierra. Some of the passes going over the mountains to the west are still closed and even the eastern access road to the ghost town of Bodie is still closed . Temperatures were in the 40's and the people we saw along the road are still involved in winter recreation activities, especially in the Mammoth Lakes area. We stopped for lunch in the RV at a highway rest stop and had a wonderful experience filling the gas tank with $4.19 a gallon gas,
South of Mono Lake we descended into the Owens Valley, passing through Bishop, CA which has a Marine training facility nearby. The area has a notorious history. In the 1800's white settlers took the land from the Indians for farming. Then in the 1930's, the City of Los Angeles quietly bought all the land and water rights aong the Owens River, diverting its water to the growing city of LA in the San Ferdando Valley through the LA Aqueduct, an engineering marvel of the time. Owens Lake dried up and there was no longer enough water available for farming; within 5 years, the Owens Valley was deserted and became a desert. There have been recent efforts to restore some of the Owens River Lake water as part of the effort to save Mono Lake, but the area is still mostly dry and the majority of the water is still owned by the City of Los Angeles.
Down Highway 395
Mono Lake
We stopped at the Manzanar National Historic Site, just north of Lone Pine, CA where we were staying for the night. Manzanar is the site of one of the 12 internment camps where Japanese/American residents, 2/3rds of whom were U.S. citizens were interned during WW II. The site is one of two in California, the other is at Tule Lake in NE California near the Oregon Border. The Manzanar site has been restored and is maintained by the National Park Service. We arrived just before closing time at the Visitor's Center but had time to see a well-done 22 minute film about the history of the site. We are going back tomorrow for a more extensive tour of the site and to learn more about this sad chapter of American History.
Manzanar Visitors Center
Our stop for the night was at the Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine, CA at the base of Mt. Whitney, the highest mountain in the continental U.S. at 14, 950 ft. It is a desert RV park with full hook-ups and beautiful views to the east and west and a dry lake bed to the south.
Boulder Creek RV Park
Tomorrow, it is back to Manzanar then east through Death Valley to Nellis AFB near Las Vegas for our next stop.
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