the Piglet and the Boar

Mammoth Mountain - the drive

Sking and snowboarding are the kind of activites someone might only make arrangents for when conditions are perfect, the time is right, and all the stars are in alignment. When you live in the desert, that is all based on the whim of mother nature. Time flies and California dries up. It's been a good 6 years since I've seen the snow (other than the frost that comes over the desert every winter) and about 8 years since I have been to Mammoth. Previous trips cancelled due to work or lack of positive weather forecast. Strangely enough Thanksgiving weekend had brought a lot of snow to Mammoth Mountain, over 3 feet worth, more than any other western ski resort thanks to El Nino. Arrangments were made at the eleventh hour. While the drive would be long, there was enough snow in the forcast to make it worth it.

The 4 hour drive was full of interesting landscape exhibits.

The abandoned Boron Air Force Station - closed in 1975 with the Surveillance Radar station still operated by the FAA as part of the Joint Surveillance System.

Red Mountain located at the corner of Red Mountain ghost town and Johannesburg.

Fossil Falls, a unique geographical feature in California, that we explored on the way back home, which you can read about at the end of this series, or skip ahead to here.

Almost to Bishop!

Looking back...

Going forward...

Convict Lake - with a name that does nothing to explain the beauty of the area you just have to look it up. Apparently, it was named Convict lake due to a bunch of, you guessed it, convicts escaping from Carson City, Nevada, back in 1871, camping out at the lake.