astrophotography

Mammoth Lakes
August 23rd – 29th, 2020

The drive from San Diego to California’s High Sierra is a long one (over 6 hours) and, following our 4 hour maximum drive time rule, would normally be broken up into a couple of stages. However, due to the intense summer high desert heat that prevails along most of the Highway 395 drive, we were forced to make the trip in one drive.

Our first stop was Silver Lake Resort, an RV park next to Silver Lake (elevation 7,200 feet) (about $49 / night including tax, although we were told later there are some discounts, if you ask, including AAA). The campground is in a stunning location which is surrounded by mountains, featuring a lake in the center. This is a popular spot for those who like to fish and people wanting to stay months at a time. The RV sites are fairly close together and this park is difficult to get a reservation as people tend to visit year after year and they are given priority for reservations. Large trailers and motor homes tend to be the norm here and our trailer was the smallest one in the park (although everyone made us feel very welcome)! We chose this campground because our friends Hugh & Cheryl (who we first met at Anza Borrego campground in February 2020) have been coming here the same week in August for the past 13 years and we wanted to see them again. They said the resort normally provides a lot of activities, but because of Covid things were much more limited this year. There is a general store and a café and great trails that border the property. There are also nice stables alongside that provide full day trail rides up to some of the high lakes ($125 per person for a full day ride including lunch as of 8/2020).

Our friend and neighbor, Dewey, also caravaned up with us in her Lazy Daze motorhome and parked in the spot next to ours. We were in spot D1, which was at the very end of one row, so we didn’t feel squeezed in by other giant motor homes. Dewey’s daughter, Lily, and boyfriend, Bretton, also came up from LA and joined us all. Dewey also brought her dachshunds Sammy and Lu Lu who love to camp! I just purchased a new astrophotography camera and was looking forward to taking images of the stars. It turned out that Bretton is also into astrophotography and we spent one fun late evening snapping images of the Milky Way! After catching the excitement of nighttime photography, we will try to plan future trips around the new moons for darker skies.

The first day at Silver Lake resort was a bit smoky due to fires across northern California, so we had to curtail our morning hike. However, we also brought our inflatable kayak and it was fun taking it out on Silver Lake. Lily and Bretton took turns with us enjoying kayaking on the lake as well. Additionally, there are some beaches on Silver Lake that are nice to walk along to see what the fishermen are catching. Our longest hike was to Lake Agnew and then to Gem Lake. It’s about 6 miles round trip to Gem Lake and took us about 4 hours to hike the steep trail and back. The trail is shared with the horses who take day trippers up to Gem Lake as well, so you need to watch your step. We saw the (utility) Edison’s mountain train along the way which seems to go almost straight up along the incredibly steep slopes, taking men and equipment up to lake Agnew to work on the power generation equipment at the dam. About a mile past Lake Agnew is Gem Lake within the Ansel Adams Wilderness area. Gem Lake is beautiful with striking blue waters.

Our friends Hugh & Cheryl are incredibly generous and insisted we all have dinner with them, social distancing, outside their motorhome every night! Food highlights were the grilled hot dogs and the fresh trout which Hugh and his friend Louie caught on the lake! On our final day, Hugh and Louie served their grilled Silver Lake trout which included 5lb and 7lb rainbow trout (career records)! Cheryl always made sure we had enough ice cream from the general store to follow the meals [including rocky road, turtle tracks (caramel and nuts), and mint chip]!!!

Before leaving Silver Lake, we had a chance to walk across the street to check out the public Silver Lake campground (which borders the lake). The campground is much more spread out than Silver Lake resort [and cheaper at as low as $23 / night (or $12.5/night with Senior Pass 62 or older)], with many of the spots offering extremely private surroundings. The main drawback here is that there are no hookups (and no dump station). There are water spigots spread out within the campground. So, if you plan to stay here you must account for how long you will be able to stay without a dump or electrical hookups. I think if we took outdoor showers we could probably stay about 5 days without needing to dump (black tank). Our solar panels allow us to have enough electricity pretty much indefinitely as long as there is sunshine since the Scamp is very energy efficient and we don’t have AC. Our top site picks after walking the public campground are sites: #18 (lake view, close to water spigot), #20 (lake view, private, water spigot close), #23 (along lake, private), #24 (private, no lake view, water spigot close), #25 (private, close to lake), #26 (private, mountain view), #27 (private, mountain view), #28 (private, mountain view, close to lake), #33 (private, close to water), and #37 (private, mountain view, and close to water).

We tried Birch Benders Pancakes (gluten free) for the first time the morning just before leaving Silver Lake ($4.49 / bag at Sprouts Market). The nice thing about these pancakes is there great taste and all you have to do is add water to the mix and then cook on your propane stove. Highly recommended (especially served with real maple syrup)!

The next few days would be without our solar panels (which I forgot to pack!). So, we weren’t sure if we would last from Thursday morning to Sunday morning (3 days) with just the power in our Scamp battery. We had 12.5V on Thursday morning (after being hooked up the past four days while staying at Silver Lake Resort) and were intent on making the battery last by using power sparingly. There are some essentials that are necessary to make the Scamp work (like the on demand water pump for the sinks, on demand pump for the toilet, and the pump for the shower drain).

Our second stop was the Twin Lakes public campground (30 minutes south of Silver Lake), part of the Mammoth Lakes chain. Dewey and Lily also joined us here (Bretton had to go back to LA early for work). At almost over 8,000 feet (8,563 ft.), this lake is high up there! Some campers told us they felt the altitude and some reported having slight headaches. Fortunately, we acclimated first a little lower at Silver Lake, so we felt ok. You may feel a little winded when exercising at this altitude. It’s important not to push it too hard your first couple of days and respect the elevation. We stayed at the Twin Lakes campground, which is a beautiful public campground adjacent to the lakes (which has a bridge between the two lakes) ($26 / night). There is water available here but no hookups, but the general store offers a dump ($15) and some other services including showers. We had Site #8 right next to the General Store. Our favorite site picks are: 23, 24, 31, 33, 34, 47, 49, 53, 54, 60, 61, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70.

The privately owned General Store here is excellent with some very nice souvenirs (including Mammoth Lakes t-shirts, coasters, and other Mammoth mementos), a lot of camping supplies, and food items. We purchased 2 lighters for our stove (always have a backup lighter!), Hershey bars, 2 High Sierra fisherman t-shirts, and 2 Mammoth coasters.
There is great kayaking and fishing on the lakes here and you can see the Twin Lakes Falls high up above. We hiked two great trails with Lily, one steep one up to the top of the Twin lakes Falls overlook and the other which looks down on the Twin Lakes from another side. We just had one night here at Twin Lakes (due to the lack of available reservations) but really enjoyed it. Dewey and Lily (and Sammy and Lu Lu) had to head back to home to San Diego the next morning. We headed on just a short drive higher to Lake Mary (elevation 8,966 feet), our third stop.

We stayed at Lake Mary Campground which is adjacent to Lake Mary ($26 / night) in sites #33 and #38 (we had to change sites due to availability). Our sites were not right on the lake, but were nice and quiet. Our favorite site picks at Lake Mary campground are: 12 (lake), 15 (lake), 18 (lake), 22 (lake), 23, 33, 37. Most of the campers here were tent campers with some motorhomes and trailers mixed in. There is a paved bike / walking path that runs through Mammoth Lakes and this path crosses through the campground. It provides a nice way to explore the area, including taking the Horseshoe Lake loop walk. It’s an easy walk that winds around Horseshoe Lake (a popular beach lake). You can also walk to Lake George from this campground (which is very close by). Lake George is popular for fishing. There were lots of stand-up paddle boarders and kayakers on Lake Mary. Coldwater Creek Campground is close by and serves as the trail head for the popular Duck Lake hike (long full day hike). We drove up to the campground, but it was so crowded that there was nowhere to park. There was a similar situation at Lake George with lots of auto traffic looking for parking spots. There is a small campground at Lake George, but we were told there are no reservations as it is first come first serve only.

Two must visit spots when staying at Mammoth Lakes are the Devils Postpile National Monuments and Rainbow Falls. They are about a half hour drive along a winding mountain road to get to the ranger’s station. After parking, its about a .4 mile easy walk to the Devils Postpile. It’s a solid wall of rock columns (columnar basalt). From there, it’s about 2 more miles to see Rainbow Falls which plunge 101 feet to the turbulent water below. Rainbows appear in the fall’s mist on sunny summer days. By foot, it’s about an hour each way to see both sights, but well worth it. It’s also possible to hike down to the base of Rainbow Falls, but that makes the trip much longer and more difficult.

In the end, we had a great trip and would highly recommend Mammoth Lakes. There are lots of things to do here with activities to satisfy just about anyone. Fishing, kayaking, hiking, stargazing, camping, biking and horseback riding are some of the top choices. And, as it turns out, that with careful use (only running the fan minimally and the lights and pumps when necessary) we were able to sustain our Scamp battery without solar panels. We ended the trip with 12.2V (minimum recommended voltage is 12V)! And our group of friends all decided to come back again next year!