EASTERN SIERRA Gems: Our Top 3 Favorite Stops Beyond the Yosemite Valley | California

EASTERN SIERRA Gems: Our Top 3 Favorite Stops Beyond the Yosemite Valley | California

We have a couple drives up and down U.S. 395 in California under our belts. So we thought it was about time to share three of our favorite spots in the eastern Sierra Nevada with you. The places we’ll visit today transition from scenes you’d expect to see

On another planet to a notably well preserved Old West ghost town to one of the most heavenly views you might ever set your eyes upon. Our travels in this area have been many throughout the years. We’ve explored the region’s amazing trees, its mind-blowing scenic drives and pristine high alpine lakes.

Even the baked goods. While we’ve just skimmed the surface of what there is to see here, today’s picks represent some of our absolute favorites. If you’re looking for something within reach of Yosemite National Park to diversify your portfolio of things to do during your visit, then this may be the video for you.

At the base of the Eastern Sierra and right off the famous California Highway 395, is a lake that might be familiar to aficionados of Old West Films. High Plains Drifter, a 1973 American Western film directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, was filmed on location here at Mono Lake.

Technicians built a set on location in the span of 18 days, consisting of 14 buildings inside of which many of the scenes were shot. The lake is visible throughout much of the film. One of the reasons the set was chosen is the remarkable beauty of the location.

Seeing the towering eastern Sierra Nevada rising behind the lake provides a striking backdrop on film and even more so in person. But there’s much more than Old West film history to talk about at this lake. Let’s take a deeper look. Mono Lake is an ancient saline lake that has existed at the base

Of the Eastern Sierra for hundreds of thousands of years. The lake has served as an important life sustaining oasis for various species, especially the birds who find it an important supply of food in these waters. Arguably, the most notable features of the lake are strange rock formations that straddle the shores. Walking around the beach here made us feel like we were inside of an aquarium filled with coral. The name for the strange formations is tufa. Perhaps one way to think about these odd shapes is as fossilized springs. Over time, freshwater seeps from below ground into the surrounding saltwater. The freshwater contains calcium and the salty water is filled with baking soda like material known as carbonate.

As the two mix, a substance called calcium carbonate is formed, and over time these strange formations arose as the calcium carbonate built up over the centuries. This is such an alien looking landscape here. Tufa plays an important role in supporting the animals of the area, like the birds who make nests in the craggy rocks. Which brings us to the next observation. How can a highly salty and seemingly barren lake host so much life? I mean, it’s so salty here that no native fish species can survive.

The food chain of the lake is based on algae that thrives in late winter and into spring. On these algae, feed one of the lakes most famous residents, the brine shrimp. These are much smaller than your average shrimp and have little to no nutritional value to humans.

During the warmest months of the year, it’s estimated that 4 to 6 trillion shrimp inhabit these waters. Brine shrimp are a staple in the diet of the birds that visit the lake to rest and eat at different times of the year. A vital part of the ecosystem. The lake here

Hosts another tasty little snack that the birds here enjoy. But I might need to prep you for this next one. Flies. At Mono lake you can find flies that can swim underwater. The amazing alkali fly. You see them scattering about as I close in on them. Can you hear that?

During the warmer months, you might see little teardrop shapes swimming in the shallows. That would be our little fly friends. Tiny hairs around the fly’s body helped to trap a bubble of air around the fly so that it may swim underwater. So in other words, Mono Lake has scuba diving flies.

Once you begin to understand the amazing diversity here, you can more easily understand why groups have gone out of their way to protect this lake. Over the years, the streams that fed into Mono Lake were diverted to Los Angeles to serve the city’s growing need for water. In many places along the shoreline, you can see spots where only decades before the shoreline stretched out far beyond today’s shore. Combined with drought and possibly the effect of changing climate,

Time will tell if 40 years from now, future visitors will pass a sign marking where we stood in the 2020s. For now, Mono Lake remains a fascinating place to visit and easily ranks as one of our favorite spots to visit in the eastern Sierra Nevada. Even though the set of High Plains Drifter was removed from the shores of Mono Lake after filming, you can still find plenty of Old West up here in the Eastern Sierra. The real Old West. This is the Old West, frozen in time. About a 45 minute drive

North of the lake at a higher elevation of over 8000 feet, is perhaps one of the world’s best preserved 19th century ghost towns. Bodie, California. The final few miles to the town is up a dirt road. But don’t worry, it’s easily passable for just about any type of vehicle.

Except for the winter months, where at times the only way up to Bodie is by snowmobile. Bodie is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced of this sort. This is a genuine California gold rush Old West ghost town still left standing well into the 21st century. And it’s made of wood. Lots of wood.

Building after building, block after block. The real deal. No Old West section of an amusement park got anything on Bodie. When you venture deep within the streets, perhaps through what was once someone’s backyard and you see Old West in every periphery, it yanks you back for a minute.

Hard to describe and kind of eerie. Bodie’s boom was pretty epic by Old West standards, but relative short lived, spanning from about late 1877 to the late 1880. The town had all the stuff you’d expect from an Old West mining town, drinking, murder and a reputation for being a pretty rough place.

After the boom, the get rich, quick miners and rough and tumble types abandoned ship for other nearby strikes, leaving a smaller, more family friendly community to work the mines. The town saw a revival or two here and there, but by 1915, Bodie was beginning to become described as an official ghost town. Today, you can see buildings from the era here, like the very photogenic Methodist Church, constructed in 1882. And you just smell old wood. And from there, it’s building after building after building in all their Old West glory. And if admiring the Old West esthetic of the exteriors of the historic buildings was not enough, much of the history you view remains indoors, behind glass as former residents and businesses left much behind. As you wander the streets, you can play the role of a 19th century window shopper admiring the finest

The era has to offer. Often you can see original wallpaper and other reminders of past human inhabitants. It’s eerie sometimes, just how relatable it is. Yet each scene is a time capsule capturing an essence of a very different time. One of the best places to peer through the old glass is through the old schoolhouse, where many items have been left to collect dust. And apparently this is only a small portion of what remains after a fire tore through the town in 1932 during the final years of bodies decline. Still, it’s wildly impressive how much of a sense of place still exists on these streets today. And that’s the best way to summarize the overall experience for me. Being there delivered a sense of place, in the Old West sense, unlike any other Old West ghost town I’ve ever visited. So you got to agree. Isn’t this epic when it comes to ghost towns?

Now do you understand why I always compare everything else to this place? So hopefully by now you’re getting why Bodie is such a special place. Perhaps some might even call it a mecca of sorts when it comes to Old West ghost towns. Bodie is a place I think I’ll visit any time I’m passing through the area. Even with two visits under my belt over the years, I’ve still only explored a small portion of what there is to see in Bodie, giving me many reasons to return. And there you have it.

That’s two places so far that you can visit in the Eastern Sierra both on the same day if you wanted. We have one more notable spot to tell you about coming up next. If you find yourself in the middle of Yosemite traffic jams that leave you hoarse and need a place to escape,

You may already be thanking us for the first two recommendations as Mono Lake and Bodie are day-trippable from the famous national park. Assuming the beautiful Tioga pass is open. We assume most of you watching would be visiting in the summer months.

To add to our list, our final spot is officially inside Yosemite National Park hidden away in the lesser traveled northwestern corner. Hetch Hetchy is a valley not unlike the more well-known Yosemite Valley. Equal and grander in some folks opinion, but with two distinct differences.

First, the valley is covered in water, creating a unique scene like no other. Second, this is a much less visited section of the park, meaning less people and plenty of time to yourself. Hetch Hetchy, everyone. Look at how magnificent that looks. This is so picturesque and barely any people.

For thousands of years, people lived in this valley deep within the Eastern Sierra. The name Hetch Hetchy is derived from one of the native cultures, the word “hatchhatchie”, which translates to edible grasses. For most of the time, man lived on these lands, the valley would have resembled the modern day Yosemite Valley, towering

Granite cliffs and domes, lush meadows with a river running through it. A true paradise on earth. But by the late 1800s, the nearby burgeoning city of San Francisco began to view the water that flows through the valley as a source that could be captured and service the needs of a growing populace.

Many would protest, including the famous naturalist John Muir. But eventually, the demand for water would defeat the opposition and the final phase of construction of the O’Shaughnessy Dam was completed in 1938, flooding the valley and creating what we see today. The dam is 430 feet tall and the reservoir holds 117 billion gallons of drinking water for over 2 million residents of the San Francisco area. Whether you love it or hate it, it’s hard to argue that the current state of the valley is a thing of beauty unto itself, albeit manmade. Today, you can hike many miles of trails in this area, but perhaps the most popular and family friendly is a walk along the shore of the reservoir to a waterfall a couple of miles up a moderately challenging trail. A round trip out in back is about five miles.

The route begins at the dam, and you could spend time getting some great shots from atop the dam itself. It’s one of several highlights of the trail. I mean, this is crazy. Look at that. On the opposite side of the dam from where you started, you’ll spot

The entrance to an ominous looking tunnel that goes directly to the rock. Okay, we’re heading towards this tunnel on the other side of the dam. And I have a feeling this is going to rock. And who doesn’t love a cool, shady tunnel? [child screaming]

Well, okay, maybe not that one screaming kid over there. But for everyone else, just know it’s a welcome sight on the return trip on a hot day. Along the way to the falls, you’ll get many amazing views and photo opportunities right off the trail. Well, come get a little bit better view of the dam from this side, and you can pretty much see where we’ve come. See the trail down below. Follows the coastline through the tunnel and across the dam. And this is the uphill part. Honestly, my mouth is wide open around almost every twist and turn. Eventually, you arrive at the falls. During our July visit, the falls are well past their prime. But it was still an impressive sight to see the water fall from that high up.

Plus, as hot as a day as it was, that cool water at the base of the falls was a welcome respite from the heat for many. When the falls are at their fullest, this area can be a dangerous place, so probably not conducive to taking a leisurely plunge into the fresh, cool water. Hetch Hetchy is a magical place to visit. Even if it’s somewhat controversial. Maybe one day cities can efficiently obtain their water in different ways

And put the valley back into its original form. Either way, we think most will find something beautiful beyond words at Hetch Hetchy, and it makes for a worthy stop on any visit to the Eastern Sierra. Okay, friends, there you have it. Hopefully a little something for everyone. That was three of our favorite stops in the eastern Sierra. Mono Lake, Bodie ghost town, and Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park. If you enjoyed learning a bit about these fantastic places, please comment down below and let us know.

Don’t want to miss out on future content? then subscribe and turn on notifications as we release new videos every week. If you enjoyed this video, you might want to check out some of our other videos we’ve made in this area like our morning we spent in Mammoth Lakes.

And that about does it for this episode. We hope you had fun and we’ll see you again on the next one.

Explore Yosemite’s surroundings with side stops like Mono Lake’s mesmerizing tufa towers, the ghost town of Bodie frozen in time, and the scenic Hetch Hetchy Valley, showcasing a reservoir amid stunning granite cliffs.

Mono Lake is a majestic saline lake located in California. It is renowned for its otherworldly tufa towers, formed by the interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water. The lake is a critical habitat for millions of migratory birds, such as eared grebes and California gulls. Despite facing ecological challenges, including water diversions, Mono Lake has become a symbol of environmental conservation and restoration efforts.

Bodie is a well-preserved ghost town in the Bodie Hills east of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. This once-thriving gold-mining town is now a state historic park, offering visitors a glimpse into the California Gold Rush era. Its abandoned buildings, including the Standard Mill and Boone Store, stand as a testament to the town’s former prosperity. Bodie provides a fascinating opportunity to explore the remnants of a bygone era and experience the essence of the Old West.

Hetch Hetchy Valley, located in Yosemite National Park, was once a breathtaking glacial valley, comparable to the renowned Yosemite Valley. However, it was dammed in the early 20th century to provide water and hydroelectric power to the city of San Francisco. The damming of Hetch Hetchy remains a topic of controversy, as it led to the submersion of a stunning natural landscape. Despite this, the valley still offers striking beauty and serves as a reminder of the delicate balance between human needs and environmental preservation.

▬▬ R E L A T E D V I D E O S ▬▬
⚪ https://youtu.be/vAbUTHRLRl0
⚪ https://youtu.be/hpIsiNugg6w
⚪ https://youtu.be/kRLjtWtEmYU

▬▬ T I M E S T A M P S ▬▬
00:00 Mono Lake
05:58 Bodie Ghost Town
11:15 Hetch Hetchy

▬▬ L I N K S ▬▬
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Welcome to the Cactus Atlas! We are Glenn and Amy and invite you to join us as we visit all sorts of locations across the American West. We tour both natural and man-made attractions.

Our base of operations is in the Phoenix, AZ area. We do a lot of hiking, day trips, and campground reviews and hope that we will be a great resource if you are planning a trip to the American West. We also hope to delight you with our exciting adventures!