Mono Lake along Hwy 395 - Click link on left for info on Mono Lake

Close up of Right side of above photo

Sierras along Hwy 395

Top of Monitor Pass

Markleville General Store

Cutthroat Bar of Markleville

Camping at Grover’s Hot Spring

As I trek back to the Bay Area, twice paid over $4.00 a gallon, ouch, ouch (50 gallons to fill the RV, will do about 400 miles; less in the mountains).  Am now home in Mountain View CA.

At least three of the passes going west over the Sierras from Bishop are still closed due to snow. That means taking the long route, driving north close to Lake Tahoe (click link on left to see Google route) before heading west. Since the mountain roads near Bishop are still closed due to snow, then exploring the mountains around Bishop was undoable, decided to stay only 1 night in Bishop. Must comeback and explore the area along Hwy 395 another time. Hwy 395 is beautiful as one drives along the east side of he Sierra Nevada and seeing the mountains so majestic with snow caped peaks. One gets to drive thru Lone Pine, which is the entry point for Whitney Portal, and climbing Mt Whitney, click a couple times on photo at the link on left. 1982 was the last time I climbed Mt Whitney, took the usual two days. First time was in 1976, and then again in 1980. In 1980 and 1982, I took groups of European post doctoctoral and students from the California Institute of Technology where I worked.

As I headed north on Hwy 395 from Bishop. Actually found that Monitor Pass going west to Markleville CA had been opened the day before. Of course, I took the RV up. Wow, this pass is long and steep. I was awed that a few yrs. ago, I climbed both sides of Monitor Pass on the bike. Adrenaline flowed into my blood as I drove up the pass and seeing a cyclist torpedoing down hill as I used to do, when speed was important.

In Markleville, decided to camp at Grover’s Hot Spring. About 4 miles from Markleville. Unfortunately, the Hot Spring was closed, the ranger said that the manager just did not show up to open it; bummer, was looking forward to soaking in the spring pool. My RV is 29 ft, but the limit at camp is 24 ft. and the camp was still closed for the season. However, the ranger was nice and let me and another small RV camp in the picnic area since there was no one else using the picnic area (still charged us the $20 camping fee).

Stayed in Grover’s Hot Spring one night, since I got anxious being relatively close to home and wanted to participate in bike buddies weekend activities. Yap, am home for about 4 weeks before I head out east to south Florida, and then up the east coast of the USA.

Retirement is nice when you are healthy and young enough to trek around at one’s whim.