Bishop California - More Sierra Hiking

Ahh! Nothing like clear, crisp, mountain air and a spectacular sunrise to get the blood moving in the morning. This felt like a good day to hit the coffee shops in Bishop then do some exploring

The town of Bishop is a delight and we spent some time perusing the local stores and coffee shops.

Like so many western mountain towns we found murals.

East of our campground, toward Bishop, we found the "Buttermilks", an area of pale rocky outcroppings of weird and unusual shapes. The lower altitude (around 6,000 feet) means there is little or no snow here.

Always on the lookout for local fauna we spotted a rattlesnake crossing the road.

The noisy end of a Western Diamondback Rattlesnake. The rattles are made of a hard material similar to fingernails but much thicker and more brittle. The snake adds a rattle each time it sheds it's skin, once or twice a year.

We spent an hour or two touring the area in the truck, but it was really the high peaks that called to us. We heard in town that South Lake Road my have just opened for the season so we took off back up to the National Forest to check it out. The road was fully open to within a mile or so of the lake and a single lane with occasional pullouts was plowed through the last mile to the lake.

The view of Bishop Pass from the road in to South Lake.

South lake was still well and truly frozen.

For some reason the upstream side of South Lake Dam is covered with wood planking. The only reason I can think of is to prevent scoring of the dam face by ice. We're thinking it would be nice to come back here in the summer sometime when the lakes are free. Note that the lake level here is also drawn down in anticipation of the spring snow melt which is expected to be quite high this year.

The oldest living trees on the planet reside in a small area of the White Mountains just east of us.  The Ancient Bristlecone Pines are our destination tomorrow.