This was a magnificent place. Unfortunately because it's the winter with no end, many of the passes and places were still closed - SNOW!!. But the areas we did visit were just beautiful. You can't imagine the splendor of these trees until you see and feel them.

We made the most of our time there, but we'd love to go back in see it again.

The parks were under a storm advisory so we figured we'd head for the coast and see the Hearst Castle. What's another thousand miles more or less?

I must say the man had style. Not my style, but the place is beautifully done. Since flash photography is prohibited we have no shots of the interior, but it was well worth the trip.

After the tour we asked one of our guides for a restaurant suggestion (food is never far from our thoughts) and they both told us to try Robins in Cambria. It was such a lovely place we had to get a picture, and the food was wonderful.

Well the weather cleared up - at least it wasn't supposed to snow again - so we drove into Kings Canyon. It's actually the northern part of Sequoia, so the beauty is fairly similar, but with enough variety of it's own.

Since it was going to rain, we decided to just do a couple small hikes. We went to Zumwalt Meadow which was really lovely and peaceful, and then took the trail over to Roaring Falls. Yes, they are noisy even if they aren't very big.

Yosemite - what can I say - I've now seen it and probably will not go back. It is lovely, but it's so crowded I felt like I was at an inner city park. It probably didn't help that half of it was closed and the open half was being revamped. Between crazed tourists and yelling construction workers it wasn't relaxing at all

The next destination is Bodie State Park. It's a "ghost town" near Bridgeport by the Nevada border. Unfortunately the direct route NE through Yosemite is closed - more of the never ending winter thing. So we have to go around the world to get there.

We spent the night in Sonora. It's a quaint little town with lots of history. Before leaving we stopped at their historical center. It used to be the jail until about 1969.

On our route we passed through Angels Camp. Yes, the one Mark Twain wrote about in the Jumping Frog story. Instead of banners across the streets they have laundry. There are also plaques in the sidewalks for each winner of the "frog" contest, complete with frog name, owner and distance jumped. Really fun

Bodie was a really interesting place. It's got a rather dubious reputation in the old west history. Dodge and Tombstone were quite placid in comparison. "The Bad Man From Bodie" was notorious.

Only about 5% of the original buildings are still standing. It's now on the list of historical places, so it is preserved in it's "as is" state. The town is open, but the last 2 miles are closed to vehicles due to snow and bad road conditions. So we got a little walk in.

As you can see there is still a lot of snow in the streets. Sometimes you'd actually sink up to your knees. We took a ton of pictures, but for brevity sake we're only posting a sample. We spent about 4 hours just walking around in the quiet solitude and looking at the remains of a once thriving town.

There are resident rangers - a husband & wife - who live in one of these old houses. She says it's a little drafty in winter, but they love it there.

Mono Lake was pretty amazing. First we did a hike at Penum Crater. We walked around the rim, then went into the plug area.

After that we did the South Tufa Trail. Some great shots of the tufa (too-fa) formations. The lake is saltier than Salt Lake, and when fresh water containing calcium bubbles up through the carbonate-rich lake water forming calcium carbonate deposits that build up over centuries into these magnificent spires.

After touristing we checked into a little hotel in Bishop. They had a nice grassy area where we enjoyed our picnic dinner. $6 worth of McDonalds and our $27 wine.

A chicken had taken up residence, well until Animal Control can catch it. Since it was polite we didn't mind it joining us for dinner. However I did want it dead when it started crowing at 4:30 AM the next morning and never stopped.

George picked up "Motor Touring in the Eastern Sierra" at one of the visitorncenters. It had some nice little side trips, so we decided to do a few since they were in the area and on our way home.

First we went to the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery. The Fish & Game Commissioner wanted "A building that would match the mountains, would last forever, and be a showplace for all time". It certainly is impressive

Then we drove through Movie Flat in the Alabama Hills (named by some homesick Confederates). Many westerns have been filmed here over the year, although there are no permanent sets.

Finally we drove up to the Mt. Whitney Portal, the jumping off place for hiking Mt. Whitney. You must have a permit to hike, but you can drive up and see the pines.