Mono Lake

   Well, I left Lone Pine on May Day, driving just a few miles to relocate outside Bishop, CA.  The drive was very easy, the scenery beautiful.  Bishop, however, was a disappointment.  I had planned to boondock outside town, but found all the sites I had read about were now posted as being strictly for "Day Use Only - No Camping".  I had a very pleasant conversation with a Forest Service rep who gave me many suggestions for good camping sites and good single-track bike trails.  I took him up on one suggestion, that being to camp at Pleasant Valley County Campground, a very good choice.  While there, I saw a most unusual sunset one night, but unfortunately, it appears that my camera chose to focus on some twigs in the foreground, rather than on the clouds.  But here it is, anyway.

   The town of Bishop - what can I say except over-built, over-crowded, too dxxx many people, no dxxx parking, albeit in a beautiful setting!  I left after two days to journey on to the Mono Lake area.
   Definitely not over-developed nor over-crowded.  I found a nice spot to set up camp, out on Test Station Road, rather near the lake - certainly within viewing distance, and 400 or so yards off the well maintained dirt road.  I was boondocking in the desert, but adjacent to three trees, next to a nice stream and surrounded by verdant desert shrubs.

   Having witnessed the tufa towers at Trona Pinnacles outside Ridgecrest, the tufa here did not impress me at all.  The lake, however, was a beautiful almost emerald green color.

   While here, I visited the Mono Lake Visitor's Center, and there it was explained that the lake is green in the Spring from algae growth, but turns a beautiful deep blue color during the summer and fall.  Timing is everything!
   Driving around, I found a trail and decided to follow it, and it led me to the top of a cinder cone approximately 400' high, from which I got another shot of the lake.

      I expect to leave Mono Lake and California in a couple days, taking US 95 up to Fallon, NV where I'll camp at the county fairgrounds overnight, and pick up my mail which is waiting for me c/o General Delivery, then head east on US 50, "the lonliest road in America."