05/08/21 Today we explored the actual lake area which is only a few miles from the campground. Mono Lake is three times as salty as the ocean and the salts and baking soda make it very alkaline and create tufa structures near the shores. This desert lake has an unusually productive ecosystem based on brine shrimp and alkali flies which thrive in its waters and provides critical habitat for more than 2 million annual migratory birds that feed on them. At sunset, P...

05/07/21 We arrived at the Mono Vista RV Park in Lee Vining CA after driving only 126 miles. Originally we had planned on using this as a base to see the area and drive over to Yosemite. Unfortunately the Tioga Pass going from here to Yosemite has not yet opened this spring. We are all very disappointed. Even though it's closed, we drove up 9950 feet in elevation to the entrance of the park. It was a spectacular drive but indeed it was closed (see the extra phot...

We are still in Lone Pine. The original plan was to go to Death Valley but it was over a 220 mile round trip and over 100 degrees. Instead we decided to stay locally. Shannon had a wonderful time playing with two other dogs in the campground’s large dog park. Thought this would tire her out before going on our hike but I was wrong. This morning we hiked Mobius, another easy trail in the valley below Mt. Whitney. Mt. Whitney at 14,497.61 feet is the highest poin...

We began going north after almost 3 weeks going west. We are first driving US 395 since it is a more scenic route. It starts as a two lane highway but now often becomes a divided 4 lane highway. We drove 153 miles Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine CA. Nice people and campground. We are in their new section but no TV or WiFi. We drove over to Keeler (population 50) because Wayne and Patti wanted to mail postcards from there but it appears the post office is onl...

This morning both RVs had important improvements. After tracking down many alternatives, Wayne and Patti's successfully fixed their solar panels system and they are now happily charging in the desert sun. On our RV, we tracked down the issue with running water and hot water. So when you turn on your faucet today and you have running hot and cold water, please appreciate being without that for 29 days. Yep we are officially happy campers. We spent the night at Sha...