It's been a great few days up in Lee Vining/Mono City/Virginia Lakes Basin!
Mattie and I spent a night up near the Virginia Lakes, at a beautiful shady site right next to the creek. No mosquitoes this year.
 |
| Sleeping by creeks. |
That afternoon we headed into Mono City (paradise, just north of Lee Vining) to visit and have dinner with the wonderful Ljungs. Everything was delicious, and we headed back in the evening to incredible storms and sunsets over Conway Summit and the Virginia Lakes Basin.
 |
| Looking west. |
 |
| The Big Show, from west of Conway Summit, looking towards the Sweetwaters. |
We headed back to camp, made some tea and took a little walk around the sites to relax for the night.
 |
| Forced family picture. Mattie deals. |
 |
| Sentinel dog, in the Sierra wild. |
The next morning, we woke up early to meet John and Mary for a short trip towards Mammoth, where we checked out all kinds of great (secret) dispersed campsites, then visited an area with tons of obsidian flakes. I love looking for artifacts. I thought it was pretty unreal. Not many worked pieces, maybe because it's been picked through, but still a lot of fun.
 |
| Native Americans were here. |
That evening (Friday) I started teaching the
en plein air painting workshop through the Mono Lake Committee. Saturday and Sunday were long, sunny, beautiful, exhausting and wonderful days spent with the class - trips to paint at Ellery Lake, near Poole Power Plant (road to Tioga), the June Junction and from the west beach at June Lake. A great group of people, a lot of art, and the mountains around us - not bad for a weekend.
After the workshop ended yesterday, I came back to the Mono City fantasy castle for a great BBQ with Mary, John, Elin, Nathan, and canine buddies (Lupin, Pepper and Mattie). We sat on the porch with cold beers overlooking Mono Lake, Lee Vining, and distant peaks to the south as the sun went down behind us.
I woke up early this morning to pink mountains out the window of my room, then had some of Mary's unbeatable
tortilla espanola for breakfast. In a few minutes, I'll leave for a hike with Elin up to the Laughing Place above Summit Pass. Then we'll be packing up the truck and heading north for one night of camping somewhere along the 395, on our way to see Scott, Tiff, Sid and Anni.
Everything is the best.
Love,
Allison & Mattie Dog
What a great campsite and NO Mosquitoes! The sun set is gorgeous. Mattie seems to have taken to a life of camping without any problems. Did she get her down jacket yet?
ReplyDeleteOf course, Yetis can grow to be quite large you know.
ReplyDelete