High Sierra Lakes
Saturday-Monday 27-29 May, 2023
Lundy Lake.
For Memorial Day 2023, we headed up to the beautiful eastern Sierra once again, with a plan to hike to the Black Point Fissures. With a three-day weekend, we also brought along the Weeble to paddle in some of the gorgeous area lakes.
Overview map of trip.
On Saturday, we drove up, a long way around over the Monitor Pass on CA 89, as both the Tioga Pass on CA 120 and the Sonora Pass on CA 108 (both significantly shorter routes) were still closed. We had lunch at the Bridgeport Burger Barn.
We took the Weeble out on Lower Twin Lake.
Map of Twin Lakes route.
We had a delicious dinner at Tioga Toomey's, on the patio overlooking the lake.
Sunday, after a hearty breakfast also at Tioga Toomey's, we set out to accomplish the main objective of the trip, hiking up Black Point.
Black Point is a 13,000-year old volcano that erupted under a glacier. The eruption boiled the water immediately above it, shaping the lava into unusual formations. A Forest Service sign said that such a volcano exposed in this way on the surface may be unique on Earth. Black Point has fissures whose origin is not fully understood. As Black Point is right on the northern edge of Mono Lake, there are dramatic lake views from the summit. [Information compiled from US National Park Service informations signs and Geology Underfoot in Yosemite National Park, Glazner & Stock]
I had been out to the beach below Black Point a week before on a photography workshop with the Mono Lake Committee. The representative from the Mono Lake Committee who came along with us on the trip, Mara, had said that the road might wash out in the intervening week. Sure enough, when we came to the turnoff for the road, we found a "road closed" sign. We went back into town and to the Mono Lake Committee information center and bookstore. Mara was working at the counter, and she drew on a map for me how to find an alternative road out to Black Point. She also gave advice on a lake with an easy launch point for the next day.
The alternative road was rough and made me just so happy to have Mather the Subaru. At some moments, we were bouncing around like actors in a light truck commercial. But Mather did just fine, not bottoming out or getting stuck in the sand. He got us out to the point with no problems.
The hike up Black Point is steep and difficult, on loose gravel and sand.
Views of the lake were beyond the unreal terrain beneath us.
The summit rose before us, with the beautiful snow-capped Sierra crest beyond.
Eric just below the summit.
My boots at the summit geologic marker.
Eric took a picture of me at the top.
View of Mono Lake from Black Point summit.
We hiked out to the fissures, with views of the Sierra crest in the background.
Looking deep into the fissures.
Fissures with the summit beyond.
Erosion in the fissures.
Views of the lake from the fissures.
We found this Western Fence Lizard in the fissures. According to Wikipedia, it has a protein in its blood that can cure ticks of Lyme disease.
Desert Peach.
Eric found a butterfly.
We found this feature, which we can't identify. It looked like a mushroom, but it seems difficult to imagine that there would be enough water in the high desert to produce a mushroom in the sand.
After we descended from the summit, we walked out onto the beach below.
Eric walked out among the unusual tufa formations. We hope that the State of California will reduce or halt entirely the diversions from the streams that feed the lake and send the water to Los Angeles instead. Under a new rule, this beach would be submerged as it was before the diversions began.
Eric's photo of the beach from the tufa.
Eric's photo of partially submerged tufa. Tufa form only underwater.
Black Point Beach, with Black Point and the Sierra Crest beyond.
Map of fissures route.
As the detour took us past the DeChambeau Ranch, a dilapidated former ranch, on the way back.
A Bullock's Oriole surveyed the ranch from high up in a tree.
We had another dinner back at Tioga Toomey's.
On Monday, on Mara's recommendation, we headed to beautiful Lundy Lake, nestled in the mountains at 2,395 m/7,858 ft.
Lundy Lake was spectacularly beautiful. Even though it was Memorial Day, this year's heavy snowfalls were still unmelted on the mountains.
Eric in the Weeble on Lundy Lake.
We saw beautiful reflections.
Eric loved that he could be in the Weeble on the water and touch snow at the same time.
Eric took a picture of me touching the snow.
Eric in the Weeble on Lundy Lake at the foot of the mountains.
We had beautiful views of the places where the snow was melting at the edge of the lake.
The melting snow was so delicate.
Map of Lundy Lake route.
We stopped for another indulgent meal at the Bridgeport Burger Barn before heading back the long way over the Sierra to the rest of California again.
It was a wonderful little long weekend trip, full of incredible scenery and hiking and canoeing adventures. It was a thoroughly enjoyable time in one of the most unique and unusual places in a whole state full of amazing sites.