The 395 and Owens Valley-Eastern Sierra Region

I think (hope) the new management plan is going to help quite a bit with the crowds - at least at night - which is a good thing IMO.

And I don't bemoan the enjoyment either; though I could do with a bit more education from the "leave no trace" perspective. Lots and lots of TP strewn around in the boulders.

 

Something tells me the level of enforcement will be high just given it's proximity to everything.

 

When anything on the East Side needs a high level of enforcement it lets you know just how bad things have got. It's not just AH that is under the eye of land managers. Every change made will be a direct result of lack of leave no trace principle and overuse. One is bad. The other sucks. Combined, well, that leads to policy change and not in a good way.

 

Without being too, you know ..., more change will come and the reasons will be varied and the result, consistent.

 

So Day 2 brought me to Manzanar and the Reward Mine. Both worthy visits if you haven't been before.

Plunging into Darkness - Owens Valley #2​

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Plunging into Darkness - Owens Valley #2​

 

Fun story, I got stuck in there once 5 year old battery decided right then and there to stop starting.



Stuck at the bottom of two inclines, so no chance of a push or gravity start. We were about to give up and hike out to the surface with water and dogs, when we tried one more time. The battery had cooled off enough to give one feeble start. The engine chugged to life and my wife threw everything back in and said "DON'T STOP THIS TRUCK UNTIL WE'RE HOME"

 

Going to Mammoth tomorrow to do a little boarding. Hopefully the lady and I will have time to stop and see something on the way up. Other than breweries and eateries...

 

Hopefully you'll see some snow. I'm sure the mountain is OK but the rest of the range is bleak.

 

It was almost exactly noon when I rolled into the southeast corner of the Volcanic Tablelands from US-6. Having eaten only a small breakfast, I was getting hungry, and decided that the perfect spot to eat lunch would be Kitchen Rock. Doing so would give me the ability to look around a bit as I munched on my PB&J, and of course, I was looking forward to seeing the @ETAV8R's Volcanic Wave that had brought me here in the first place... (ok, maybe not his, but his inspiration)

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So We Meet Again, Tablelands - Owens Valley #3​

 

Dan have you seen the large carving of a miner in Chidago Canyon? I myself have been through the canyon only once and have not. It's definitely a later etching, but from what I've heard no one is sure if it's from the 19th or 20th centuries. Just curious if you had spotted it.

 

We spent over an hour looking for it on our first trip through, even thinking that I knew approximately where it was, and didn't find it. On this second trip through, I looked only as I drove through (in the upcoming day of this trip report, part 4) as I had other places higher on my list for exploration .

 

At least I won't get stuck and go on TW to get recovered...LOL

 

I meandered for two hours amongst the volcanic landscape, and by the time I was back on my planned route, the sky wasn't quite as clear as it'd been at the start of the day. Yes, I'd cheated the weather for a few hours, but winter was coming...

Winter is Coming - Owens Valley #4​

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Full story, more photos
Winter is Coming - Owens Valley #4​

 

Looking at the Sierras from Mazuorka Peak

 

Mazourka and Papoose Flat are beautiful. Front row seats to the Sierra.

 

..a few years ago, about 3000 feet off the floor of Owens Valley, good platform to camp on

 

Great to stumble on this thread! Although I've never lived up there I feel like the Eastern Sierras are home to me as they hold a very special place for our family and I've been going up there every year of my life since I was a month old. Wanting to get a little further off the beaten path was the reason I got rid of my Impreza and bought a Tacoma.

But as it seems everyone has noticed it's just a mess up there now. I was up there in July and again in October for some fishing and camping. I'd never seen it that busy, never seen so much trash. There were caravans of campers down in the valley below Hot Creek. Up off Owens River road by Big Springs camp ground there were trailers and 5th wheels parked all over with people camping. We could even heard/saw people on side by sides up in the hills at night (some of them had bright neon lights so they could be seen from our camp miles away). My aunt was up there last week and saw human feces and toilet paper in many spots in Alabama Hills.

It saddens me greatly to see what's going on up there.

 

Most of this has been discussed at some length already. Other parts of this thread and one or two others.

 

Ran across this article today. For anyone local to the area, I'm curious what your take on it is?

My initial reaction is - perhaps predictably - "no mining." That's reinforced for me by the groups that are (at least stated as) opposing the operation.

However, I don't have skin in the local game, per-se, and I recognize that I am quick to say "no" to a lot of things when they are in places I love and want to see unharmed. Yet, when it comes down to hurting the planet, I eat beef, drive my inefficient Tacoma, etc... like a lot of others. And in the world we live - where gold is a necessity for the computers on which we type this conversation - we have to get the gold from somewhere...

Gold mine near Death Valley sparks controversy

 

I read through the thread, I was just adding my similar experience and expressing my sadness. Still looking forward to making a trip up there sometime later this spring/summer.