I headed north on US Hwy 395 to the small town of Lone Pine, CA. After some pretty laid back activities in the past several days, I wanted to get back to walking around. Just north of town in an area called The Alabama Hills is the Moebius Arch. A short hike and a small arch, but I was curious to see it. Paved road turned into dirt, and a couple of miles later, I reached the parking area. It was pleasantly warm...sunny and mid-70s, and the majestic Mt. Whitney towered in the distance.
It didn't take long to walk to the arch, and I had it all to myself since there wasn't anyone else around at the moment. Along the way, I spotted a bit of color...a flowering cactis plant. Once at the arch, I took photos from all angles...here's one of them.
I have driven US 395 quite a few times, passing Mono Lake near Lee Vining but never stopping. Today, I planned a visit there to see their unusual tufas. What's a tufa you say? Mono Lake is extremely alkaline, full of salts and minerals. Tufas are formed when fresh water springs well up through the alkaline lake water. The calcium in the spring water combines with carbonate in the lake water, and this repetitive action forms the tufa towers. I took a paved path/boardwalk at the south end of the lake to walk among the tufas. It was somewhat cloudy, so my pics aren't as spectacular as they could be. Still, I got some nice shots of the tufa formations.
I did quite a lot of driving today...tomorrow will be a repeat of that. But, I'll be sneaking in a couple of places to see. There's some rain in the forecast...it's been a couple of weeks since I've seen that. Eager to get home...
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