tseeb
Well-known member
Friend whose birthday was Saturday, April 5 and his wife had invited us to join them in previous years at Benton Hot Springs which is about 45 minutes E of town of Mammoth Lakes. There is a heavily booked campground where every of the 15 campsites has a private hot tub, and a rustic motel with nine rooms. Most of the rooms can share a bathroom with room next door, but only if adjoining room is rented to your friend or family member. All rooms are heated (too much our 2nd night) with hot water running under the floor. There are three hot tubs available to motel guests and it looked like they may be adding another one. Rooms include breakfast delivered to your door at 8:30 and are $169/night, no tax or other charges and most rooms allowed dogs at no charge.
My plan was to drive to and ski Kirkwood on Wednesday, then Heavenly on Thursday, then drive 2 1/2 hrs from family So. Tahoe cabin and ski Mammoth on Friday on way to Benton. But San Jose Sharks had a Salvadoran Heritage game Thursday night that my wife wanted to attend (and both of her sons did), but we ended up not going and instead left early Friday AM and did the entire drive with stop at Kirkwood to drop gloves friend I skied powder with there on Tues and Wed and stayed with left in my car and at one of the Carson Pass Sno-Parks to use facilities. Snowman on Carson Pass. Elephant's Back behind it that I hiked up and skied once in June.
We also stopped in Gardenerville, NV where Lucia did the final grocery shopping (no stores near Benton beside mini-mart 2+ miles away) and I filled up on less expensive NV gas. We had lunch at Topaz Lodge Casino which has great view of lake where my family used to camp and water ski. My dad liked the casino there and the lake which is much warmer than Tahoe and usually much calmer. Campground on edge of lake to right.
CA-120 E south of Lee Vining is a shorter route to Benton, but was closed due to snow? or only open to those who drive around gate at each end so we drove past June Mountain and Mammoth Mountain ski areas to Benton Crossing Rd. Road to Benton. Road have some great views of the High Sierra and White Mountain ranges, but suffers from about 5 miles of wide frost heaves, where repairs have sunk and need re-filling, before rejoining CA-120. On preceding couple of days my phone said drive would be an hour longer, almost going to Bishop as shorter route was closed due to a fire or snow. We arrived about 4 and after relaxing in our room and taking in some history when I took dog for a walk, we joined friend and his son and daughter and her boyfriend (who had all skied or boarded Mammoth) for soak in a hot tub that we had to ourselves. Since we’d had a big, somewhat late lunch, we only had snacks with wine that night. Artwork? at Benton Hot Springs.
Breakfast Saturday (see above photo) was good although we were glad we’d brought our small Keurig so we didn’t have to wait until 8:30 for coffee to be delivered with breakfast. My friend wanted to see the Crowley Lake Columns, but my phone told me it was 1.25 hr drive going almost to Bishop to get to start of hike. But when I added a stop at Mammoth airport to see if that way was shorter, phone routed me down 5 miles of (dirt) Owen Gorge Rd and cut trip time in half. I drove to keep dog hair out of his SUV.
The dirt road was not bad, I was able to go 25-30 on most of it, but when we started down the road to the columns I quickly saw steep, rutted gully that we would have to cross would require lifted 4x4 which my 326.5K miles Pilot is not. Maybe I could have made it, but it would have been easy to break it. So we walked the ~1.5 miles and were passed by a couple of lifted 4x4s including a Subaru Ascent with 2” lift and aggressive tires. The lady driving it offered us a ride and we declined. But when we saw her coming up the steep hill on the last ~.5 mile hike from the columns, we asked and got her to wait and give us a ride back.
The columns and views of the Sierra were amazing. The water was high enough that we could barely get into a cave that went behind some of the columns without getting wet. There was a couple there with the guy taking photos of the lady who went into the cold lake until she was covered. We didn’t stay that long as we didn’t want to keep lady who offered us a ride waiting. Even with our weight in her SUV, she made it through the big holes crossing gully without bottoming out.
On the way back, we found a place down a side road with a good view to eat the lunch I’d packed. My friend found a lot of shell casings and one bullet as area must had been used for target practice. Back at the Inn we used a different hot tub that was a 9? foot diameter watering trough as tub we’d used previous day was occupied. It was good, although a little harder to get in and out of and you tended to slide into middle of tub. Water coming in is 125 degrees (139 at spring) and flow can be adjusted to get desired temp. My friend used propane BBQ at motel to finish cooking ribs that had been partially cooked at Trail Dust BBQ and also to re-heat already cooked baked potatoes and made garlic bread to go with salad for his birthday meal that went well with good Zinfandel I’d brought.
Sunday morning I woke up early and took dog for a walk to nearby cemetary that includes grave of one of the posse killed by prison escapees. Nearby Mt Morrison is named for him. Next photo was flipped 180 degrees so sign that is supposed to read entering Cemetary is readable when exiting.
My phone said sunrise in Benton would be ~6:30, but near Hot Springs it was after 7:15 before sun would get above the White Mountains. They include Boundary Peak, to left in photo, 13,147’, Nevada’s highest, and White Mountain Peak, 14,252’, third-highest peak in CA, along with a bristlecone pine forest where Methuselah, the oldest known living tree at 4,856 years old is located. A bristlecone there, nicknamed Prometheus, was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964. Panoramic photo taken at just before sunrise at 717. Boundary Peak to left of where sun is about to come up is hikeable in Summer.
Next photo taken at 718 AM.
Friends took photos in hot tub Sunday morning and may have missed the 11 AM checkout then had to do long drive home to South SF Bay Area to get back to work on Monday. They recommended we stop at Convict Lake which we did. Getting to lake you drive past many glacial moraines. We tried to hike around Lake going counter-clockwise, but Lucia was concerned that our 13 year-old dog was going to get injured on snow-covered part of trail so we stopped then drove back past dam where we spent about an hour watching bird-watchers, checking out large trout in creek below small dam, snacking, taking photos and enjoying view.
Next photo is a cropped and reduced size panoramic where I added red line on left that ends at highest ski tracks in chute below peak.
Our drive back to South Lake Tahoe from Convict Lake was about 2 1/2 hrs, not counting gas stop in Gardnerville where gas was $3.72 credit, much less expensive than this Shell in Bridgeport (only ~65 miles away), and a stop for an ice cream at Walker Burger where I need to stop for a burger sometime.
My plan was to drive to and ski Kirkwood on Wednesday, then Heavenly on Thursday, then drive 2 1/2 hrs from family So. Tahoe cabin and ski Mammoth on Friday on way to Benton. But San Jose Sharks had a Salvadoran Heritage game Thursday night that my wife wanted to attend (and both of her sons did), but we ended up not going and instead left early Friday AM and did the entire drive with stop at Kirkwood to drop gloves friend I skied powder with there on Tues and Wed and stayed with left in my car and at one of the Carson Pass Sno-Parks to use facilities. Snowman on Carson Pass. Elephant's Back behind it that I hiked up and skied once in June.
We also stopped in Gardenerville, NV where Lucia did the final grocery shopping (no stores near Benton beside mini-mart 2+ miles away) and I filled up on less expensive NV gas. We had lunch at Topaz Lodge Casino which has great view of lake where my family used to camp and water ski. My dad liked the casino there and the lake which is much warmer than Tahoe and usually much calmer. Campground on edge of lake to right.
CA-120 E south of Lee Vining is a shorter route to Benton, but was closed due to snow? or only open to those who drive around gate at each end so we drove past June Mountain and Mammoth Mountain ski areas to Benton Crossing Rd. Road to Benton. Road have some great views of the High Sierra and White Mountain ranges, but suffers from about 5 miles of wide frost heaves, where repairs have sunk and need re-filling, before rejoining CA-120. On preceding couple of days my phone said drive would be an hour longer, almost going to Bishop as shorter route was closed due to a fire or snow. We arrived about 4 and after relaxing in our room and taking in some history when I took dog for a walk, we joined friend and his son and daughter and her boyfriend (who had all skied or boarded Mammoth) for soak in a hot tub that we had to ourselves. Since we’d had a big, somewhat late lunch, we only had snacks with wine that night. Artwork? at Benton Hot Springs.
Breakfast Saturday (see above photo) was good although we were glad we’d brought our small Keurig so we didn’t have to wait until 8:30 for coffee to be delivered with breakfast. My friend wanted to see the Crowley Lake Columns, but my phone told me it was 1.25 hr drive going almost to Bishop to get to start of hike. But when I added a stop at Mammoth airport to see if that way was shorter, phone routed me down 5 miles of (dirt) Owen Gorge Rd and cut trip time in half. I drove to keep dog hair out of his SUV.
The dirt road was not bad, I was able to go 25-30 on most of it, but when we started down the road to the columns I quickly saw steep, rutted gully that we would have to cross would require lifted 4x4 which my 326.5K miles Pilot is not. Maybe I could have made it, but it would have been easy to break it. So we walked the ~1.5 miles and were passed by a couple of lifted 4x4s including a Subaru Ascent with 2” lift and aggressive tires. The lady driving it offered us a ride and we declined. But when we saw her coming up the steep hill on the last ~.5 mile hike from the columns, we asked and got her to wait and give us a ride back.
The columns and views of the Sierra were amazing. The water was high enough that we could barely get into a cave that went behind some of the columns without getting wet. There was a couple there with the guy taking photos of the lady who went into the cold lake until she was covered. We didn’t stay that long as we didn’t want to keep lady who offered us a ride waiting. Even with our weight in her SUV, she made it through the big holes crossing gully without bottoming out.
On the way back, we found a place down a side road with a good view to eat the lunch I’d packed. My friend found a lot of shell casings and one bullet as area must had been used for target practice. Back at the Inn we used a different hot tub that was a 9? foot diameter watering trough as tub we’d used previous day was occupied. It was good, although a little harder to get in and out of and you tended to slide into middle of tub. Water coming in is 125 degrees (139 at spring) and flow can be adjusted to get desired temp. My friend used propane BBQ at motel to finish cooking ribs that had been partially cooked at Trail Dust BBQ and also to re-heat already cooked baked potatoes and made garlic bread to go with salad for his birthday meal that went well with good Zinfandel I’d brought.
Sunday morning I woke up early and took dog for a walk to nearby cemetary that includes grave of one of the posse killed by prison escapees. Nearby Mt Morrison is named for him. Next photo was flipped 180 degrees so sign that is supposed to read entering Cemetary is readable when exiting.
My phone said sunrise in Benton would be ~6:30, but near Hot Springs it was after 7:15 before sun would get above the White Mountains. They include Boundary Peak, to left in photo, 13,147’, Nevada’s highest, and White Mountain Peak, 14,252’, third-highest peak in CA, along with a bristlecone pine forest where Methuselah, the oldest known living tree at 4,856 years old is located. A bristlecone there, nicknamed Prometheus, was more than 4,844 years old when cut down in 1964. Panoramic photo taken at just before sunrise at 717. Boundary Peak to left of where sun is about to come up is hikeable in Summer.
Next photo taken at 718 AM.
Friends took photos in hot tub Sunday morning and may have missed the 11 AM checkout then had to do long drive home to South SF Bay Area to get back to work on Monday. They recommended we stop at Convict Lake which we did. Getting to lake you drive past many glacial moraines. We tried to hike around Lake going counter-clockwise, but Lucia was concerned that our 13 year-old dog was going to get injured on snow-covered part of trail so we stopped then drove back past dam where we spent about an hour watching bird-watchers, checking out large trout in creek below small dam, snacking, taking photos and enjoying view.
Next photo is a cropped and reduced size panoramic where I added red line on left that ends at highest ski tracks in chute below peak.
Our drive back to South Lake Tahoe from Convict Lake was about 2 1/2 hrs, not counting gas stop in Gardnerville where gas was $3.72 credit, much less expensive than this Shell in Bridgeport (only ~65 miles away), and a stop for an ice cream at Walker Burger where I need to stop for a burger sometime.