Since we are camped right at the edge of the Sierras, we elected to take a spin into the eastern portion of this impressive, jagged range. We decided to try to drive to Devil’s Postpile National Monument. The Monument is located near Red’s Meadow which is west of the Mammoth Mountain ski area.
We started by driving north on US-395 a few miles before turning west on CA-203 up to the ski resort. We turned in Mammoth and continued uphill until we passed over a pass at about 9200 feet before descending about 1700 feet down a mostly one-lane road to near the Devil’s Postpile Ranger Station parking lot.
I am in probably what would be defined as grossly out-of-shape and I don’t really enjoy strolling around at 7500 feet elevation. From the parking lot there is a trail that runs mostly downhill about 1/2 a mile to the lower, unused parking lot near the Ranger Station. We slowly wandered down this trail, making pretty good time for old people. We emerged at the Ranger Station (closed, of course) and got onto the trail from there to the Postpile. The trail from the Ranger Station to the Postpile is mostly flat with a few small hills. It passes through some magnificent mountain terrain with abundant Jeffery pine trees and babbling brooks along the path.
After nearly dying from lack of oxygen, we arrived at Devil’s Postpile which is an enormous formation of volcanic rock which pooled and then cooled, cracking is such a way that the result is a collection of hexagonal basalt columns a couple hundred feet high. Some of the columns are not plumb, curved by unknown forces but still possessing the same hexagonal attributes.
After a period of heavy panting, we started back toward the Ranger Station and the parking lot in a light rain. The wind came up and mixed with the rain, dropping the temperatures considerably. Gasping, we struggled to the Ranger Station where the nasty climb to the parking lot awaited us. Once we started up the hill, we started getting passed by almost everybody, most of whom were healthier, much fitter and completely annoying in their fitness zeal.
We drove back up toward the pass before dropping into Mammoth and it was along this skinny road up past 8000, then 9000 foot elevation that I found this is a particularly heady place to smoke a medical joint. On the way down from the pass to Mammoth, the road passes directly over an earthquake fault which is plainly visible from the highway. Stopping in Mammoth Mountain, we found there really isn’t an official visitor center for the national monument although we did find a gift shop at the Forest Service headquarters in town.
We had some additional daylight left after our trip to Devil’s Postpile NM so we got back on US-395 southbound passing a large geothermal power plant and a Forest Service Air Attack Base before turning off into the mountains at both Convict Lake and McGee Creek. These little side trips were just chock full of extraordinary scenery and were well worth the time to drive up the access roads.
There are some pictures of today’s stuff that you can see if you click here