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Day 3 of this adventure started at Mono Lake. It's really amazing - and incredibly beautiful. Tufa are columns of calcium carbonate. They are formed underwater by fresh water streams entering the lake. Normally of course, they are hidden. However the surface of Mono Lake is about 50 feet lower today than it was 100 years ago - so the structures are now standing on the beach and in shallow water. It's very impressive.
We also went for a walk in the volcano. This thing is apparently only 600 years old. The Mono Craters are the youngest mountains in North America. Once again, this is was very impressive. And we enjoyed the walk. Good exercise.
After lunch we drove down through Mammoth Lakes which is a ski resort. And on down highway 395 through Bishop, High Pine, Independence to Lone Pine - our destination for the night. Lone Pine is the town from which to visit Mt Whitney - the highest mountain in the 'lower 48'. Mt Mckinley in Denali National Park, Alaska is the highest mountain in the USA.
The Badwater 130 mile endurance race is run in July from Badwater, Death Valley to Whitney Portal and comes through Lone Pine. The 13 miles from Lone Pine to Whitney Portal are a very difficult 4500 feet climb. Remember the athletes have already done 120 miles in the unbelievable heat of Death Valley in Summer. Last year the daytime temperature was an amazing 131F - 55C. How do they do that? Badwater is the lowest point in the USA - it's 282 feet below sea level.
Lone Pine is famous for movies. More than 600 movies have been shot here - mostly cowboy movies from the days of John Wayne and Roy Rogers. This is where they made 'The Lone Ranger'. For younger folks, 'The Lone Ranger' was about a TV show about white guy who wore a mask and went about doing good works. He was always accompanied by his adoring Indian companion Tonto. It was a kind of Batman-Robin relationship. Every episode finished with the immortal words "Who was that masked man?" and somebody says "That was 'The Lone Ranger'". I loved the show on Saturday nights at 5pm when I was about 6 (1957 or so). And I remember being puzzled about why he was called 'The Lone Ranger' when he was never alone. He was part of a group of Texas Rangers who were ambushed. All the Rangers except our here was killed - hence his name. It's a coincidence that it was shot at Lone Pine.
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