Finding cooler weather, beautiful scenery in Mammoth Lakes

By Gary Bennett Special to the Pahrump Valley Times

7 years ago

Gary Bennett Photography Mountains reflect onto Lake Mary at Mammoth Lakes, California.

Gary Bennett Photography Gary Bennett stands in front of Lake George in Mammoth Lakes, California, with a waterfall in the background.

Gary Bennett Photography Lake George sits below Crystal Lake at about 9,000 feet, with Crystal Lake at about an elevation of 9,600 feet.

Gary Bennett Photography Gary Bennett photographs Twin Lakes, which sits at just over an elevation of 8,500 feet, from Lake Mary at just under an elevation of 9,000 feet in Mammoth Lakes, California.

Gary Bennett Photography Gary Bennett stops to fish at Lake George in Mammoth Lakes, California.

Gary Bennett Photography A panoramic view of a valley in Big Pine, California, which sits below Owens Valley.

So you want to get out of the heat and you don’t have a lot of time, and you don’t have a lot of money.

Well, I have just the right place to try.

I am creating a travel series, and I am starting by using Pahrump in the middle of the map and drawing a circle around our town which extends out no more than a five-hour drive. I think I will call it “Inside 5”.

Back to our first trip information. Traveling north to Mammoth Lakes, where the average high temp this time of year is around 75 … sound good?

There’s all kinds of lodging … camping is the least expensive but they also have condos and motels. I love the smell of the forest.

Have you ever thought that we give off CO2 when we breathe and the trees give off oxygen?

With that many trees around I think you get high off that much oxygen (maybe the altitude has something to do with that, just under 9,000 feet) … just saying! There’s plenty to do when you get there.

Hiking, biking, golf (sierrastargolf.com), horseback riding, fishing, water sports, nice restaurants (VisitMammoth.com) and what a view.

You know this year they had a lot of snowfall and the lakes are full again and the streams and waterfalls are everywhere you look. My first thought was “are we in Switzerland?” Great photo ops are in every direction. The people in town are very helpful and friendly.

But it is California so the gas is a little more expensive.

When I left I just put enough in the tank to get me back to Tonopah and filled up there. What an easy drive. As you change elevation the drive becomes very scenic.

Of course, we start with the desert but went to chapparal and then forest. The Owens Valley was so majestic.

The valley itself is very green with the Owens River running through it, meandering like a snake, and the Sierra Nevada mountains are towering above the valley with some unmelted snow in patches near the tops.

There are several ways to get there so I went up one way and came back a different way. I will definitely go back because it was a great trip and it is … “Inside 5.”

Gary Bennett is a freelance writer living in Pahrump.