Scott got one of those National Park Passports, you know the ones you get stamped when you go to a National Park, a National Monument, a National …. This has become his new obsession. Reading the maps for this area, he discovered the Devil’s Postpile National Monument is not very far from here and he decided this was where we were going today.
One thing about this time of year, we seem to be in between two seasons; the summer season and the winter season. Devil’s Postpile is located in Mammoth Lakes, California. Mammoth Lakes is a busy tourist town. In the summer you have to ride a shuttle all around town. In the winter, it’s even busier and the shuttle makes even more stops farther up the mountain. We came in too late for the summer season and too early for the winter season. There is no shuttle running right now. We got to drive right to our hiking trailhead.
The trail to Devil’s Postpile is only about .4 miles from the parking lot. It’s only about 70 degrees here today, be it feels much hotter against the rocks. Devil’s Postpile gets its name because the rocks separated in such a perfect manner that pioneers said it could only be the work of the devil. It is quite amazing to see the perfection in the way the rocks broke apart.
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| The perfect rock formations at Devil's Postpile |
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| The perfect hikers at Devil's Postpile |
After that hike, we drove about a mile down the road and hiked into Rainbow Falls. The hike to the falls wasn’t so bad because it was all downhill. Unfortunately, that means that it’s all uphill on the way back. The waterfall runs about the same all year long because it is feed by melting snow, and surprisingly, there is still a fair amount of snow in these mountains.
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| Can you see the rainbow in Rainbow Falls? |
We stopped at several of the stores in Mammoth Lakes on our way back through. I left Scott in the local camera shop talking to the photographer, who seemed to have a lot to say, while I went to the bookstore. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get him out of there. We did manage to get out of the store, but the photographer followed us. I started to think he was coming with us.
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| Mammoth Lake Village is full of fun sculptures |
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| We have drove by this a couple of times and each time Scott wanted to stop. Finally today we stopped for a picture. By the way, Smokey (and Scott) say "only you can prevent forest fires! |
As with the change of season, a lot of the local businesses will close down this weekend. I guess this place is not very busy during the winter months. I am glad we came at this time of year; no crowds and some great end of season sales at the shops!
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