Mammoth Mountain, CA

Okay, I had a dream I updated the blog! (This is the same guilt as those unfinished baby books!!)

We're on vacation at Mammoth right now, renting a condo with another family! We've never done anything like this, and it's so fun!, and it is so beautiful!! Every day trip we take has a different look to it. It took us about 7 hours to drive up from San Diego, and we're staying for a week. The area we're staying in is called Mammoth Lakes, CA.

These first 3 pictures were taken on our first day trip was to McLeod Lake; about a 20 minute drive up the mountain, and then a mile long hike further up the mountain (leaving from Horshoe Lake).









One of the things we did the next day was to go to the San Andreas fault line. You know in San Diego, everytime you hear about (or feel!) an earthquake, you hear on the news some reference to the San Andreas fault line. It was weird to actually be standing on the fault line, where the earth had ripped in two! You can't tell from this picture how deep it is (20-60 ft!). There was a patch of show at the bottom that had not melted, and it is August!








Kate trying to look cool. :)







I love this picture of them together. You can tell they love each other.








Afterwards, we went to the Inyo Craters, which were only minutes away.
Kate was a pretty good little trooper about walking the 1/4 mile walk through Jeffrey Pines, and didn't want to hold your hand, but rather march along on her own.


...but by the time we made it to the top of the volcanic crater, a shoulder ride from Dave (her new best friend) was sounding pretty good.

The Inyo Craters are known as "explosion pits", and were formed by volcanic explosions 5-600 yrs. ago. There are two funnel shaped craters (1 and 200 ft. deep), right next to each other. Melted snow and rainwater collect to form a small lake at the bottom of each pit.

We were watching Kate like a hawk afraid she would slip and fall right under the railing. She moves so quickly and is constantly skipping and dancing around. (She always reminds me of a Hummingbird!) On the second crater, there was a second railing put up, as the earth had given way under part of the first one!