Billy Wardle family blog

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Family Vacation 2019: Day Five: Cedar City Temple

I have a life time goal of visiting 50 temples, inside. This temple makes number 17, and another 15 or so I have seen from the outside. It was a sweet experience with a temple on a hill. The temple inside is a bit different than most in that the dressing area is on the second floor.

Summer vacation: Day Two: Camping Mammoth Lakes

Day in Mammoth Lakes: This town, at the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada is a town to fall in love with. At least Tony did, declaring he intends to raise his family here, where there is a park, skate park, rivers and lakes and other adventures. There was also a gift store where he wants to bring his kids to purchase something every week. With the Post Piles closed we found a couple other adventures. We visited the Mammoth Lakes area visitor center and got information on the area. A fist with Post Piles painted on it is the closest we could get to the Post Piles. But we first drove as far as we could towards Post Piles. We were stopped at Mammoth Lodge where the snow went across the road will people skiing on it.

We then explored a fault line with the earth separated by about a yard or more, but you could see how it would fit together.

We then went on a longer hike, to find the Inyo Craters We visited the southernmost, and youngest of the four craters. These craters are left from volcanic action about 600 years ago. This included a really rough drive through the wilderness, but the crater was very interesting. The water was an incredible green color due to minerals.

We also went on a ride a half hour away to Convict Lake. This lake gets its name from some escaped Nevada State prisoners, who happened to murder a couple people in the area. One a lawman and the other just someone who happened to be in the area, but mistaken for a lawman. There was also a plaque at the lake about some children who died falling through the ice, and some adults who also died trying to save them. The lake was very pretty set at the base of the mountains. Tony and I went on a short hike to the lake, and we drove around as far as we could. Most people at the lake were fishing.
We discovered a swimming pool, Whitmore Pool which looked like a place to try someday.

We drove around Mammoth Lakes considerably. They have a very fancy skate park. We also discovered that behind the campground where we were staying was another park with a skate park, softball diamonds, basketball hoop, volley ball and picnic area. Sheri especially liked looking at places where you can camp boondocking style. There seemed to be many. They next day I woke before everyone else and was able to get pictures of a couple of deer going through camp.
Mammoth Lakes was cool. The nights were cold. We camped at New Shady Rest Campground. The campground was mostly Jeffery Pines with a few Ponderosa Pines mixed in.

Visitor's Center

Ski resort

Fault line

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Into Crater, mushrooms on the hike, and throwing rocks.

Convict Lake

Summer Vacation: First Day: Travel to Mammoth Lakes and Yosemite

Our vacation got off to a miserable start, with two terrible duds in the first couple days. We decided to make a side trip to Yosemite even though Tioga Pass was closed. Big mistake. We were in an hour wait getting through the entrance booth. We wanted an annual pass, but their machine didn’t work so the waved us through telling us to pay on the way out. The rest of the drive to Yosemite was uneventful until we passed Bridal Veil falls. You can see the falls from the road so we did not stop. We got some moving care pictures; or car standing still pictures. We did stop and get some pictures of the valley from a distance. However we did not actually get into the valley except to see El Capitan. Traffic was choked off again so we decided after sitting in traffic for an hour that our time was growing short and turned around at the next opportunity, before getting to Yosemite Falls. On the way out, they again reported there was some crisis and to just not pay; but we needed the annual pass so were able to go back and get it. We ate lunch out of the care just outside the entrance gate on the side of the road.

We then headed to a pass over the mountains on the 108 which is the Sonora Pass. We were presented with incredible vistas, snow to play in and rocks to climb. However we did not stop as Yosemite traffic had put us behind schedule and Sheri was in a hurry to get to our campsite. We drove through these incredible scenes without even getting a picture from the care. We will have to repeat this trip. The elevation of the pass is 9624 feet. We arrived at Mammoth Lake Camp Ground with time to set up camp and prepare tinfoil dinners.

The second dud—we learned the rode to Post Piles National Monument was closed for snow. Our purpose in going to this area was to see the post piles, but that wasn’t going to happen.

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado 2019

I found Black Canyon to be fascinating. We had traveled through Zion's and Bryce, but this canyon has a whole different set of rocks, gneiss and schist. Then you add granite type rocks, pegmatite and quartz monzonite. These rocks are harder and erode more slowly. However they also add strength to the surrounding rock which creates the spires, and what looks like painting on the walls. The lighter color is pegmatite.

We did something most visitors don't do and that is drive down to the river. This is at the southern end of the park, and actually crosses over into the Curecanti National recreation Area. There is a small dam there that slows up the water before entering the National Park. We had a chance to throw in a few rocks.

Tuesday, July 9, 2019

Vacation and Family Reunion 2019

This is an outline of our vacation which took us from California to Arkansas and back again. We traveled to by I-70 and came back by I-40 and the 99. As I post photos i will include links on this page.

Vacation Outline:

Day One, Saturday: travel

Yosemite

Sonora Pass

Mammoth Lakes New Shady Rest Campground

Day Two: Sunday: Mammoth Lakes

Earth Quake Fault

Mammoth Ski Resort

Inyo Crater

Convict Lake Convict Lake History

Pool

Mammoth Lakes Community