#67: Bishop to Reno, Mono Lake, Walker River and Much More from the Eastern Sierra

Roma, Penny and I were in Reno yesterday for a quick doctor’s appointment and we got some different kinds of pictures on the way up and back. We took a different route than most people–we went north before Walker on Eastside Lane, on a road we used to ride mountain bikes on a few years ago. We used to drive toward the Sonora Pass cutoff from 395, and ride north to Eastside Lane on the dirt roads. One time while riding out there, we heard some rustling down below us in the bushes and big black bear showed up on the road a few feet ahead of us. He took one look at us and took off!

We didn’t see any bear on this trip, but we did see some goats, some chukar and some cows. Keep going to see more.

-Dave

Here is the West Walker River, flowing high.

I was told by somebody that these are Angora Goats. Their fur is used to make high-class clothing.

Most people hunt chuckars, but we just shoot pictures of them. They ran out across the road so we stuck the camera out and came up with this.

I used to ride my motorcycle across little bridges like this near Crowley.

These guys are well-fed and well-rested.

This is taken near Conway Summit. The mountain in the middle is called Dunderberg. Some people almost built a ski resort there several years ago, but they ultimately decided it was too remote and too far from a large population base to sustain a resort. We sent out a bunch of Tucker Snowcats so that they could explore the mountain in the winter to decide if it would be a good resort. Somebody could build ski resorts all over that area if they wanted though. Another group used to do heli ski trips all over those mountains as well but again, it was just too remote.

This is a cinder mine on the side of Mono Lake.

Here are some tufas with Boundary Peak in the background.

Here is Mammoth Mountain from an area near Deadman, north of Mammoth. It looks like Scotty’s is still good to ski. Also, see if you can find the humpback whale on Dave’s.