Mother’s Day weekend is always fun around here because the weather is usually perfect and we’ve often got family visiting to celebrate the wonderful mothers that make life so great.

This year was no exception. It was a weekend packed with great visits and a Rhino adventure to Buckley Ponds, east of Bishop. We also drove up to Cardinal Village, near Lake Sabrina, for breakfast at one of our favorite spots.

It’s a beautiful part of the year because it’s warm and green in the valley but there’s still a lot of snow in the high country. I hope you enjoy these like we enjoyed taking them. I also hope that you all enjoyed time with the mothers in your life like we did here.

That’s all for today. If you’re on Facebook, check out our new Facebook page here. We’re posting new photos there several times per week, including a lot of historical images from the Mammoth Mountain archive.

Thanks again everybody.

-Dave

Here are shots from a trip we took a few weeks back into Silver Canyon.

We also went to The Buttermilk, Chidago Canyon, and Adobe Valley that weekend. It was four days packed full of adventure, and this was one of the best trips we’ve had all year.

We’ve had some good luck finding the big horn sheep the last few times. We had a run of trips up there without seeing them, now we’ve seen them three of the last four times.

The moment you see them, camouflaged on the side of the canyon, is always exciting.They’re usually hidden away well enough that most people wouldn’t even notice them. Sometimes they’re standing in the road and they’re impossible to miss.

Have a look and thanks for coming back. We’ll post some from our Buttermilk trip that week up soon. Thanks again and keep skiing!

-Dave

Today we’ve got video from last week’s trip north east of Bishop, to Chidago Canyon and the petroglyphs of Fish Slough.
The petroglyphs are thought to be more than 8,000 years old and were created by the Paiute and Shoshone people that lived in the valley. Some of the art is clearly distinguishable. There are bighorn sheep, deer, birds and people clearly carved into the volcanic rock. Other parts of the petroglyphs are not as easy to read, but the designs are incredible.
From there we continued north west to Chidago Canyon, a narrow slot canyon that ascends the hills north west of The White Mountains. Chidago is also home to several petroglyphs and is a fascinating look at the way volcanic eruptions deposited ash that cooled and settled along the outskirts of the Owens Valley.
After our descent up Chidago, we came back along the base of Casa Diablo and headed home. It was a great trip with our son who was visiting from Montana. We got some great shots from the Rhino, and some GoPro quadcopter shots from above. The aerial view is a great perspective on that area, especially Chidago Canyon. Enjoy and come back soon. Next up are photos from that weekend’s trip to Silver Canyon.

-Dave

If the video is slow to load, turn HD off in the bottom right of the video player.

We just finished up an action-packed weekend with four straight days of Eastern Sierra adventure. We’ve got thousands of photos and hours of video from the weekend, and we’re going to start it off with images from the spectacular wild horses of Adobe Valley. We’ve been out there several times before and we’ve posted pictures and stories from a few of those trips here and here.

For those that don’t know, which I’m sure is most of you, Adobe Valley is off of Highway 120, southeast of Mono Lake.

We figure there were about 200 horses out there and they seem to be healthier, calmer and prettier than they’ve ever been. There were at least ten babies and I’d guess about 20 other young horses. They all seemed healthy so it’s safe to say the future of this herd looks promising.

Have a look through the collection and check back in soon. We’ve got photos and video from last weekend’s trips to Silver Canyon, The Buttermilks and Chidago Canyon on the way.

-Dave

This is our lunch spot. The wind was howling so we faced straight into it and the back of the truck was completely calm. On the left is the alleyway that leads to the squeeze chute, where cows come , one by one, to be doctored or branded. There are several ranches out there with round, rock corrals. This is the reason the horses are here.Here is one of the younger horses. This one looks to have been born very recently. These guys didn’t mind the wind while they ate lunch. Maybe they’re just used to it. Here is Boundary Peak from Adobe Meadows. The horses have quite the view out there. Here are some shots of an old cabin we’ve taken photos of before. Here is The Yellowjacket Ranch near Benton. Looks like they’ve got a brand new windmill.

The weather this month has been incredible, so on Tuesday Roma and I decided to take the Rhino out for a cruise through Round Valley. We went from the house to Millpond and back and it was about 70-degrees out there. This probably won’t last long so we’d better take advantage of it.

It was also an opportunity to try out a new video gadget we’re learning to use. It’s a remote-control helicopter that carries a GoPro to camera angles we’ve never been able to get before.

It’s tricky to fly, but with some practice I think it will be an awesome way to shoot Rhino adventures. We’ll see how it does at 12,000 feet up in the Bristlecones next time it warms up.

We’re steadily getting through this Mammoth Mountain archive and when the time is right, we’ll get back to posting frequently.

Thanks a lot and have a great weekend.

-Dave

On the Rhino with Dave and Roma McCoy-March 2013 from Brandon Russell on Vimeo.