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

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.

Here are a few photos from our recent Pine Creek Rhino adventure. The trip was long and dynamic and we had too many great photos for one post so here we are.

A video from the day is here, and more photos are here.

This set covers most of the day chronologically. The views on the way up, with the sun directly overhead, are much different than the late-afternoon trip down.  It’s almost like you’re descending on a different route–the colors and shadows are dramatically different looking down Morgan Creek.

We had lunch near the top of Morgan Canyon, near the base of Mt. Morgan. We explored the area at the top, or at least as far as you can get on the road. From that point you can see what I think it the Adamson Mine on the top of Wheeler Ridge. It’s a good trek up to the mine, and I would guess it’s at more than 13,000 feet. The miners up there had a work ethic you don’t see much anymore.

As I said before we had our resident bighorn sheep expert, Steve Yeager, along for the ride. The sheep were nowhere to be found that day but he showed us all their normal spots. Maybe we’ll be able to go back up there with him sometime when they’re down and get some photos.

It was another great adventure and it’s been a pleasure sharing these photos with you all.

We’ve had some questions about public access to this road. Unfortunately it not accessible to the public. We were invited by the owner of the mine to come up and explore, which is an opportunity we wouldn’t pass up! We’ll do our best to share trips like this with you all here through our photos and video.

On that note, you can hike to most of these places other than the mill via Pine Creek and Rock Creek (Mosquito Flats). It’s a great area to explore.

Thanks again and have a happy Thanksgiving.

-Dave

A few weeks back, around the time of our Pine Creek trip, Poncho, Randy Short and I went up Coyote Flats with the Rhinos.

It was another beautiful October day and the colors were as strong as they’ve been all year.

We saw a lot of deer up there as well. They were on the move ahead of winter.

That’s all from this trip. It’s an excellent adventure close to Bishop and we’ll be back in the spring.

As always, there are more on the way so come back soon.

-Dave