Hwy 395: Mono Lake & Travertine Hot Springs

The small old towns, the expansive clear lakes with rocky bottoms, the open meadows, the valleys, the grazing cows, the monolithic boulders, the erratic jagged and protruding rocks, the tufa towers, the ghosts of Bodie, the omnipresent mountains, the desert, the trees, never taking off my cowboy hat, the crisp air of the Eastern Sierra, the feeling of freedom, along historic Hwy 395, are all behind me now. I am home, although I was home, if home really is where the heart is. The scenery along Hwy 395 is so diverse, morphing from flat desert to immense rock structures, from open meadows to thick forests. Ancient lands, we traversed and explored. Were we really in a place called California? It certainly didn't seem like it.

Mono Lake as viewed from the road

Our first photos were taken at Mono Lake. Mark Twain, in Roughing It describes the lake as a “lifeless, treeless, hideous desert... the loneliest place on Earth.” Personally, I need these images of vast solitude to cleanse my mind of modern images like traffic, pollution, and the workplace. Though not the kind of lake I’d want to swim in, I appreciated its age (over 700,000 years old) and its uniqueness. Google images for “Mono Lake” for more detailed and impressive shots of this majestic lake. Also, in the near future, I'll be posting pictures of the swimmable lakes we encountered along Hwy 395. After checking into our lovely dollhouse of a room with vaulted ceilings that nearly scraped the tops of our heads, above the Virginia Settlement restaurant in Bridgeport, we headed over to the Travertine Hot Springs for a soak. But, we didn’t soak because we had come too late for the large, raised, coveted pool. The little pool that we found was slimy and muddy, so we just dipped our feet into the 100 degree water and enjoyed the surrounding scenery of mountains, ancient travertine, and small black birds playing overhead.

Since I’ve been away for a while, and I know ya'll are dying to see my duds, (he-he),I’m going to do two posts today. Stay tuned for awesome pictures of our trip to Bodie Ghost Town. Outfit # 1 - My daytime outfit – vintage green wool shorts, vintage cropped embroidered top, and 70s platforms (all thrifted).
Outfit # 2 - Late afternoon outfit – vintage 70s ‘stars” t-shirt (reminds me of something Steve McQueen would wear), jeans (no label),70s platforms, scorpion vintage belt. (All thrifted)
Outfit # 3 - vintage burnt orange bathing suit (thrifted) (I seem to be wearing this color a lot. Though it is a Fall color, I am still mentally in Summer mode), vintage 50s cowboy hat (antique mall).