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Mammoth Lakes Basin
updated: Aug 14, 2011, 2:02 PM

By Aquaholic

Mammoth Lakes Basin has some incredible lakes!….here are just a sample of some of the ones we either drove or hiked to: Horseshoe Lake, Twin Lakes, Lake George, Lake Mary, Skelton Lake, Arrowhead Lake, June Lake, Silver Lake, Grant Lake, Mono Lake.

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Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

BULLSEYEB	2011-08-14 03:50 PM
So beautiful! Thanks for sharing these photos. I wish I could walk into a few of them!
COMMENT 203850	2011-08-14 04:48 PM
It seems like California is the only state where you can drive to the beach, the desert, the valley and witness snow-capped mountains towering over a lake all in one day.
COMMENT 203873	2011-08-14 05:59 PM
I got to go to Mammoth a lot of times as a kid. I took it for granted. We skied, had a condo, did summer trips built around 4th of July. I especially liked the late summer trips. Gosh it's nice in late sept. early oct. Mom is dead now, the condo is long sold. Dad lives in Washington state. It seems we have all moved on. Everything is so expensive for families now. It is pretty do-able if you are a single, but when there are 4 of you, costs are debilitating. I just read a WSJ article on Jackson Hole. I would love to travel there in late summer (forget winter skiing, no more $11.00 lift tickets), but prices are so high, it is not do-able for our family of four. Things were cheaper in the past. Not sure why, but know for sure they are now. Why is everything so expensive compared to the past?
POWDRELL	2011-08-14 06:37 PM
Great photos. Thanks for sharing them with us. I really like the composition of your work.
COMMENT 203915P	2011-08-15 01:13 AM
I think the price of everything is high because of many reasons. The value of the dollar has gone down. Major corporations and those in large income brackets are still benefiting from the Bush tax cuts, which are causing those of us at the bottom to pay "their" share of the taxes. Because we cannot afford to do so, we are being burdened. Don't get me started...it is all stupid...bottom line is that we are not producing anything that creates enough wealth for our nation anymore. We outsourced jobs to other countries and profits on that outsourcing are NOT being taxed. Also our dollars were sent out of the country for many reasons such as propping up other nations and establishing military bases in other places (none of which I agree with). Recently, I heard an economist speak of the fact that now that women are a part of the work force, in large numbers and so there are too many workers for too few jobs and that has made wages flat, instead of going up. When people don't have enough cash in their pockets, less goes back into the system for college, roads, bridges, etc., etc.. Yikes-we need to put the whole thing in "reverse".
COMMENT 203923	2011-08-15 06:28 AM
Beautiful lakes! I was there last August for a backpacking trip. I took the bus from Mammoth up to the lakes basin. The bus let me off at the last stop and I hiked up Duck Pass which was beautiful and full of even more lakes. Then I hiked all the way to Bishop Pass on the John Muir Trail and took the bus from Bishop back to my car in Mammoth. What a great trip! It's nice to see the pictures and remember. By the way, hiking, backpacking and camping are all cheap things to do. I stayed overnight on my way to Mammoth in a BLM campground off 395 that cost only $5 a night for the spot. While I backpacked along the John Muir Trail, I didn't spend any money. The bus in Mammoth was free and the bus to return to Mammoth was something like $15. Then there was gas and the hiking permit making for a reasonably-priced vacation.
AQUAHOLIC	2011-08-15 07:42 AM
Agree with SBHIKES, you can do a Mammoth trip for much less money if you are willing to camp....ALL the campgrounds in the area were full. They are all beautiful, and many are right on the lakes with easy access to trails into the wilderness areas and more remote lakes. Ordinarily, my son and I camp on our road trips, but my aging VW vanagon would not like the high elevation climbs so we "moteled" it, and, in a couple of cases, stayed at a fancy Hotel....we were on vacation after all!
COMMENT 204070	2011-08-15 12:31 PM
Wonderful pictures! I've never been there, but now have even more of a reason to visit. Btw, I applaud the young man who was going into the water. With the snow in the background, I imagine the water was pretty cold!
TMO	2011-08-15 01:43 PM
Beautiful! Makes me want to go. How cold was that water?
AQUAHOLIC	2011-08-15 09:50 PM
That young man is my 14 y/o son who is a competitive swimmer... he wanted to test out the lake, but only lasted about 5 mins. tops! He estimated the snow melt lake temp. to be about 46 degrees...brrrrrrr!!
COMMENT 204436	2011-08-16 11:15 AM
My family and I spent many years vacationing and camping at all those wonderful places! Priceless experiences and memories! After backpacking up to Thousand Island Lakes, we soaked our aching muscles in Hot Creek at sundown - incomparable, except for an occasional stay at a motel for a good hot shower and shampoo!
LOURAY	2011-08-16 12:15 PM
A friend's husband and son were out on one of those lakes, fishing, when they felt/heard something. The water vibrated and sloshed, and then at one point above the lake a bunch of dirt and rocks came rolling down, with a big dust cloud going up. They decided they were safer in the lake than leaving it.

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