Mono Lake - Day 2

Day 2 was pretty much the same as last year except for the night walk. I looked through the pictures I took from last year and it's funny how I took very similar pictures, especially at the Lee Vining creek. I'm standing in the same spots. How simple am I?

The pictures from the lake are a bit different. I don't think we went the same route this year, although I could be wrong. I don't remember seeing some of the Tufa structures I did this year. Like this one.


I ate the pupa again (see my pics from last year). Pupa is the larva of the flies that live by Mono Lake. The indians that lived in this area used to eat them back in the days. I expected it to be crunchy and salty like last year, but no. I bit into it and something squishy came out!!! EWWWWWWW!!!!!!

We did a hike at the Lee Vining Creek again. At the end of the hike, you can see the lake from the top of the mountains. It's the same view, but suddenly I felt like I don't remember seeing the islands in the lake. They've always been there. It's funny how you can discover "new" things after doing the same things twice. Or I can just forget in a year and enjoy the same things all over again. In any case, the view was spectacular.

We walked to Lee Vining, which is a small town/village next to Mono Lake. We went to "Frosties" for for ice cream. I looked across the street and saw this...


Holy cow!!! If you thought LA was bad, take a look at this!! and it's not like you have a choice. Chevron it is...There was Shell several miles down, but probably even worse. Scary.

Some kids asked if there are ghettos in Lee Vining. .....

The night walk in the Jeffrey Pine forest was one of my favorite hikes last year. Santiago let me go last to make sure there was staff in case anything happened. While I waited for my turn, I looked up at the sky and tried to look for shooting stars. I think I saw a whole bunch of them. I just didn't realize they were shooting stars because some were harder to see.

I thought it would be a piece of cake like last year and I wasn't worried at all. I started walking one direction and realized the trail actually goes to the right, not left. Suddenly I wasn't sure where I was going and I got a little scared. I was worried that I was going the wrong way. When the kids were asking me which way to go, I think I was pointing left, but I'm not sure if they could even see me. Oops.