The left overs

A fairly random assortment of pictures from June. You know, a little bit of everything...
Some marsh marigold sort of deal.

Junco nest that we found totally by accident. Mostly because we almost stepped on it and traumatized the heck out of the parents by taking pictures.Fun clouds and sunset action in the northern portion on Stanislaus National Forest.

Another random nest occurance...I don't know who it belongs to though.

World's biggest Juniper tree. They weren't lying. It's rather large.

Gopher Snake at Hetch Hetchy.

Hetch Hetchy, providing San Franciscans (and everywhere in between) with copious amounts of water.

Mono Lake...again

Mono Lake pretty much always requires a stop when you go to the East Side. I mean it's right there, how can you pass it up?

Plus you might miss fun birds like Avocets (!) if you don't stop.

Or all the flies...and the gulls chasing the flies.

Or Puddles, the gull, (yes, I named him) who splashes around in the lake. I think he has perfected a new foraging method but none of the other gulls have picked up on it. They just don't know.

Green Creek

Another trip to the East Side. More specifically to Green Creek, north of Lee Vining, home of "high intensity, scenic drama" according to some books.

We camped in a sweet little spot along the creek. When sunrise rolled around I woke up to a loud slapping noise. In my delirium I thought it was either a really big fish jumping out of the water OR a bear trying to cross the river. Of course it was neither of these but when I opened my tent to investigate there was a beaver! In the river or course, swimming around and slapping his tail.

A hike up the canyon yielded the scenic drama. We had intended to make it to the Green Lake but ended up sleeping in a little too much and then needed to get back to Groveland for a concert at the Mountain Sage. The hike was cut short, just shy of the lake, but it was beautiful all the same.

Buena Vista

Once again I am way behind...So, here is the month of June summed up in 4 posts. The best part is that all of this happened a while ago and I don't really have much to say about it. Lots of wildlife and wildflowers. On a hike up Buena Vista trail in Yosemite, Teresa and I came across a rubber boa who was apparently trying to pass as a garter snake. Perched on a log bridge across a small stream, he looked like he was attempting to fish. Silly boa.

Shortly after the boa we found a baby grouse (thought is was a quail but apparently I thought wrong) hanging out under a bush trying to be inconspicuous. It may have succeeded except that one of its siblings bolted across the trail and drew our attention to the remaining youngster.

Meadows full of shooting stars. Always a good sign that it is indeed a wet meadow.

Camus Lily, another wet meadow inhabitant.

Eastside

A couple of weeks ago Tioga Pass finally opened. That being the pass that goes through Yosemite and brings you out to the Eastern Sierra near Mono Lake. The whole elevation thing really slows down the melting process and there was still a decent amount of snow around despite it being late May which is why the pass only just opened.



We made a mass exodus from Groveland at the earliest possible moment to take advantage of the opening and ended up with quite the little caravan. Despite the forcast for rain and the ominous clouds that persisted during the drive through the park we forged on. The East side is theoretically in the rain shadow so we hoped we would be in the clear once we made it over the pass. That, however, was not so much the case...


We didn't really have a problem with the rain until we made to the East side. Go figure.

The first stop upon crossing the pass was The Mobil. Far more than just a gas station, the Mobil has a pretty fantastic deli, a trapeez and concerts in the summer. It's a pretty big deal.

After refueling and adding a few more cars to the caravan we headed for the visitors center at Mono Lake. Everyone needs some informational placards in their life, right? Then it was off to the tufas, the crazy limestone stuctures that are found all around the lake. Not only are they fairly bizarre looking but uncannily fun to talk about. Tufa, tufa, tufa!

Notice the sky gets progressively darker. Turns out a big ol' rain storm was on it's way across the lake, so naturally we all stood around and watched it as it rolled in.

The impending rain...and not just a small shower. It set in for the long haul, which made the thought of camping less than desirable so we headed south on 395 in the hopes of escaping the rain.

We ended up camping near Mammoth Lakes which was relatively rain-free and the following day was gorgeous. So, there you have it...the mountains from the East.