A Return to the Past

I began my trips to the Eastern Sierra skiing in the Winter and hiking in the Summer with friends whose parents had a cabin in Mammoth Lakes. We would spend weekends and long Summer weeks exploring the area. In 1975 I spent a week with my Dad camping in the area and one of my first memories of Devil's Postpile and Red's Meadow was swatting mosquitoes and marveling at the geometry of lava tubes. In 1997 Nancy and I took my Son Nic across the Sierra from East to West starting at Rock Creek, over Mono Pass and down Mono Creek drainage. It was his first week in the mountains. Ten of us spent a perfect Sierra week up there.
15 Years have passed since we first went up Mt. Starr, camped in Pioneer Basin, and watched the sun rise over Mt. Abbott. For my 54th. we returned to my favorite places. Here are some photographs.

Mammoth Mountain in the distance from above Agnew Meadows

Another Giant Whitebark Pine frames Mammoth

The first full day of Fall in the Sierra

Shadow Lake and the Banner-Ritter Range

Devil's Postpile

The columnar-jointed formations of extruded lava.

Fall color reflections

Sunrise, Pyramid Peak and Bear Creek Spire

Ruby Lake, Mt Dade

Red and White Mountain and the Silver Divide 

Four Backpackers, Mono Pass

The view from Mt. Starr into Pioneer Basin

Mono Pass

A slip of the shutter that I liked