Day 5: Mammoth Lakes

After our long drive yesterday, we decided that a day in and around Mammoth Lakes would be a good idea.


As we have a 2 bedroom apartment, it seemed a waste to not be in it and enjoy the time to relax and chill out.


Mammoth sits nearly 8,000 feet above sea level on the eastern edge of the High Sierra's. 


The high altitude does not agree very well with Laura though as she has been suffering from head aches and nose bleeds. 


But the air is crystal clear and the sky seems even more blue at this altitude as you will see from the photographs.


Here are some of our hotel.

The view from the apartment is on to Mammoth Mountain which, even in the height of summer with outside temperatures in the 90°'s, still has snow on top of it.

As usual we have made ourselves at home.


The wifi is connected to 5 iPad's, 3 laptops and 4 iPhones (Norman never turns his on when on holiday for fear of even more work to do!)

And to complete the holiday decadence, Carolyn has been busy in the kitchen making chocolate (Californian) strawberries, making the chances of us coming back lighter than we left even less possible.

Mammoth is very much a winter ski resort and much of the town is geared up to catering for the huge influx of visitors it gets between October and May when skiing is almost always guaranteed.


And because of that, it has a very Alpine feel to it with many of the buildings copying Swiss style architecture.


But summer months are busy too, because many visitors (like us) use this as a base to explore Yosemite National Park.

As I mentioned earlier, although this is very much a winter sports centre, our hotel has a heated pool, and as the outside temperature was about 88°F today, it was easy to enjoy and sunbathe at the high altitude.

After all day relaxing, tomorrow we will drive back over the mountains to visit Yosemite National Park. 


Mammoth is one of the closest towns to the National Park that is developed for tourists with restaurants and hotels because inside the park area all that is allowed is camping on designated campgrounds - and we are way past roughing it at our age!


However because the National Park is such a protected area, Mammoth is still some 30 miles from the entrance to the park and to reach the Yosemite Valley you have to drive another 60 miles over the mountains - so nearly 100 miles separates us from tomorrow's destination.


But having been once before in 2004, we all know it is well worth the journey.


More of that in the next instalment.