Devils Postpile National Monument is run cooperatively with the National Parks Service and the National Forest Service. It is in the Eastern Sierras near the ski resort area of Mammoth Lakes. The monument is a rare and fascinating geological formation that is the result of ancient volcanoes and glaciers--a landscape of fire and ice.
0 Comments
We passed through Tuolumne Meadows three times on our camping trip to the Eastern Sierras, and each visit offered us something new. When you enter Yosemite National Park, ask the ranger for information on Tuolumne Meadows, or download their pdf map here. If you are doing more substantial hiking, then you will definitely want to purchase a better map before you go. This was a wonderful new experience for us; previously, we had really restricted ourselves to Yosemite Valley. We really enjoyed trying out this new area of the park!
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is a fascinating park that offers visitors a peak back in time to the highs and lows of California's gold mining heyday. Here is a helpful blurb from the state park website:
Malakoff Diggins State Historic Park is the site of California's largest "hydraulic" mine. Visitors can see huge cliffs carved by mighty streams of water, results of the gold mining technique of washing away entire mountains to find the precious metal. Legal battles between mine owners and downstream farmers ended this method. The Diggins themselves are really beautiful. They look like some of the red rock formations in Utah. It is weird to see such formations in Northern California, especially because some of the grounds near the foot of the Diggins are still boggy and marshy. The greatest environmental impact was further downstream from the Yuba River, particularly in Marysville where people died because of flooding. It is easy to forget how devastating the pollution from mining was when what remains of this mine is actually very beautiful. The park also has what is more or less a ghost town. It is definitely worth it to take the ranger-led tour of North Bloomfield so that you can go inside some of the old buildings like the saloon, pharmacy, general store, and a residence. Plus, the park rangers here are the friendliest park rangers I have ever met! See my mom's painting of Chute Campground and my photos of the Diggins after the jump. This is a strenuous 8-mile hike (with a 2000 ft elevation gain) in Yosemite Valley that offers spectacular views of waterfalls.
|
Archives
December 2020
Categories
All
|