Day 3 of Good Camping

After two great days of hiking, we decided to take a day off. The larger group went on a very long hike that they still can't decide the distance on. We know that it went hours longer than expected and that they traversed lots of snow... it was a good trip for us to miss! Lesson - making good choices.

Instead, we went to see the South Tufas of Mono Lake.



We spent a couple of hours learning about how tufas are formed and about the wildlife of the area. Here are the boys collecting brine shrimp.



There were also lots and lots of alkali flies that never landed on you. They were amazing because they never touched us once. We watched nesting osprey and violet green swallows as well as lots of California Gulls (not seagulls). Mono Lake has risen a lot this winter and we learned why the lake could be higher still, how high the lake actually should be, and how the water has been diverted in years past. Lessons - biology, food chains, nomenclature, and environmental science.

After lunch in town (even happy campers need a restaurant meal every once in a while), we headed south to see some remnants of an old volcano. Just driving along the highway, you can see several craters from past volcanos. The sight we visited looked like a dumping ground for huge blocks of obsidian. It was actually an obisdian flow from one of the ancient volcanos. We had never seen anything like it!



I had promised the boys a visit to a hot springs after all of this educational stuff, so we drove a little further south to Hot Creek. It was highly recommended as a great place to cool off. We would have to swim through the cold creek to get to the hot springs! However, when we arrived, we were sadly disappointed. These hot springs have been closed off due to recent geologic changes. What, more science! Instead of swimming, we had a little lesson in geology.



So it was time to call it a day. We were all hot and tired as we climbed back into the van and headed back to camp. But Connor's sharp eyes spotted a fire! We just had to pull over and see. We weren't sure if it was a "real" fire or not until we pulled over and watched it grow very quickly. We knew that it had been called in because we watched fire trucks and lots of men arrive. After about 1/2 hour we also watched the helicopters come in. They look so small against the backdrop of a mountain on fire. The boys were amazed at how high the flames would go. A gentleman by the side of the road gave us a lesson in firefighting (he was a firefighter from way back) and we learned why some smoke is black and other smoke is gray. A couple of days later we learned that the fire had been put out fairly easily and had consumed only 18 acres. Needless to say, we had a lesson in firefighting!