We crossed the wide Carson Valley and eventually connected up to US 395.
Once in California the road follows the Walker River for a while.
The high-elevation desert looks similar to the basin and range topography of much of Nevada and other parts of the West.
At one point you come over the crest of a pass and see Mono Lake stretching out in the distance. You can see the highway continuing south in the foreground.
There's a scenic vista overlook point with some information panels at the top of the pass, and people have decorated up the guard railing with all sorts of stickers and notes.
It just didn't seem right to leave without making a contribution of our own. I knew that Sharpie marker I always have in my briefcase would come in handy one of these days.
As we continued south the views of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the west just kept getting better.
We took a few detours into the mountains to check out some alpine lakes and mountain views.
The high point of the drive was Minaret Vista, which probably has a spectacular view when there isn't a storm coming in. Even so, it was still pretty good.
As we were driving out from the view point we spotted the gondola at Mammoth Mountain off in the distance.
Once we figured out that the gondola was running we just knew we had to take a ride.
The sign at the top said it all. We made certain we didn't miss the last ride down. Besides, there wasn't much of view with all the clouds at the top.
The alpine lakes on the eastern side of the Sierras are beautiful. It was very windy on Monday afternoon. No calm reflecting lake views this time. This is looking west, towards the setting sun.
The sunset view from our hotel room in Bishop was not bad . . . once I cropped out the bowling alley building in the foreground.
Click here to see more images from our drive down US 395.
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