Monday, October 13, 2014

Twin Lakes at Mammoth Lakes, California


Twin Lakes is a set of connected lakes at the base of the southeastern slope of Mammoth Mountain, in Mono County of eastern California. They are in the eastern Sierra Nevada, and within the Inyo National Forest.

Twin Lakes are the lowest lakes in the Mammoth Lakes Basin. On one side of the lake are lava cliffs that were formed by eruptions of Mammoth Mountain. The other side of the lake has the Inyo National Forest's Twin Lakes Campground, and Tamarack Lodge of the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.




Driving north from Lone Pine towards Yosemite National Park we took a welcome coffee break at Tom's Place. The air at this elevation was cool and fresh making it very pleasant to sit out on the deck at the small cafes taking our coffee.

Toms Place (formerly, Hans Lof's) is an unincorporated community in Mono County, California. It is located on Rock Creek 10 miles (16 km) east of Mount Morrison, at an elevation of 7090 feet (2161 m).

Hans Lof started a resort at the place called Hans Lof's in 1919. Tom Yernby bought the place in 1922 and renamed it. The Toms Place post office opened in 1963.





We decided to stop at Mammoth Lakes for lunch and picked out the Tamarack Lodge & Lakefront Restaurant on Twin Lakes Road right down by the banks of the Twin Lakes. This was an idyllic spot and we spent about an hour before lunch taking a walk around the lakes taking in the views.




Mammoth Lakes is one of the premier ski resorts in USA and has numerous ski runs on the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area.






Lunch at the Tamarack Lodge was excellent and was helped with the wonderful local beer from the Mammoth Brewing Company.

After lunch we drove further up the Twin Lakes Road to Lake Mamie which runs into Twin Lakes via the Twin Falls. The falls were only really a trickle due to recent water shortage in California. From above the Twin Falls you had a great panoramic view back down the valley over then Twin Lakes.





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