Camping at Pinecrest

Disclaimer: This post made possible thanks to Toyota. All opinions are my own. 

The weather here in the Bay Area is finally starting to cool down. I love the cooler weather, but it has got me thinking about our last adventure of this Summer: our camping trip to Pinecrest in the Sierra Nevadas over the Labor Day long weekend. If you follow Little Hiccups on Instagram you would've already seen a few of my favorite shots from that trip, but I figured it was about time I shared all of it here on the blog. 

Our camping trip to Pinecrest Lake Resort was our first proper camping trip with the kids. We've camped out in our tent several times at the Hoes Down Festival, but this was our first time at a proper camp ground, cooking our meals over a fire, and roasting marshmallows for s'mores in the cool mountain air. It was such a fun experience and the girls are keen to do it again soon - although not with weather like we currently have, and definitely not in the mountains over Winter! The early morning temperatures over our camping trip were approaching freezing even at the end of Summer. I can't imagine how cold it must get over Winter!

Sierra Nevada Snow Fun

Following on from my last post about our visit to Mono Lake back in May comes our unexpected snow stop on our way home a day later.

As we drove through the Sierra Nevadas on our way home from our visit to Bodie and Mono Lake we noticed that there was still a lot of fresh powdery snow on the ground. Kim and I decided that we'd try to find a spot to safely pull over so the kids could have a little play in the snow. We weren't sure if we would actually find anywhere so we didn't mention it to the kids. I didn't want to get their hopes up. Imagine their surprise when all of a sudden they realized that we were pulling over into a small parking lot in a snowy forest area! They were absolutely ecstatic!

The spot where we stopped for a little snow fun was Sonora Pass, 9624 feet high above sea level. Judging by the number of hikers in the parking lot this seems to be a popular starting point for hikes in Toiyabe National Forest. While it would've been lovely to go for a hike in his wintry wonderland, we weren't prepared for it so we kept our stop brief. On a side note, don't you just love the retro National Park signs throughout America?

Mono Lake

Remember back in May when we went on a trip to a ghost town and went panning for gold? It was a long time ago, right? Well, we also spent some time checking out the amazing Mono Lake, but I got a little distracted with planning our Australia trip, then taking the Australia trip, and then having three kids at home all day, every day, so I never got around to sharing it with you.

It's time to play catch up and finally share our visit to Mono Lake with you...

Back in May we visited Mono Lake after spending half the day at the nearby gold mining era ghost town of Bodie.

Mono Lake is famous for its amazing limestone tufa towers. The tufa towers are calcium carbonate structures formed by underground fresh water springs welling up in Mono Lake's alkaline water. These tufas should be under water, however in 1941 the City of Los Angeles started diverting water from streams that feed Mono Lake. Over the years this caused Mono Lake to drop by 40 feet, exposing 17,000 acres of exposed lake bed. Since 1994 Mono Lake and its tributaries have been protected and the water level is slowly rising again.

Bodie: An Old West Ghost Town

Ok, I've mentioned quite a few times now that we visited a real life Old West ghost town over the Memorial Day weekend back in May, so I think it's finally time I shared some of the photos with you all.

I have loved the idea of visiting an Old West ghost town ever since we moved to California, and I'm happy to say that Bodie, in the Sierra Nevadas, lived up to all of my expectations. The town, which is a designated State Historic Park, has been kept in a state of arrested decay since the last residents moved on to greener pastures in the early 20th Century. Everything is just as it was back then; a declining gold mining town filled with run down houses.