Bristlecones

We made an unplanned (how could I have not planned this!?!) detour to the bristlecone pine forest. After climbing up to 10,000 feet, we got to watch a spectacular sunset.

a bristley cone
We took the short walk, almost running to beat the light.

Fun trees though

Although this is stating the obvious, those are some amazingly old trees!

It really does get to you

It was friking cold though. Max stole Rin's poop bag to protect his frigid toes. Lucky for him (or not, depending on how desperate you are), Rin didn't need the bag.

Sunset

Camping was rather cold at 9000 feet.

Max bought Rin his own sleeping bag. I think he liked it

The view in the morning across the valley

The White mountains, from the top (almost)

Another view of the sierras, this time from the top of one of our not so intelligent, but really fun adventures.

We decided to take the not so widely traveled way off the mountains: Silver Canyon Road

Rin thought we were nuts, or maybe I'm just projecting.

It was a spectacularly beautiful drive

We dropped about 6000 feet, on a very rough dirt road. It was so steep, and Max's car not so offroady, that we had to stop every few switchback to let the brakes cool.

Quite steep

Finally, after almost 4 hours (and we thought this would be a shortcut over doubling back on the main road!), we made it to the relatively level lower half.

Ah, level ground! We didn't plunge off a cliff and die!

This is what we came down

As a reward for our survival, hot springs!
Spectacularly beautiful setting, don't you think?

ahhhhh