Bishop, CA to Lee Vining, CA

GET-YUR-MOTOR-RUNNIN' ROAD TRIP
(Astoria - Santa Fe - Death Valley - Astoria)

Bishop, CA to Lee Vining, CA
November 21, 2013 (Day 38 of 44)

Today's Miles: 86 / Total Trip Miles: 4,132

Click on Map for Larger Map

Bishop to Benton:
I left Bishop at noon—it was 45 degrees F and very windy. Rather than taking the direct route via Highway 395 to Lee Vining, I took U.S. Highway 6. I was surprised to see a road sign outside of Bishop that read: "Provincetown, MA  3,205 Miles".  The soil along the highway is very silty, resembling light brown flour. Appropriately so, a road sign warns of "Blowing Dust". Sections of the highway are straight as a ruler, disappearing into the horizon. The terrain is cattle land. I saw hundreds of heads of cattle, and all, except for one brown one,  were black. Harvested hay bales were stacked high in huge sheds. A little "spread" along the highway is called: "Stinkin' Rose Ranch". It was very windy, and a light rain began to fall. The temperature was dropping quickly—down to 37 degrees F. 

At Benton (population 280 / elevation 5,400 ft), I turned west onto California Highway 120. In the late 1800s Benton was a mining town with 5,000 inhabitants. Little remains of the town, most businesses are closed.

Benton to Lee Vining:
Highway 120 travels past Benton Hot Springs. The elevation increases to 6,000 feet, and the highway climbs to a rock ridge. This section of road has some awesome dips mixed with long, high-speed straight-aways. Snow begins to fall. The elevation increases to 7,000 feet—the snow sticks to the highway surface. The temperature dropped to 24 degrees. 

The highway enters the Inyo National Forest, and crosses Sagehen Summit (8,100 feet). The temperature continued to drop—to 18 degrees F. The road surface becomes icy and slippery, forcing me to reduce speed to 45 mph. This section of the highway is not plowed, and closed in winter—I saw only three vehicles from Benton to Lee Vining.

After the summit, the terrain changes from high desert brush land to a Jeffery pine forest. The highway passes Mono Mills—a ghost town (elevation 7,400 feet) that has vanished. Mono Mills started in 1880 as a lumber camp that supplied the mining town of Bodie, CA to the north. In 1881, a 32-mile long, narrow-gauge railroad was built to transport lumber from Mono Mills to Bodie. Bodie is a ghost town that I plan to visit on this trip. 

As the highway descends into Mono Basin, the terrain changes again, this time from pine forest to desert brush land. The desert is covered with fresh snow—awesome! I was treated to wonderful snow-covered views of Mono Lake, the Sierras and desert.

Lee Vining:
The area from Benton to Lee Vining is sparsely populated. Only 220 people live in Lee Vining (elevation 6,800 feet).

Photos:

Click on photos for a larger image.

All photos © 2014 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved. 

Out-of-Business
A snow storm is developing over this out-of-business restaurant in Benton. Few businesses remain in this once-booming mining town on U.S. Highway 6.
[flickr]

Fresh Desert Snow 
Fresh snow in the desert on a cold, gloomy day. Mono Lake, Paoha Island and the Sierra Nevada are in the background. Location: along California Highway 120 west of Mono Mills.
[flickr]

Today's Route:

Scenic Rating: A-

Driving Fun/Road Rating: B  [The icy road brought the rating down] 

Tomorrow:

Explore Lee Vining and the Mono Basin.