Coldwater Creek – Mammoth

This was an interesting stop. I’ll say we overall had a good time, but several elements brought up issues we needed to work through. We’ve had time to process the glitches, and I think I can sum them up by a few things we’ve learned. 1: It is very important for Richard to move his body, especially before being in the car for a while. 2: We really do like at least a little bit of cell service. 3: Mosquitos suck. 4: We hike at very different speeds. 5: #4 triggers all kinds of deep emotional programming stuff for both of us. We’re good now, but I’m going to say this stay was bumpy, and only partly had to do with the campground.

This was our first exploration of the Mammoth Lakes area. Weird that two native Californians have never been to this place before. It’s kind of overwhelming how many campgrounds there are and how much there is to do in the area, so we’re chalking this up to a first dip of the toes. Reviews of all of the campgrounds rate the ones up at the higher elevation lakes as top notch. I get why. They have that high Sierras picture perfect look to them, and many of them are right on a lake. There are campgrounds down in town that we rejected, partly because of the reviews, and partly because they don’t present as attractively as the more rustic ones up high.

Coming off excellent cell service in Washoe Lake, we were excited to see a couple of bars of 5g, even as we drove up, up, up away from town and toward the lakes. But the road just goes on and on, climbing a thousand feet from Mammoth proper. Once you get to the first set of lakes, Twin Lakes, you keep going until you eventually go past Lake Mary to see the turn off for Coldwater campground. By that time, all signal was lost.

The campground loop road is narrow and shows signs of winter wear. As it happened, the site we had was way at the farthest point in the three consecutive loops. Arriving finally at the site, it seemed nice enough, with lots of dense forest and a little creek flowing in the background. I needed Richard to spot me as I backed in so I would neither hit a tree, nor drop Dory’s wheels off the pavement. The very first sign of struggle with this place was how many swarming mosquitoes converged on him as he tried to guide me. The smell of mosquito repellant tends to repel me more than the mosquitos, so it takes a lot before I’m willing to cover myself with it. This situation definitely warranted head to toe spraying. We both got bites as we unhitched as quickly as we could.

It was the middle of the afternoon. We had made a stop in town to get a couple of things and check out their Von’s grocery store. We’d left Washoe Lake early to avoid the wind, so Richard didn’t have a chance to get any exercise yet, and he was feeling it. The site felt dark and oppressive, with hovering mosquitoes tapping the windows while we hid inside Dory trying to figure out what to do.

I had to convince Richard to get the bikes out so we could go explore the nearby bike path and see what was what. He was in a mood, but agreed, and that was a good call. The Lakes Basin Path is amazing. It is a well paved, two way multi-use trail that goes all the way from Mammoth to Horseshoe Lake, making stops along the way at Twin Lakes, Lake Mary, and Lake Mamie. If you are coming from town, you are going to climb all the way up a thousand feet. But if you are going down, you needn’t pedal at all for about six miles. We noted that staying in town down below would allow you to ride up in the morning to do things, and then fly downhill at the end of the day. We had booked the opposite experience. We tootled around and didn’t descend past Twin Lakes, so as to avoid a steep return trip. At the Twin Lakes campground, there is a fun little store, which you can actually buy, if you happen to have $625,000 handy. There is also a Lodge where you can get a really expensive dinner.

After a much less expensive Dory dinner, we drove down to town so we could orient ourselves a bit and walk around. We checked out the campground we had previously rejected: New Shady Rest. What stuck us was that there was great service there, and it was walking distance to many fun shops, including Schat’s Bakery. We went so far as to look online to see if there were any open sites, that’s how much we prefer having service. There weren’t any with consecutive night availability, so we put on our big boy and girl panties and decided we’d survive the five star rated camping experience at Coldwater.

The next day’s agenda was all about Devil’s Postpile. We’d heard conflicting information on how to access the national monument, and definitely read that at least part of the road to get there was closed Sun-Thu. We didn’t really know if biking the road was an option, so we just drove up to the summit, where there is a big ski resort and the “Adventure Center.” We first went past this and continued on until we came to a kiosk that barred any further driving. The person inside explained that no cars were allowed to use the road from that point on, due to construction. Bicycles were technically permitted, but road bikes not advised because of the condition of the road. The only real way to get down was to pay for a shuttle service, which you have to do back at the Adventure Center. 

This irked Richard, but back we drove, finding a parking space in a rapidly filling lot. It seems one of the popular things to do here is take mountain bikes up to the top of the ski slopes and ride down. Tons of people were unloading their bikes and gearing up. We spent the $15 each to get a shuttle pass and grabbed our hiking gear. 

One thing I will say for sure: I do not want to ever drive Postpile Road in a car. It reminds me of the Going to the Sun Road in Glacier in terms of how narrow it is and how steep the dropoffs are. Yes, it was under construction, and the loose gravel and quasi paved surface would have made for a jarring bike ride to say the least. So they weren’t wrong. The shuttle is the way to go, and I personally didn’t mind the $15.

We were still pretty confused about how to hike this valley to get the best “postpile experience.” Really, you just need to get off at Stop 6, aptly named Devil’s Postpile. There are other trails you can take, as we did, but they are mostly best accessed from that central location. Given information from a park ranger, we decided to do an out and back first to Minaret Falls, then take the trail to Devil’s Postpile, and then continue to Rainbow Falls. We would even see if we were up for a short out and back to Lower Falls afterwards. At the end of this grand plan, we could simply pick the shuttle back up at the end of the valley; Stop 10 Red’s Circle.

Several things were happening here that we had to unravel later. First, Richard was irritated by the confusion at the start, plus he didn’t like that there was an unavoidable shuttle fee. When he gets tense, I shift unconsciously into helper mode. I was trying my best to make the most of the day, but was also feeling the effects of the 9-10,000 foot elevation, which made it hard for me to hike very fast. Coincidentally, one of the things Richard does unconsciously when he is tense is walk very fast. The hiking on this day surpassed 8 miles, all of which was done with me trying to keep up, Richard walking ahead, and both of us running out of water because we didn’t plan for it to be that big a day. It took us the whole next day to work through the deep layers of unconscious thought patterns pinging off of each other. The shortened version comes to this: I have abandonment issues laid down during childhood that get activated when I feel physically vulnerable. Richard physiologically struggles with going slow, especially when he’s focused on a goal or hasn’t yet gotten sufficient exercise. Super combination.

However, with all of that going on underneath, we were still able to pull off a successful exploration of the postpile valley. I think we could have skipped the out and back to Minaret Falls, but it was pretty. Also, along the way, we met a couple of rangers who offered us some bug spray that we both tolerate. We would not have made this discovery otherwise.

The main attraction was the geologic spectacle of Devil’s Postpile. This phenomenon was created by pooled lava that cooled, crystalized, and cracked, forming hexagonal pillars. From the top, it looks like someone has tiled a hill with polished cut stones. From the exposed edges, you can see the pillars stand against each other, sometimes tall and straight, and sometimes leaning and curving into each other. It’s quite striking and is created similarly to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, just on a smaller scale.

Rainbow Falls is well worth seeing in person. As its name suggests, the spray coming off the impressive cascade creates a perfect rainbow when viewed from above. The Lower Falls, though not as impressive, is still nice, but most people skip this one. It’s a little over a half mile to go down to it, so the out and back adds another mile and an uphill return. It was at the bottom of this trail that we both realized we were almost out of water. So it was a long, hot, slog up to Stop 10. Richard became convinced we were going to have to ascend Mammoth Peak, but he was equally convinced there would be ice cream sold at Red’s Circle if we could just get there. I thought that was an utterly ridiculous belief, but have never been so happy to be proven wrong. I guess they keep the little cafe and store open for backpackers, even if the road into the valley is closed. There is also a small general store and potable water spigots. It was a glorious end to a hard hike. We gave ourselves a little reward at the end of the day by driving back to New Shady Rest and reserving a one night stay for Sunday, so we could bask in service for our last night in town.

That night, as we were planning the next day’s activities, all of the underlying conflict came out. I said something about how I didn’t want to hike like that again, prompting Richard to ask, “like what?” And boom. Who needs therapy when you can camp in a 90 square foot space for two months with your partner who triggers all of your dysfunction? All kinds of fascinating stuff comes out. We spent the next day basically conflict hiking. One thing about me is I do tend to walk faster when I’m mad, so that’s something. We did the trail out of the campground up to Barney Lake. The scenery around there really is gorgeous, but I can’t say I was in the mood to enjoy it, except on a disconnected, objective level. Meanwhile, Richard was trying an experiment to see if he could shift his mindset while hiking to be ok with going slow. What I needed was reassurance that it was just as important to him to spend time together, as it was getting in a cardio workout. Now that I have an e-bike, all of this gets resolved automatically when we’re biking together. I have no trouble keeping up, he gets as much of a workout as he wants, and I don’t have to worry about being a drag. What we need here is an assistive technology solution for hiking, but until someone invents hover shoes, we needed to figure out something else.

The next morning Richard suggested we ride the bike path down into town together and then ride the Scenic Loop drive. That was exactly what I needed. It was our last day in the area and we had the site at Coldwater reserved for all day and that night. We also had the site at New Shady Rest double booked, but wouldn’t be able to check in until the afternoon. This was perfect. It allowed us all day to have fun and we could come back and move Dory whenever we wanted. The bike path is super fun, and biking together always goes smoothly. Feeling much more connected, we set our course for a first stop at Shea Schat’s Bakery. Richard talked to the owner and mentioned we had met her daughter at Washoe Lake. We split a chocolate glazed and a lemon filled donut, noting that the taste was excellent, and the consistency of the dough had a more dense texture than we typically find.

We then rode out to do the Scenic Loop, pausing to do a short hike out to Inyo Craters in the middle. The one mile road up to the craters trailhead is not paved, but we managed the sandy gravel just fine. As we walked, we floated ideas on how we could handle big hikes in a way that met both our needs. Then we got back on our bikes, finished the loop at highway 395 and decided to go back the way we came, rather than ride with fast moving highway traffic to get back to town. We both thought the Scenic Loop was not all that scenic, unless you really like trees. It’s a way to get off 395 I suppose.

Before tackling the last climb of the day, we hit Hugs Ice Cream in town. There are so many fun looking resort areas in Mammoth, and no shortage of food places. It seems like the perfect combination of outdoor activity access, and posh resort services. I can see why so many people would want to come here. Richard got in his cardio workout on the ride back up to Dory, and I cheated all the way. We moved Dory down to New Shady Rest where we dumped and got caught up on all things internet. What a great way to end the visit.

For future stays, we think we would probably just stay at New Shady Rest. It’s not as picturesque, but it would mean you could do the uphill ride in the morning, hike around lakes for the day, and enjoy a six mile coast down to fun food and abundant service for the night. We don’t particularly care if the campground looks pretty I guess, at least not on these long trips. For a weekend excursion I can totally see wanting to feel disconnected from the world in a High Sierras lake environment. I could do without the mosquitos, but we also noticed that our particular area of the campground seemed to have it the worst. It was probably due to being on the side next to the creek, nestled amongst the lush vegetation. Perfect mosquito breeding habitat. Now we know. Great place for many return visits.

Total miles from Washoe Lake: 153.3, 17.0 mpg, 5 hours 31 min. Site 51 no hookups. No cell service. Occasional bar of LTE or 5g up in day use or out near other lakes. Could get signal sometimes out on trails. Generally no internet around the lakes above town. No dump, no solar. Lots of mosquitos.