We got an amazing campsite along a burbling glacial stream in the Inyo National Forest, just east of Tioga Pass. The campsite is at 10,000 feet. The sun glitters on the stream. All around us rise tremendous snow-covered peaks. A nearby waterfall feeds the stream. We're high -- so high that not many trees remain too far above us on the mountainside. They grow shorter and shorter and then one passes above the tree line, with only rock, snow, ice, and lichens.





At the Mono Pass trailhead, I photographed wildflowers, and saw a mariposa lily for the first time, a delicate white flower standing in a patch of sunlight in the forest. The smell of sun-warmed pine filled the forest, and patches of red Indian paintbrush, purple lupine, and vivid yellow goldenrod grew in abundance.



We continued on to deep sapphire-colored Tenaya Lake, a glacial lake west of Tioga Pass. We actually waded in the freezing water, taking in the peaks around us. Once you're numb from the cold, it's not so bad.



We returned to the tent, eating as the sun set golden behind the peaks. A cool wind picked up in the evening, blowing over our site. It is stunning here. Gorgeous.