June Lake in the High Sierras
Dear ——–,
We’re spoiled skiers, so we abandoned the alternately slushy and icy slopes of Mammoth on Sunday in favor of hiking by June Lake. June Lake is about 25 minutes north of Mammoth, with just one main road and loads of coffee shops. It looks a lot more like the granite peaks and meadows of high-country Yosemite than Mammoth does, even though it’s only a half-step closer. Bryan and I tried to hike to Fern Lake, but had to turn back before we even got a mile in. The trail was covered in snow. We decided to go for a drive by Silver Lake and Grant Lake, where we saw gaggles of fisherman casting into the cold blue waters. We wandered around a stand of aspen trees, ambled by the June Lake beach and then headed back to our hotel, the Double Eagle Resort, for some pampering at the spa. We sat outside at sunset, looking up at the mountains around our hotel and spying waterfalls midway up the sheer slopes. I forgot that lakes and meadows also mean mosquitoes, so I spent the rest of the night scratching welts. But I was so tired by the time I went to bed I didn’t even feel them.
