Edition:
November 4, 2005
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Columnist
The following is the first in a three-part series.
I began this tale on the road. Dorothy and I started out on a long anticipated car trip around the western United States. It turned out to be journey that was to include danger, drama and discovery.
Our extended odyssey began in Canyon Lake about 10 a.m., Wednesday, September 14. We intended to travel a circle, clockwise, around the West.
Our general plan was to travel north through Seattle, east across Washington’s Northern Cascades National Park, on to Custer’s battlefield monument in Montana, then to Berglund’s colossal sculpture at Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, Badlands National Park in South Dakota, visit the National Homesteaders Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska, where my grandparents were married in 1875, on through Missouri to Arkansas, then to Dallas and points in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and home. Our northern route was to follow, roughly, the reverse of the path taken by Lewis and Clark in their epic journey across the American Northwest in 1804. We calculated we would drive about six thousand miles and left undetermined the time element. It was open-ended.
We left Canyon Lake about 10:30 a.m. loaded down with what we considered to be essential to our happiness and well-being along the way. This included this lap-top computer, our digital camera, lots of books on tape and about a hundred pounds of clothes, most of which we never took out of our suitcases (but did, of course, have to be carted in and out of all the motels, hotels, lodges and miscellaneous places in which we over-nighted.)
We drove up the most wonderful highway in California, a rival to famous Highway 1 along the rocky west coast. Highway 395 is a time trip that takes one back through the olden days of Owens Valley, cattle country and the High Sierras. From the flat, arid stretches of desert, past Adelanto, Ridgecrest and Pearsonville, on to Little Lake, Olancha, Lone Pine, Independence, Bishop and Mammoth, the road climbs steadily along the steep edge of the Sierra Nevada Range.
Our timing was perfect for Mono Lake, crown jewel of the Eastern High Sierra. Mono Lake is the centerpiece of what many geologists insist is a great volcanic caldera creating much of the broad valley that extends from California’s High Sierras to its White Mountains. There is so much to attract the traveler in the region; Mammoth Mountain, the June Lake Loop, Tioga Pass into Yosemite National Park, the ghost towns of Bodie and Dog Town, California, and Aurora, Nevada, Bridgeport, Twin Lakes, the Walker River – and the Mono Inn. And it was dinner time when we arrived.
For more than 50 years we have trekked up and down Highway 395 past Mono Lake and the ruins of the old Mono Inn situated on the shore of this pristine inland sea. I can recall in those early days the Inn was a way station between the tiny mountain towns of Lee Vining and Bridgeport. Two old gravity powered gasoline “pumps” stood at attention in front of a time-worn inn that catered less and less to travelers. Finally it stopped operation and fell into a gentle ruin. The silent “pumps” disappeared in time and the few cabins began to give way to nature.
Then, on another trip just a few years ago, I noticed new paint on the main building and flowers blooming in the old rock garden. I sailed on by, wondering what was going on at the old derelict. It was on another trip, traveling with friends that I found out; the Inn had been resurrected, was open under new management and featured a restaurant and a photo art gallery.
The rejuvenated Mono Inn is the dream project of its new owner, Sarah Adams, granddaughter of famed photographer, Ansel Adams. We met her at the hostess station and, after some preliminary small talk, she told us she intended to reopen the inn and restore the dilapidated cabins. At the time of our visit she was well on her way.
The restaurant, an elegant dining room with huge windows framing a panoramic view of Mono Lake, featured linen draped tables, servers in jackets and bow ties, flowers on the table and a fine-dining ambience. The menu was gourmet.
The restaurant is situated at the bottom of a set of stairs in the renovated Inn. The main, or upper, floor was converted to a gallery that at the time of our visit featured the wonderful High Sierra photos made by her famous grandfather; Yosemite in black-and-white. Sarah Adams told us the gallery was also a visitor’s sitting room – a place to contemplate the photo art on display as well as nature’s masterpiece, Mono Lake. Comfortable chairs, a couch, a writing table and a wood burning stove gave the gallery a welcome ambience.
Through the large windows at both levels, the treasures of Mono Lake revealed themselves in ever changing patterns of light and shadow; Negit Island, tuffa towers, sea birds and scuttling phalaropes churning the shallows for food – and beyond, the magnificent silhouette of the mountains and volcanic peaks ringing this huge caldera changed their mood and manner as the sun set beyond the Sierras. It was magic.
We have dined at Mono Inn many times since its rescue by Sarah Adams. We arrived again at dinner time this trip and were seated at a window table where we watched the long shadows cast from the Sierra peaks creep across the ever-changing surface of the lake and up the sunlit slopes of the faraway mountains. The Inn does not yet have accommodations for travelers; however, I recently spoke with Sarah Adams and she remains confident this wonderful old Inn on the shore of remote Mono Lake will add lodging to its amenities.
In the meantime, if you are traveling on Highway 395 between May and October, and you are near Mono Lake at dinner time, stop – you won’t regret it.
It was nearly dark when we left the Inn and drove on to Carson, toward the planned – and the unexpected.
(To be continued.)
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