Devil's Postpile National Monument and Rainbow Falls

Thursday and Friday, October 2^nd and 3^rd, 2014

Thursday morning we said goodbye to Mono Lake by stopping for breakfast at the Whoa' Nellie Deli in the Mobil gas station in Lee Vining. We ate breakfast here last Spring and it was worth a second visit. Afterwards we used the dump and water fill at the station and we were off again down Hwy 395.

Kathleen's giant croissant sandwich - neither of us wanted lunch until late afternnon

We wanted to check out Devil's Postpile since the road was still snowed shut last Spring. The entry road is up past Mammoth Mountain ski resort and over 9,000'. During the summer you must ride a shuttle into the national forest and the monument, but this time of year we could drive the narrow twisty road. After passing through the entry we descended into the San Joaquin River valley, with huge mountains of granite on one side and Mammoth Mountain, a volcano on the other side. There are a half dozen forest service campgrounds along the road, all closed, except Red's Meadow. When we discovered that at 7,500', where the campground was situated, it wasn't supposed to go below freezing that night, we decided to stay there.

The view across the back side of Mammoth Mountain from 9,000 feet

First we made the turn into Devil's Postpile, parked and took the short trail to the feature. Then we were able to hike along the side and up onto the top of the pile.

The most famous view of the Postpile

Greg's Commentary – Devil's Postpile is the remnants of a lava flow that erupted about 100,000 years ago and backed up against a glacial moraine, filing the valley about 400 feet deep. Moderately slow cooling of the lava caused stress cracking in a more or less hexagonal pattern. As later glaciers and stream erosion cut into the hardened lava in the past 20,000 years or so, the basalt bedrock was exposed as the dramatic pillars that stand vertically in the most famous exposure but can be seen tilted or horizontal nearby. The most recent glacial scouring polished the fine-grained basalt to a smooth surface that was slippery even when dry.

Hexagonal Columnar Jointing in vertical orientation - about 60 feet exposed above the rubble.

Columns exposed at a 45 degree angle

Glacial polish

It is an unusual feature, and we especially enjoyed walking over the top which looked like a patio of pavers. We had to watch our footing as the rocks were polished slick by glaciers, and overlooked a steep drop-off.

The polished surface curves smoothly to the vertical dropoff

After exploring a bit more, we drove a short way down the dead end road and pulled into Red's Meadow Campground. We found a reasonably level site, no hook-ups of course, but the map said showers. Boy, we could use those! Greg hiked up the short road and found an old closed down hot spring and no showers. Why they've kept it on the map, I don't know, but we decided to haul all our stuff out of the shower “storage closet” and do a frugal shower in the rig, since the campground had water, so we could replace what we used. After that we grilled salmon and ate dinner while we watched a mule deer doe browse through our campsite. Nice evening...


Friday morning we packed up and drove the short distance to the Rainbow Falls trailhead. I admit to dragging my feet to get started. It was near freezing when we got up. By the time we were halfway down the trail, I had taken off my hoodie and unzipped the bottom of my hiking pants legs. I always forget how intense California sunshine can be! We crossed through a large area of huge blown down trees from a storm in 2011 with winds up to 180 mph! In the same area we encountered the remains of an intense fire. Along the path we crossed over the Pacific Coast Trail which runs along the crest of the mountains down the west coast, and we walked into the Ansel Adams Wilderness. That was kind of fun, since most wilderness areas are only accessible after a lot of hiking.

Slow recovery from the 1994 fire and the 2011 windstorm. Quaking aspens turning color.

The falls were lovely as they cut through the volcanic rock. We spent a bit of time enjoying them and the view from the steep drop-off to the San Joaquin River far below. Then it was time to get back on the road and drive up out of the valley again.

Back on 395 we had a short drive south to the washboarded gravel road back to Hot Creek. We were hoping to luck into the same boondocking spot we found last Spring. There it was, just before the gate to Hot Creek and far enough off the main road to overlook Hot Creek. Yay!!! Greg got the rig situated and we were ready for the night. The sun set, the brilliant moon shone down on us, so brightly that we could see our shadows, and the cattle bellowed. Huh? Far across the desert and out of sight, all night long we heard frantic bellowing from a large amount of cattle.

Hot Creek Boondock Camp

Looking upstream toward the geothermal area

Brightly colored Lichen

The next morning with the temperature near freezing, we saw the steam rising off thermal Hot Creek. Then we saw three large cattle trucks blasting down the dirt road and out of sight. Poor cattle. They must have been penned up all night waiting to meet their doom. Now we knew why they were bellowing so frantically...

Our earlier post on Hot Creek Geological Area is at The Sierras At Last!