A Weekend At Mammoth Lakes

A couple of weekends ago, I had the chance to visit Mammoth Lakes and stayed a couple of nights in a cabin. While visiting Mammoth Lakes, I did a lot of hiking, visited many lakes and even visited a ghost town. It was super nice to get away for a weekend as right now it is hard to travel to other states due to the Coronavirus Pandemic. During this trip, I really enjoyed getting to see a part of California that I have not seen before and getting to witness the beauty of my home state. Now, here is a report on what we did and where we stayed while visiting Mammoth Lakes.

Where We Stayed And My Opinions:

Before going on this trip, my Mom and one of our good friends were trying to figure out how to make a camping trip work in the era of Coronavirus. This was a very hard task as many people are wanting to get away from home and travel somewhere in their own state which means that a lot of places are fully booked. As a result, my Mom looked at several places but could not find any luck. Finally, after a few weeks of searching, our friend Ashley found a rustic cabin available for the dates that we wanted located on Lake George. Lake George is just outside of the town of Mammoth Lakes and is right above Lake Mary. The nice thing about Lake George is that it provides great access to hiking trails and is also small enough to make it great for fishing and swimming.

The cabin that we stayed at was part of a lodging area called Woods Lodge that is located on the hill above Lake George. Roughly 25 different cabins make up Woods Lodge and most of them have a view of Lake George in some way. At Woods Lodge, there are either one, two or three bedroom cottages and each of the cottages has a kitchen, living room, deck space and a nice fireplace for when it gets cold at night. The cabin that we stayed in had two bedrooms, three beds and one bathroom.

Before visiting Mammoth Lakes and Lake George, I was informed that the cabin and area we were staying in was very rustic and that it would pretty much only have the essentials. While I am fine with this and actually liked this aspect of it as it made us seem closer to nature, if you do not like rustic then I would not recommend these cabins for you. With that being said, I actually really enjoyed the cabin that we stayed in as well as the location that it was in. The cabin that we stayed was cabin #4 and we enjoyed it because it was a bit separated from the other cabins but still provided great access to hiking trails and the lake. Cabin #4 has a nice deck area with plenty of space to sit as well as places to dry wet clothes on the railing (if you go swimming in the lakes). Upon entering the cabin, you are immediately in the “living room” area which consists of a nice couch and a couple of arm chairs for reading. To the right of the living room and through the door is the first bedroom with a queen bed and dresser. To the left of the living room is the kitchen with a nice table to sit and eat at as well as a stove, oven, fridge, sink and counter space. The oven and stove are old school and do have to be lit with a match but they work completely fine and get the job done. We ate all of our meals in the cabin due to the Pandemic causing it to be hard to eat out and we were able to make the old kitchen work. Finally, if you go straight back from the living room you reach the second bedroom with two twin beds as well as a closet and dresser to store luggage. Right before you reach the back bedroom, if you make a right turn, there is a hallway with access to the bathroom and shower. So, that is a rough tour of the layout and how it functions. Now, it is time for my opinions on it.

Overall, I really enjoyed the cabin as well as its location. The cabin had everything you would need for a nice weekend trip and was nice and clean as well. I also enjoyed how the cabin provided great access to hiking and swimming and the fact that it was right on the lake. Woods Lodge is not too remote where you cannot get to anything such as restaurants and shops but it is also remote enough where you can get peace at night and enjoy nature. One thing that I did not like about the cabin was that it seemed a bit small and narrow in places. For example, the second bedroom with the two twin beds was super narrow and small and lacked space to walk around. Also, the bathroom was very narrow and only had limited space to walk around. But, I believe that these are only small details and did not get in the way of the overall success of the trip. Overall, I was very happy with Woods Lodge and had a great time enjoying the lakes for a weekend.

Hiking Around Lake George:

One of the great things about our cabin’s location on Lake George is that it provided great access to trailheads as well as hiking to different lakes around the area. While we were visiting Lake George, we had two full days and each day we were able to find a hike without even having to get in the car which was super nice. Here are the names of the trailheads that we took each day as well as what we thought about each hike.

1. Crystal Lake Trailhead- this was the first hike that we did while at Lake George and the trail was literally right above our cabin which was super nice. The Crystal Lake Trail takes you up to Crystal Lake which is roughly a 1.3 mile mostly uphill hike (except for the last little bit to the lake which is downhill) to the lake from the trailhead. The trail starts at the Lake George parking lot and there is a decent amount of parking available there for free. If you are planning to do this hike then I would recommend arriving early as the parking lot does fill up by mid morning. I highly recommend taking this trail if walking is not too hard for you as the trail provides great views of Lake George, Lake Mary and Mammoth. Also, Crystal Lake is super beautiful and has many areas for fishing, picnicking and swimming (although the water is super cold). This was one of the more popular hikes that we saw while we were there and is super enjoyable. The hike, although strenuous, only takes about 45 minutes up and way less time to get down (as it is all downhill) so I highly recommend doing it.
2. Mammoth Crest Trail – This trail starts at the Crystal Lake Trailhead and almost makes it up to Crystal Lake before turning off and going even more uphill. There is a sign on the trail that says Crystal Lake one way and Mammoth Crest another way. This hike combines the uphill part of the Crystal Lake hike with another mile of uphill to get you to the top of the Mammoth Crest and provides amazing views. I struggled to make it up to the top due to the altitude and severe grade but I made it and live to tell the story. There are many great viewpoints of the Mammoth Lakes area on the way up and the crest is just amazing. Also, it is super cool to see how the terrain changes from many trees to no trees at all and pretty much become bare. If just getting to the Mammoth Crest is not enough hiking for you, then the trail continues on even more and into another area. I personally only made it to the crest and then went down but I did see people coming from the trail past where the Mammoth Crest is so it is possible. Overall, hiking to the Mammoth Crest was hard but very rewarding.
3. TJ Lake And Barrett Lake Trailhead- Visiting these two lakes was part of our second day of hiking which was a bit less strenuous than our first day but still hard. The trail to get to these lakes starts from the opposite side of the parking lot of the Crystal Lake Trailhead and goes around the edge of Lake George before climbing straight up. To get to Barrett Lake, it is roughly a 3/4 of a mile mostly uphill hike with a few flat spots in there. Barrett Lake is a nice wide open lake with plenty of space to sit around, hang out and swim. If you continue along the trail for about 1/4 of a mile past Barrett Lake, you will reach TJ Lake which was one of our favorite lakes that we visited during this trip. The hike from Barrett Lake to TJ Lake is easy and pretty much downhill and TJ Lake is absolutely stunning. TJ Lake is surrounded by a cliff and mountain on one side and then hills on the other sides to make it a very secluded lake. This is one of the better lakes to swim in as well as it has nice areas to jump right in and get into the deep water. Also, it is a bit warmer than the other lakes due to its lower altitude which makes it easier to swim in. The only downside to TJ Lake is that it lacks sitting and hanging out space to relax. All in all, I had a blast visiting these two lakes and hiking up to them and I would say that if you are in the area that you do not want to miss them.
4. Swimming And Hanging Out On Lake George- One of the last things that we did while visiting Lake George was that we rented a small motor boat and went out on the lake for a bit to swim and hang out. Although Lake George is a bit small, there is plenty of space to drive a boat around and have a great time. It was super fun for me to swim around in the center of the lake and to soak in the views of the lake and how it is surrounded by mountains and cliffs on all sides. There is a boat rental shack right on the lake and you can rent either motor boats or rowboats for half or full days. Also, if you have your own kayak or other mini boat, you can bring it to the lake and go around for a bit which is really nice.

Bodie!

While visiting Mammoth Lakes, I also had the change to visit Bodie, an old gold mining town that unfortunately became a ghost town after they could no longer find gold there. Located about an hour outside of Mammoth Lakes and just outside of Mono Lake, Bodie is now a State park and is run by the California State Park system. Visitors of Bodie can go walk around the old town and see what it was like for the gold miners. Bodie was founded in 1876 after William Bodey found gold in the area in 1875. After news of gold was heard, people flocked to the area and at its peak, Bodie had close to 10,000 people. Today, only 5% of the town remains and the Park Service preserves it in what is called a state of “arrested decay” meaning that they do not attempt to improve the buildings but only make it so that the buildings will not deteriorate any further.

While visiting Bodie, one of my first thoughts was shock as I could not believe that what is standing today is only 5% of what existed when it was a boom town. Throughout my visit, I tried my best to paint a mental picture of where the other 95% of the town would have been and what daily life would have been like but it was very hard for me to do that. From what I could tell, most of the things that are still standing today were part of the downtown area of Bodie. We were able to see the Church, school, hotel, pharmacy and a few homes. Also available to view was the old gold mine and mining company which was super cool to see. My guess is that the remaining 95% of the town consisted mostly of houses on the outskirts of town. The Parks Department said that the reason there is only 5% of the town remaining today is due to poor weather conditions and fires that have occurred over the years. Anyways, before visiting Bodie, I did not even know that there was a ghost town near Mammoth Lakes. I had learned about Ghost towns and what caused them in my United States History class but I did not realize that I would be seeing one on this trip. Now, after visiting Bodie, I really want to visit other ghost towns to see how they compare and to see if I can truly see what life was like for these gold miners. I would highly recommend taking a trip out to Bodie if you get the chance as it represents a part of our history here in California that is not talked about a lot today. Sure, people talk about gold and the gold miners. But, nobody really mentions what happen when there was no more gold in a certain area and these miners were forced to leave.

My Final Thoughts:

All in all, my trip to the Mammoth Lakes area was a huge success! Before this trip, I had not really left home to go anywhere for a few months due to the Pandemic and I was kind of getting bored. Now after this trip, I can safely say that I feel like my boredom has been released and that I feel whole again. I enjoyed getting to visit somewhere I had never been before in my home state and getting to hang out in nature for a few days. I also really had a blast hiking, swimming and just chilling playing cards. So, if you are looking for a nice get away during the Coronavirus Pandemic, I would say that Lake George is the place for you! That is it for this blog post. Thanks so much for reading this post and I hope a trip to Mammoth Lakes or Lake George is in your future!