Sierra Nevada Mountains, California

I spent some time in Las Vegas and then yesterday headed to California. I stayed at Lee Vining, California next to Mono Lake last night. Then at sunset I went down and took some photos of the tufas -- photos are in the California gallery on my website.

This morning I drove over the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California going west. It was a little, steep, winding mountain road and it took about 4-5 hours to get over the mountains. Here is a photo just after I went past the sign that said I was at 9,638 feet elevation. Before that though I passed the USMC Mountain Warfare training Center -- Pickel Meadow. I have heard about this place ever since I was in the Marine Corps, but didn't know where it was. About 15 minutes after I passed his sign I saw what looked like a platoon size unit of Marines sitting under the trees beside the road. They looked tired so I guess they were taking a break from some sort of training.