Inyo National Forest in Sierra Nevada Mountain Range
Inyo National Forest is a place where everything looks scenic. This is not a tourist place, so the tranquil atmosphere allowed us to enjoy the nature in its own way.
Travels are usually remembered by unique events or unique destinations. We all prefer our travel to go as per our itinerary but sometimes only when the plan goes astray you get a more memorable experience. Our trip to Inyo National Forest was one such travel where nothing went according to the plan. Inyo National Forest is located around 370 kms from San Francisco. Inyo comes from the native american word meaning “Dwelling place of the great spirit”. The drive from San Francisco to Inyo was very exhausting because of heavy traffic. So we just wanted to reach our camping ground and end our day. We usually prefer camping rather than hotel in forest areas as camping brings you closer to nature.
We reached our camping ground which was located amidst coniferous forest. We had pre-booked the campground in online as we didn’t want to look for campgrounds after we arrived. There was a old lady in camper who was in charge of the camping ground. When I went and told our names, she replied there was no reservation made under our name. Funny we didn’t have smartphones at that time (Now I take screenshots of all my reservations). She told us that the campground was full and we should find another campground. We were in no mood to search for another campground. Anyway I had printouts for our reservation. So I rummaged our bags in the car and came back with the printout triumphantly. The old lady checked the printout and accepted that there was some issue from her side. She assured us that she will arrange a campground for us. Happily we returned back to our car to retrieve our camping equipments.
The Golden Sunlight on the mountains is always a blissful treat. We never miss sunrise or sunset in the wild because every sunrise and sunset is so unique. I understood why this place was named as Inyo the “Dwelling place of the great spirit” when looking at these mountains.
When Vinod asked me to unlock the car, I searched for the key in my pocket and didn’t find any. I frantically started searching on the ground, retracing the path I walked. Then I realized, while rummaging for the printout I kept the keys inside the car. That rental car had an automatic lock and the car got locked with key inside. We were in the middle of nowhere and all our belongings were inside the car except for our camera. It was already cold and we knew we could not survive the night without our tents and overcoats. The old lady came to us to inform that she had arranged a camping ground for us and seeing our faces she understood we were in trouble. I told her about our lockout and asked her whether roadside assistance was available in that remote forest. I was expecting No for an answer but she soothingly told they were available in that area. But I didn’t have any signal bar on my phone. Again, the old lady gave her phone and helped us to call the roadside assistance. The Customer Care asked for our location and I didn’t know how to respond as we were stranded in a campground. Finally, the roadside assistance assured me that within an hour help will arrive.
Now we had no choice but to wait. We knew that waiting increases tension so we decided to take a stroll in the coniferous forest. Coniferous forests are beautiful to look at but very tough to spot any birds. So we were just walking amidst the pine trees watching the stream running nearby. Suddenly we had a low chirping noise and in that dark pine forest, we saw a beautiful, colorful bird.
The beautiful Western Tanager – male. The female is brown in color. This little beauty usually nests in coniferous forest.
It was the Western tanager and we were so happy to see this colorful bird in a coniferous forest where it usually breeds. These birds immediately fly away if there was even a slight disturbance. But this tanager kept on circling a pine branch and then the brown female also joined in. We understood there were eggs in the small cup nest on the conifer and the beautiful parents were screeching to protect from the intruders. We didn’t want to disturb the colorful parents and we quickly left the place. After the dark coniferous forest, there was an open meadow.
I forgot all my worries on seeing the wildflowers in the meadow. Vinod and myself are vivid wildflower searchers, so we were thrilled to see a wildflower meadow. The Giant Blazing Star was one of the highlights of the meadow.
Giant Blazing Star is one of the most beautiful flowers we have ever seen. It was like yellow stars landed on earth. We were really lost at that time as we had no food, bed for the night and it looked like the stars were there to guide us.
There were few orchids in bloom and we lost track of time. After a good walk around the meadows, we realized it was late and hurried back to the campground. When we checked the time with the old lady, we were away for just 45 minutes. It was like we were back from Narnia land where the time spent was not the same as in the mainland. We waited for some more time and finally our help arrived. They were cool siblings from the nearby village who unlocked the car within seconds. Really what is the point of locking the car !! Seeing us from different ethnicity the siblings were curious and asked why we came to Inyo forest. We explained them about our passion about birds and wildflowers, they suggested few local places to visit. We were relieved that we had a place to camp for the night and quickly made our tent. We both were exhausted and didn’t have any energy to do cooking. So we just went inside our sleeping bags with our grumbling stomachs.
Next day early morning we went to the shrub land suggested by the siblings the previous night. The shrub land was dry but there were few flowers here and there.
For some people Disney land gives the magical feeling. For us forests give the magical feeling especially when we were surrounded by giant mountains, coniferous forests, meadows with flowers and butterflies. Though we had no bed for the night at that moment nothing could spoil our sheer happiness.
It was not a tourist place, so there were no one else except us. We saw few birds eating the grass seeds and when the sun rays started coming, the dry shrub land was glowing. It was a wonderful sight to witness. We both wandered around the shrub land and enjoyed the quiet morning. We saw a beautiful lake from the shrub land. We decided to go there and explore the lake shore. Vinod with his fantastic direction sense found the route to the lake and we came to know it was the Mono Lake. There was a family from local village and they were surprised to see us in the Mono lake.
Sighting of American Avocet
We found it very enthralling to see the lake in the morning sunlight. The chillness was mild then and we casually walked around the lake shore. Suddenly vinod jumped in excitement at the sight of American Avocet. That was our first sighting of American Avocet, so we were very excited to see the bird casually wading around the Mono lake shore.
American avocet can also swim to expand foraging area. During the breeding season, avocets continue to eat brine shrimp but mainly consume brine flies. Brine flies and brine fly larvae were so abundant in this lake and that was why this avocet was foraging around this lake.
This beautiful shore bird has a long blue-grey leg which is very unique among birds. These birds are facing severe habitat loss because of water pollution. So it is not that easy to spot an American Avocet. After seeing the Avocet , we were ready to go back to campground , cook some nice brunch and explore Inyo National Forest.
The picture looks like I was lost in some nowhere land. But I was happily wandering around the bushes and enjoying the morning chillness.
If everything had gone smooth in the trip, we wouldn’t have experienced any of the above events. Surely we would have visited few trails and spotted few wildlife but nothing would have been this memorable. In travel, the first rule is to Expect the Unexpected. We were really glad events didn’t turn out as expected and some hiccups occurred !! After all why should we complain as it all ended in happy memories.