Today we are going to Devils Post Pile on the shuttle bus. The bus costs $7 per person and leaves from the Mammoth Mountain ski area. It makes the trip to Reds Meadow Pack Station with stops at all camp grounds and lakes as well as Devils Post Pile. This year the busses are the large tour type busses which seem to big to make this trip as the road is very narrow and steep. However, it was a smooth trip with little other traffic.
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We disembarked at Devils Post Pile Ranger Station and walked the 0.4 mile to the post pile. After taking pictures, it was decided that the men would hike to the top of the pile while the ladies took their time and eventually walked the 1 mile to the road near Reds Meadow camp ground. As you can imagine, the men arrived at the road and no ladies in site. Were they behind us? Did they take another trail? Where are they? Fortunately, we had mentioned to some other hikers that we were looking for “2 women” and they eventually saw the ladies and Brenda came looking for us. Mixed messages were the problem.
We walked up to the Reds Meadow Resort and had lunch in their café. The hamburgers sure tasted good after the mornings hike. After lunch the men took the 1.5 mile hike down to Rainbow Falls. From the Resort the trail crosses the Pacific Crest Trail. In 1992 a lightning strike started a forest fire which burned most of the area between the Resort and the falls. There are many dead trees but new growth is showing up in small trees and bushes. The scars from the fire will remain for many years.
The trail near the falls has a steep descent to viewing areas which today gave us a very nice rainbow. The rainbow is better in the afternoon because of the sun angle. We looked at the steep set of stairs which leads down to the river below the falls but elected not to take them.
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After a fast trip back up the trail we met the ladies at the bus stop. A bus soon came and shortly there after, we arrived back at the ski resort parking lot.
We made a quick trip to the grocery store and then back to the camp ground. A friend, Karen L, had called us earlier as she was traveling to Reno and planned to spend the night camped near us. She arrived shortly after we did and we enjoyed catching up on each others lives.
