Photos From the Road: Hot Creek Geological Site

It's time for a few more photos from our recent visit to the Sierras!

We visited some interesting movie locations on our trip, starting with the Halfway House Cafe and Vasquez Rocks.

The Hot Creek Geological Site outside Mammoth Lakes was a fascinating stop.

A number of Westerns have filmed in this area, including the John Wayne movie NORTH TO ALASKA (1960) and Steve McQueen's NEVADA SMITH (1966).

The blue-green pools of boiling water are visually stunning. (Click on any photo to enlarge it for a closer look.) My husband took the steep path down from the parking area which allows hikers to get closer to the pools and said it smelled strongly of sulphur.

This photo gives an idea of the relative locations of the Hot Creek springs on the right and the movie location area to the left, where the NORTH TO ALASKA cabin was situated. You can see a photo of the cabin in my friend Deb's post on the movie at Sidewalk Crossings. A bridge which was built across the creek for the movie stood for years but is now gone.

The Great Silence has a photo of the area as it looked in NEVADA SMITH.

As we continued our drive towards our destination in Bridgeport, we drove through the pictureseque little town of Lee Vining, located next to Mono Lake.

The Visitor Center at the lake was closed due to COVID...

...but we stopped to take in the scenery and shoot a few photos. I love knowing that Mark Twain visited the lake.

Still to come: Photos from Bridgeport and Lone Pine's Alabama Hills, including more movie locations.

Update: Here's a photo from another camera with a close-up look at the springs:

And the movie location area.  I forgot we had a second batch of photos!