Long Valley

This has been a relaxing day. We provisioned yesterday in Mammoth Lakes then came out to the Wild Willy hot spring and camped about a quarter mile away. This Long Valley is rich with alkaline clays and thermal pools, perfect for birds. It’s BLM and L.A. Dept. of Water and Power land. The LADWP not only has the water rights up through Mono Lake but also owns most of the valley lands and posts the land to keep campers out. Neither entity has done much to interfere with the public love of hot springs.
In the dawning we walked out to Wild Willy’s to have time alone there. There were avocet, cinnamon teal and bufflehead on the little ponds as frost met steam in the morning light. Later on we explored the Hilltop hot spring that is a cemented tub with a pipe so you can control your boil. Both of these are unmarked and out in the middle of the wide valley off dirt roads.
In the afternoon we went out to Crowley Lake just to hang out. There was a sweet spring fed creek that we followed up to a shallow pond at the base of the seep that someone had stocked with trout. It’s just heavenly wild out here, pre-fishing season.
I’m glad to have a day to heal my sun sautéed lower lip and to just veg around the voyager with the mountain vistas and birding from the window.