Hansen Family: Camping in Lee Vining

Last week we went camping with our friends out to Lee Vining, which is near Mammoth. We had a super fun time. We camped in a different spot than last year so the mosquito's weren't quite as bad but there was still a lot. We applied our daily insect repellent which kept the kids bite free the entire time but of course, us adults still got bit. The fishing wasn't as good this year because the river was moving too fast. We did find a calmer spot where Blake caught a couple fish. We drove around more this time and explored the area. There were so many beautiful waterfalls, lakes, and rivers. We went out to Mammoth to look at some campsites, that they wouldn't let us into without paying an arm and a leg so we decided to pull over and let the kids play in the snow. We were surprised to see snow up there in July and the kids enjoyed playing in it and throwing snowballs at each other.

We even got a cool thunder and lightning storm while we were there. Greg brought his Easy up, thankfully, so we could put it over the picnic bench and all hang out under there, eat dinner and talk until the rain stopped. That added some excitement to the trip. We also saw a lot of cool little critters. There were so many chipmunks running around everywhere. We saw a marmot which was huge, the size of a large fat cat. We also saw woodpeckers, lots of birds, some dead deer on the side of the road, but no bears. The camp host did show us a tree that had the claw marks of a bear that had once climbed it. The kids thought that was pretty cool. We all had a great time and this time nobody got hurt.

The kids at Saddlebag lake.