Tuesday
Sadly it's now time to leave Death Valley and to get back on the road. We are 400km away from Mono lake. When we leave Stovepipe Wells, we're 3m above sea level and it's already 40C. Half an hour later, at Towne Pass, We're 1500m above sea level and it's less than 30C... It's very weird to see the temperature dropping so fast on the car's thermometer. We stop a few times to enjoy the views and take a few pictures. The Sierra Nevada is in front of us and the promised land of California is on the other side of these mountains. We stop in a parking lot which has a vista point that is supposed to be exceptional...deception ! There's nothing special to see, it's super crowded and the rest rooms have creepy bullet holes all over the place. We continue north along the Sierra Nevada, past Lone Pine and Big Pine. We have a detour planned to go see the oldest trees on earth. The hike is once again aptly named Methuselah Trail. We're 3000m above sea lever and we're now down to 20-22C. We studiously read all the visitor center's explanations before starting the 3h hike. This forest is very special. Here only grows a single type of tree – The Bristlecone pine. There's no grass, no moss and little animal life. We're high up in the mountain and the soil is rocky and the climate arid. This tree has virtually no competition and no « predators ». The lack of resources forces them to grow far away from one another. They also grow very slowly which makes them very compact and tough. The only threat they face is lightning and fire. Some of them are partly burnt but the rest of the tree keeps on living and growing. They don't rot and even half burnt, the whole structure remains solid and stable. Because of all that, some specimens are close to 5000 years old. At that time, mankind was beginning to build pyramids in Egypt...
We finish the hike around 6pm feeling very very young after having walked amongst the trees. We still have quite of bit of driving to do and we'll arrive at Mono lake 3 hours later. We stopped in Bishop to buy some bread in the best bakery of the region but obviously they don't have the same operating hours that the one we're used to in New York. Our hotel for the next two nights is a motel. The town itself is just a aggregation of motels and restaurant along the main road. It's sitting at the eastern entrance of Yosemite National Park. There's a few places of interest in the area making it a very convenient stop on our way to the park.