oh man it's just stunning right now
only left 30 minutes behind schedule which is something to celebrate if you're me
oh my god i have no idea where i've just put the keys the keys i was using to drive this car
to the gas station this is a very me thing to do put them there oh my god kristin okay then
i'm on my way down to mono lake it is a super salty lake saltier than the ocean and it's usually
the turning off point if you would go from the 395 freeway which is my favorite freeway in california
my favorite drive i love the mountains of the 395 in the desert and all that but i haven't spent as
much time around sort of that middle part of the drive in mammoth lakes and mono lake so that's
my first stop today it's been hard to figure out what is still accessible and what i need to walk
long distances to but i'm excited because there will be smaller crowds and i always like that
i'm starting to get into some really really beautiful landscape
and um really glad that i decided to do that oh my god
okay yeah like i was saying before i rudely interrupted myself i'm really glad that i took
this trip because i was getting kind of sad about how difficult it is to travel internationally
right now and how much i really want to go to a scandinavian country or even canada or just
something with northern lights and while i'm probably not going to be going to the arctic
this winter i'm really really happy to just be driving like only two and a half hours south of me
in reno to get to mono lake because it's a winter wonderland all around me i mean i live at the base
of some mountains we get snow too i'm actually like really stoked to just have a lot of me time
because i miss that and i like being just by myself and just hanging out with me
i'm blown away by how glassy
the lake is right now there's no wind at all it's just beautiful i'm so excited
this is awesome and i couldn't recommend it more in the winter there's like snow all over the place
but also these really cool two-fives and then the mountains are way more dramatic and the water is
just glass today so i have this very handy app that tells me exactly where the moon is going to
rise and where the sun is going to set and where the milky way is going to be at certain times but
it should be basically directly behind me over those towers in about 40 minutes
so i found my perfect spot i'm gonna camp out for a little while goodbye son
so bye monolake see you again
i feel a little bit like a quitter because when i originally envisioned this trip i was going to
track camp the whole time and i'm in a motel i didn't really think about how horrible it
would be to never be able to get warm because it was down minus 14 celsius which is about
i think 14 degrees fahrenheit last night i'm at the point where my fingers stopped working
and um it was just that would have been so brutal
so just decided to drive down the june lake lope road and i knew that it would
be closed because look at it but i was able to get far enough down before the closure
to go take a look i don't know if i'm allowed to actually drone over it so
i'm just going to drone around it because you've got to see how beautiful this is
oh cute
ah so i'm at i'm at convict lake resort right now so i passed by mammoth lakes and the reason
why i don't want to stay there is because it's like positively crawling with people because
they're skiing but the stuff i want to do is like the hot springs and the hot creek over here so
i am very pleased with my choice this room is really cute it's got a full kitchen
it really smells like dog in here because they allow pets but that's okay
all right come to the end of the road here that looks a little deep to try to drive on it's about
a mile and a half hike this would normally be a dirt road that you can definitely drive on but
just not not in the winter and that's at least two feet of snow on it so i'm gonna snowshoe up and go
for a little hike definitely hiking in the snow always takes longer and it's more exhausting but
since this is a road it's not like horrible and it's obvious the way so that's nice oh god oh god
where does this piece go here i am hot creek
although the viewpoint i want is that way
oh man it's just stunning right now let's take flight
i did not quite get the like amazing sunset colors i was hoping for but it was still beautiful
and i got a mile and a half walk back probably partially in the dark so uh
let's get going i'm proud of myself because i realized that i left my glasses way up here and
then i hiked down there but i came back because i have a habit of losing all of my sunglasses
and i was not about to lose another pair yes
ah beautiful
really glad i hiked that because i just saw a truck completely stuck in the snow that
decided to try not to hike it it's good to know that i wasn't a total
noob loser by deciding to walk that whole way
coming up a little bit late with the clouds there which is good because i kind of drove around a lot
but there's really cool mist behind me it just was blocking the mountains too much but this is cool
so wow there's actual frost on the propellers i'm actually impressed you did a good job
dang look at that wow i have to admit i'm surprised that there's three cars already at
the hot spring i naively thought it would just be me but people did camp out here as well it's about
a mile and some change walk from the road to the spring because uh again it's a dirt road so it's
closed for the season there's this clear walking path but in the middle you can see it's quite deep
but right here just dig into the side all i have on are micro spikes which look like this
look at these snowflakes i found it don't have to share it's really beautiful
my feet are very cold because they're just on snow look how pretty it is though
hardest part always without a doubt is getting back up
i'm just surrounded by a sea of glittery snow look at the glitter it's so nice
the walk back is mostly uphill i'm getting my workout in that
was a gorgeous morning
my favorite things about being by myself when i travel is that i can just do whatever i want at
any point at any time it just felt really nice to like cozy up in the cabin today
and i just i'm not bothering anyone if i want to get up at sunrise and do things and then if
i want to sit inside all day until it's sunset again which i often do just like
editing photos and enjoying myself i actually as much as i really like meeting people when
i travel which happens all the time and i'm grateful for it i take trips like this where
i know i'm just probably not going to run into anyone and like go for the solitude on purpose
just because as i get farther along in my life i get fewer opportunities for this
and i just really value it i value being alone and having that quiet time to reflect and you get
to really know who you are without other people sort of reflecting back to you inevitably that's
what happens when we're with other people and so i just yeah i like being by myself
my plan was to be finished with that and out of here to go catch the sunrise reflection on
the mountains but i hit the snooze button i did well i still got half my breakfast left
but it looks like things are happening i only have like a two minute drive to go see
it so i'm just gonna go catch the sunrise come back pack out and then head out very cozy bed
that is beautiful absolutely beautiful
on my way back up north now and i got one last hot spring i wanted to stop by
all right this is travertine
hot springs probably one of the most famous in this whole state i've never seen it empty like
this but that road is not appropriate for most vehicles there's a couple other cars here but
they stopped at the springs closer to the parking lot wasn't that nice of them so let's jump in this
is a clothing optional i think they pretty much all are out in nature so if that bothers you fyi
these are decidedly less hot than yesterday's
uh last time i was here it was in the summer time and it was packed it was right before
burning man this was full of people so it is kind of cool to be here without anyone
i would rate this temperature as bit below bathwater but the kind of thing that you can
hang out in kind of all day too this reminds me a lot of the mystic hot springs in utah which was
the last big road trip i took by myself i truck camped the whole time it was like nine days in
utah definitely watch that video next if you want more solo camping stuff i'll see you guys soon