Enjoying the Eastern California Sierra Mountains: Bald Mountain

It would be a drive of around 38 miles to Bald Mountain. We head up the mountain and make a familiar stop at Blackrock Ranger Station. My favorite "ranger" A.D. is there. She is always a great source of information of where to go, and is always willing to answer a lot of questions with regards to what to see, nature questions and the like. Today we ask a few questions as to tree identification and as to whether she knows if Bald Mountain Lookout is manned and open. She informs us it is manned, but it has been closed to visitors over the last couple of days due to high winds. She does not know the wind situation today.

But we decide to continue up anyway, as the view will be great even if we cannot climb the last 50 feet to the top of the tower. We head up the road, direction Sherman Pass. After a few miles we turn off the main road and the last portion of the drive is over a largely unmaintained road, where a normal car, best not tread. Near the top, the road ends and we park. It seems windy, but we are hopeful. A quarter mile hike would then take us to the Bald Mountain Lookout Tower.

Bald Mountain Lookout was originally built in 1951. The current structure was built in 1955 and is at an elevation of just over 9400 feet.. All the materials for this structure had to be brought up by mule train, because there were no roads at that time. It is manned most of the spring and into the fall by an individual who lives in the small space always on the alert for smoke. We have been to Bald Mountain before and had a wonderful and informative visit with the "fire watcher" ranger. He tells some great stories, and is a wealth of information on the history, the geological formations and great descriptions of what we are seeing, including sightings and names of all the mountain peaks one can see, along with, Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states.

This area is also a special botanical area.

The three of us don our packs and head up the trail. As we peer through the trees we get glimpses of the grand sights we will see at the top and the tower comes into view.

The Sierra Nevada Range & Mount Whitney

As we make the last turn to the south all of the splendor comes into view. Directly ahead is are the unique rock formations of the Domelands, to our left are the back side of the mountains which we see from our cabin deck, and looking behind us are the great peaks for the Sierra Nevada Range. We also observe the windsock, straight out and full....not a good sign.

Luke shaking his walking stick in disgust at the wind

We quickly go to the tower and are met with the sign we did not wish to see. Deck Closed Due to High Winds...Rats!!

But the 360 degree views are, well, indescribable. I do not have words for what we see.

I was curious as to the meaning of Sierra Nevada. Sierra=Spanish for saw or serrated. Nevada= Spanish for snow. How appropriate! If one looks at the horizon of the above picture I see the saw toothed form. Now to help save us from the drought we need the snow!!