Hiking the Hoodoos/Driving off the beaten path

On our day off we decided to do a hike through the Hoodoos which are huge chunks of travertine limestone that crashed down from Terrace mountain thousands of years ago. It was named because of the ghostly strange shapes and spooky appearance of the fallen rocks. We packed the backpack with bear spray, water, and the trail map and started out early in the morning with our hats, sunglasses, and walking sticks. We found the parking area and the trail head and headed out to see the hoodoos. The trail began through a meadow and was quite lovely.

We then made a right turn into the forest. About 1/2 mile in we got attacked by thousands of mosquitoes, and that's when we remembered that we forgot the insect repellent. So we did our best to swat them away and charged back out of the woods. We'll try that hike another time WITH the bug spray! This is what part of the hoodoos look like from the road.

We formulated a plan B and decided to drive the Old Gardiner Road, a dirt road running five miles from Mammoth back to Gardiner. From the hillside we got a different view of Mammoth Hot Springs and beautiful hillside sights. This shows the Gardner River and the road we take to work.

We were amazed to see little white flowers growing up in the middle of the road.

Gardiner looked quite different from this angle.

We imagined how it must have been back in the days when stagecoaches took this road to the park.

Since the car was already filthy from the dirt road, we drove up the other side of the mountain on the north side of  town to a city we heard about called Jardine. Here's a view of Gardiner from the north.

The five mile road was paved for a short distance and then became gravel and then bumpy gravel and dirt. The five miles seemed like ten miles. Along the way we saw some wood carved statues that directed us to a scenic viewpoint.

When we finally got to Jardine all we found were a few run down buildings. The city was once a gold mining town but not much remains of it. We were glad to get back to the "big town" of Gardiner, and our first stop was the car wash!

We're getting ready for our trip to Ohio for our grandson Mitch's graduation party on Saturday. We leave at 6:30 am tomorrow and get back Monday afternoon.