NFR Owens Valley

Non-fishing related
Random pictures of an area I have been visiting for 50 years now. My great uncle started coming here in the early 1940’s. It was visiting uncle Bill that planted the roots that have grown there.

The drive is a big part of the trip. If I can head down the east side it is an enjoyable, scenic drive, if weather doesn’t allow 395 through the sierras I am forced to go around the bottom and up the big valley with I-5 up the middle, not so enjoyable…

We got lucky on the way down IMG_5579.jpeg
One of several stops on the way, Picture Rock Pass highway 31.

Camped in my usual area, got in a nice walk before heading out
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Threaded the needle on the way down IMG_5582.jpeg
doesn’t get much better.

I visit this tree every time I am down, a red tail was spotted on the nest one of the days
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Looking east below town in the evening
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Remains of the old soda ash plant that was there in the 1910’s to 1930’s.


Ponds below town, lots of marsh wrens, a couple egrets, coots, cinnamon teals, mallards, shore birds, red wing black birds…
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I found some surprises when going on walks above town
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Morning IMG_5613.jpeg

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evening of the same day.

395 was closed the last 3 days of my trip
I was greeted by snow on the morning of my departure.
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I’ll be back soon
 
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SurfnFish said:
The movie Chinatown was based on the Owens Valley water theft by corrupt Los Angeles officials, who boosted water from the Owens River and Owens Lake on behalf of developers wanting to expanding Los Angeles and irrigate the San Fernando Valley.
Prior to, Lake Owens filled the entire valley floor, only to run dry ten years later once piped to the LA aqueduct, at which time LA tapped the Colorado River.

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There were 2 paddle wheel stream ships , the Bessy Brady and ?. They ran silver ore from Keeler across the lake to Cartago. The silver came from Cerro Gordo.
A friend worked on the lake bed for LA DWP when they had to mitigate the dust from the dry lake bed. The path of the paddle wheels could be seen from what I was told.
Prior to rewatering , planting salt grass, plowing furrows, and rows of 20’ #1 6x6 planted 12’ deep, the dust from the lake was found in Russia, Siberia if I remember correctly.
 
While we lived in Independence, the southerly winds would occasionally move a large cloud of alkali dust off Owens Lake. The locals called it "Keeler Fog".

During one exceptionally wet fall, a large portion of Owens Lake flooded and tens of thousands of migratory waterbirds used it. Myself and another biologist flew an aerial survey to document bird numbers. I don't recall the exact numbers but it was impressive. At that time, LADWP had already lost the now famous Mono Lake Public Trust Doctrine lawsuit (in 1979) but it had not yet been upheld by the California Supreme Court (1983). There was a push to provide similar protections for Owens Lake.

I personally had mixed feelings about LADWP and the Owens Valley. As a biologist, the ecological damage that was ongoing was real. However, at that time, they owned nearly 400,000 acres - much of it was open to public access. To maintain groundwater for agriculture, water was moved around through a series of ponds and swales which created vast areas of seasonally flooded wetlands. The utility company was also the area's largest employer.

With the rewatering of the lower Owens River and a portion of the lake, perhaps some balance has been achieved.
 
@Matt B

#1 is the top grade Doug fir. 20’ 6x6 with 12’ of the post in the ground, and 8’ above. I don’t know if it is supposed to break up the wind somehow, or to create something like an eddy like the furrows do.
Different areas of the lake bed use different dust mitigation methods.
There is now more water on the lake bed than all but the wettest years I can remember. I see more migrating birds, and duck hunters than ever. It is interesting to watch the changes, some are for the better, I will continue to observe with curiosity and a bit of wonder.
 
SculpinSwinger said:
@Matt B

#1 is the top grade Doug fir. 20’ 6x6 with 12’ of the post in the ground, and 8’ above. I don’t know if it is supposed to break up the wind somehow, or to create something like an eddy like the furrows do.
Different areas of the lake bed use different dust mitigation methods.
There is now more water on the lake bed than all but the wettest years I can remember. I see more migrating birds, and duck hunters than ever. It is interesting to watch the changes, some are for the better, I will continue to observe with curiosity and a bit of wonder.
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Thanks! I think it was the “planting” term that I wasn’t getting past. As in, what kind of plant is this? Anyway, seems odd that they would use top grade lumber for this purpose when it seems any grade or even rough poles would do.

Is veg coming back with the water? Is it mainly emergent plants or are there woody species too?
 
apologies for the thread drift, but....Mono Lake yet another LA growth generated environmental debacle, albeit one with a karma hammer, as on an increasing basis dangerous PM-10 (lung embedders) dust clouds are wind driven to envelope LA during "Mono Wind' events. That dust considered the worse source of toxic level dust pollution in the entire US. And yet LA continues to divert water from the lake..
 
Matt B said:
What is this please?

Thanks for the interesting topic.
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Matt B said:
Thanks! I think it was the “planting” term that I wasn’t getting past. As in, what kind of plant is this? Anyway, seems odd that they would use top grade lumber for this purpose when it seems any grade or even rough poles would do.

Is veg coming back with the water? Is it mainly emergent plants or are there woody species too?
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As someone with a wood fence around my property I can attest to how fast wood can rot in the ground out there. Truth be told good Doug fir will outlast any “white wood” (spruce/pine/true fir) that has been pressure treated.

The other big factor out there is the wind. They will close 395 because of the wind, it blows semi’s over. It is worse since they reconfigured the highway as it sits higher in the landscape. Structural integrity is a necessity.

On more than one occasion I have driven to Lone Pine, and on the way home seeing a tractor trailer on its side that wasn’t there when I left.
 
Matt B said:
Is veg coming back with the water? Is it mainly emergent plants or are there woody species too?
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Maybe SculpinSwinger can provide a current update on veg - he did mention saltgrass which grows throughout the low, alkali swales in the Owens Valley as well as around Mono Lake. Owens Lake is a saline, closed basin so other than the freshwater deltas, I suspect there isn't much growing around the shorelines. The migratory and resident waterbirds birds that use the lake feed primarily on brine shrimp and brine fly larvae so the salinity is quite high. As a side note, there's a commercial brine shrimp operation on Mono Lake near Lee Vining. The shrimp a harvested for the aquarium trade.
 
SculpinSwinger said:
A neighbor just sent this.

Crystal Geyser wants to drill another well and expand its bottling operations. They have grown tremendously over the years. Their last expansion put them adjacent to town. They threatened to sue all of us property owners for protesting their expansion. They are not good neighbors.
Express your opinion if you have one please.
I can go into more detail if there’s interest.
A screen shot of the linkView attachment 178983
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We don't live in Mexico! How did marketeers get us to pay to drink water out of a cheap plastic bottle that communicates us with micro-plastics and the environment? I against all bottled water. We need some for traveling and going to Disneyland but the daily consumption of bottled water at home is just plain nuts. We have healthier alternatives in simple undersink Reverse Osmosis systems that provide a much better value and filters out many toxics bottled water does not.

Screenshot 2026-02-24 at 12-13-07 what is safer and cleaner with less contaminants bottled dri...png
 
Much of the planted salt grass is irrigated. All of the water LADWP uses on the lake bed is aqueduct water, they are not allowed to pump out the groundwater under he lake. The water under the lake is salty and alkaline as RR noted.
The only areas I have seen an increase in vegetation is below town at the site of the old Wicker well, at one time the official drinking water of the Los Angles Rams as I was told. Mainly willow - cottonwood are around, as well as ash. There’s also a test well that went in about the time our new neighbors started shipping water from the old Cabin Bar Ranch adjacent to town. The wells flow a little all the time as they tapped springs. There is a decent grass/sedge area around Olancha, and a strip below town. I don’t think much growth has occurred anywhere on the lakebed, and the old shore is still well above water level

Part of the magic of being there is the stark contrast. Seemingly barren, but full of life on the lakebed, creosote bush shrub steppe above town with big sage and Joshua trees, the canyon has tan oaks and Jeffery pine. You can see actual forest on the sierra from the desert steppe, you can walk to it in a tough day.
 
I grew up in LA, and my grandmother ran a fishing lodge on Hilton Creek, which flows into lake Crowley. I've made the drive through Owens Valley many hundreds of times. I had the good fortune to spend my summers with her beginning with my childhood. In my early teens, my chores were to split and stack the firewood I cut the previous year, and to drive the '62 Ford pick-up to the harvestable lumber sites around Mammoth mountain to restock. Grandma knew the sheriff and the Highway Patrol officers (they ate at the cafe she ran) and I was allowed to drive the truck as long as I was getting firewood or fishing at Hot Creek.
It was a pretty cool life, and fostered my love of the outdoors and fishing.
 
Otisdog said:
I grew up in LA, and my grandmother ran a fishing lodge on Hilton Creek, which flows into lake Crowley. I've made the drive through Owens Valley many hundreds of times. I had the good fortune to spend my summers with her beginning with my childhood. In my early teens, my chores were to split and stack the firewood I cut the previous year, and to drive the '62 Ford pick-up to the harvestable lumber sites around Mammoth mountain to restock. Grandma knew the sheriff and the Highway Patrol officers (they ate at the cafe she ran) and I was allowed to drive the truck as long as I was getting firewood or fishing at Hot Creek.
It was a pretty cool life, and fostered my love of the outdoors and fishing.
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Me and my buddy used to snow shoe to hot creek when the snow was deep…. Had some great days chuckin meat.

I’m assuming you visited Little Lakes Basin from Mosquito flat TH? It’s an an easy hike for legit Sierra post card vistas around every corner…..bonus the fishing can be quite good. I miss that area a lot
 
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