To Alabama Hills and Back

The journey began the way they always do. Getting out of bed before the sun had a chance to rise over the horizon, packing my gear, getting in the car and heading east with my girlfriend, the willing prisoner of my adventures.

The plan was to head up Interstate 80 over the pass almost to Lake Tahoe, then head south down highway 395, one of the most gorgous mountain/foothill drives I have ever experienced. I had done this trip a number of times at this point and I thought I knew what to expect. The day was going to be filled with expansive landscapes, long streches of open roads and small mountain town life.

This time was going to be a little different though. My ambition was going to take us farther than it ever had before. More on this later though.

The day was shaping up to be a good one. The road work was minimal, the cloud was lightly littered with a best kind of clouds (you know what I'm talking about, the white puffy ones) and the temperature was incredible considering it was mid-December.

Our first stop, a stop that we had made before was the famous Mono Lake, a salt water lake that lies in the basin of a dormant volcano, at the base of the eastern most peaks in the heart of the Sierra Nevadas.

Etc...

- Alex Raugust, Wanderous Founder