The Owens Valley runs up the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada for almost 200 mlles. Early in the 20th century, Los Angeles bought up most of the grazing land in the Owens Valley and built an aqueduct to draw off almost all the runoff from east side of the Sierra Nevada – Lone Pine Creek, Big Pine Creek, Bishop Creek, Mill Creek, Rush Creek, Lee Vining Creek, and many smaller creeks. This progressive devlopment, or blatant ripoff, depending on how you look at it, stalled development throughout the Eastern Sierra. As a result, the place was stuck in time, and it remains one of the most unspoiled parts of California. This page includes some of my favorite places in the Eastern Sierra, but many others are on the Hot Spring page. Beneath the Sierra Nevada is a major subduction zone, where the several different Pacific tectonic plates dive beneath the North American plate. The result is enormous friction and subducted seawater that results in both steam and superheated rock. Volcanic activity in the Eastern Sierra is evidence, with erruptions as recent as 600 years ago, and ongoing hot spring activity all along the eastern flank of the mountains. I will add more notes as I have time.
Click on the first image and use the arrow keys on your keyboard to scroll through the series.
