This is the time of year that I start thinking about Mammoth Lakes, California. Mammoth is a little ski town up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains about 60 miles from Yosemite National Park. My grandparents have had a little cabin there since the 70’s, and I’ve been lucky enough to be able to go up there just about every year since then.

They’re getting a little older now, so I help them open the cabin in May or June, once the snow melts enough so we’re actually able to get at it. It’s a summer cabin, which means that in the winter it’s covered by up to 20 feet of snow. All of that snow is pretty heavy, so when we close the for the winter, we need to shutter the windows with inch-thick pine shutters to keep the windows from breaking, and we need to reinforce the roof with metal poles at strategic locations to keep the roof from caving in. We also need to do fun things like remove the chimney so it doesn’t get crushed and warped by the snow. And of course, opening it is the same thing in reverse, plus cleaning. And dusting. Lots and lots of dusting.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s a beautiful little cabin, and it’s worth the effort. It’s one of my favorite places on earth, and since the snow is starting to melt, I thought I’d share a little bit of it with you.

(The lake photos are of Mono Lake, and the structures are tufa).

These photos were taken on my flight from Dallas to San Francisco in March. A very nice lawyer was sitting next to me. I clicked away for a while before she said, “Your job looks a lot more fun than mine!” After watching her spend the flight using her highlighter on stacks of rather uninspiring material, I had to acknowledge that she spoke the truth. (Not that I get paid to take pictures from an airplane or anything, whereas I am certain her hours on that plane were billable.)

If someone were to pay me to take pictures from a plane, I hope they would provide me with a cleaner window than what I got that day. I’d be open to extra peanuts as well, and the whole can of apple juice instead of just the cup.