Phillips' Fourth of July 2009 — a few pix

Some people — okay, maybe only Kim — said they wanted to see some pix of the last Phillips family trip to the Sierra. Here are the ones my dear wife cleared for publication.

NOTE: be sure to click to enlarge.

Five of us Phillipses (one of them a née, now very happily [for us all] an Allen) took our annual trip to California's Eastern Sierra, mainly around the Bishop to Mammoth Lakes area.

I always love pretty wildflowers. Candy will tell us whether this is (as I think) a lupine. It was taken while still on the west side.

I don't know how I didn't get a picture of the head-dunking, but we did do it. In fact, on his fourth dip, poor Jonathan was so hearty about it that he bonked his head on a rock. But he was okay. (I worried another year off my life, though. I think I'm running out.)

On the evening of our first day we barbecued at a favorite spot in the Horton Creek Campground, north of Bishop.

Dig the steaks on the right. They New York cuts, on sale at Von's for around $4 a pound, and literally a good 2+ inches thick.

My beautiful wife helped Jonathan let fly with the sling-shot as I barbecued. No injuries. To any species.

The next day we checked out the Hot Creek Fish Hatchery. Here you see Rachael and Jonathan getting about as close to trout as they ever were to come, on this trip.


We did take out a boat on Lake George. But two of the four reels exploded, leaving only two to be passed among my three children in the boat; the anchor in the boat was worthless; and the wind kept blowing us in to the shore. Not one bite. I was pretty sore from all the rowing, though.

Then we looked as well at the actual hot part of Hot Creek. It is currently closed off to use, however. Seems it's geysering, and has caused some deaths. (Read more about it here.) We passed.

We passed through Mammoth Lakes, where Jonathan once again earned a T-shirt by doing some activities at the fire station.


Then we grabbed some dinner at McDonald's and headed for Lake Crowley (also called Crowley Lake, depending on where you look). This is the site of the stupendous annual fireworks show. We've been going to this as we could for many years, since long before my two younger 'uns were born. Here are Rachael, Jonathan, and Josiah by the shore as the sun sets.


The show was great fun, as usual. It started about 9. I'm really frustrated: I took a number of good shots with my digital D$$L, but I accidentally wiped them all off the card.

However, here is the actual first video I've ever uploaded to YouTube. It is just a little bit from the grand finale of Lake Crowley's annual fireworks show. The show itself is about 20 minutes, and really terrific. I would have taken more video if I'd appreciated the storage capacity better. But anyway, here's a clip.

The next day, we ended up doing what was a "first" even for me with my ~50 years of going to the Sierra. We climbed about 6000 feet out of the Owens Valley floor up into the Bristlecone Pine Forest, home of the Earth's oldest living inhabitant.

We took a brief but occasionally steep little hike, and saw cool living and dead trees.

That's not all we did. But it's some! I hope to be back for a trip around my birthday, as usual.

(Oh, and by the way: all of these [including the movie] were taken with my iPhone.)

UPDATE: my dear wife says I pulled a FAIL by not including this picture of purpose Bristlecone pinecones.