Tues- Friday, July 28-31

This Eastern Sierra tour has become one of our most popular four-day trips! It includes visits to Tuolumne Meadows at Yosemite, ancient Mono Lake, the Eastern Sierra forests and the legendary ghost-town of Bodie. The nearby 10,000-foot mountains and forests make for spectacular scenery, together with high desert sagebrush and volcanic landscapes that roll on for miles. We’ll explore Mono Lake and its tufa towers, Lee Vining village, Bodie ghost-town (now a state park), have lunch at the old pioneer village of Bridgeport, see Mammoth Lakes and hunt for warblers at Lee Vining Canyon. Mono is a magnet for several hundred bird species, including phalaropes, shorebirds, grebes, pelicans, ducks, woodpeckers and raptors. These include Osprey, Mt. Bluebird, Pygmy nuthatches, Clark’s Nutcracker, Wood ducks, Audubon’s warblers, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Red-breasted Sapsuckers and hundreds of others. Walking the sagebrush-covered hills at Bodie we’ll search for the enormous Sage Grouse, one of the great birds of the Western high desert. We meet Tuesday afternoon at Boulder Lodge on June Lake, 10 miles south of Lee Vining village, right off H395. The Lodge has a pool, barbeque area and lakeside boating; rooms are large, accommodate several people and have kitchenettes. Visit www.boulderlodgejunelake.com for more info. The spectacular mountain peaks, Mono Lake and pioneer-era villages are great for photography of all kinds. Easiest route from San Francisco and the Bay Area: take 120 across the valley to Yosemite, go over Tioga Pass and then south 10 miles on 395 to June Lake and Boulder Lodge. Tour begins after check-in Tuesday afternoon. Allow at least six hours from the Bay Area to June L