A Weekend In Bishop, CA Part 1 - Sabrina Lake

Located in Eastern California, in-between the great Sierra Nevada Mountains and the White Mountains, Bishop, California is a gateway to adventure. It's a small city that balloons in population in the summer months due to it's fishing industry, hiking opportunities, nearby lakes, it's proximity to Mammoth Mountain Resort, Tonopah, Nevada, Mt. Whitney, Death Valley and of course gem & mineral collecting.

(grosular garnets in calcite)

I took a much needed trip to Bishop last weekend and did some tourist things I've never done before. One of those things was a trip to Lake Sabrina high up on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada's.

Lake Sabrina is a man made lake created by the Nevada Power Company in 1907-1908 to provide hydro electric power to the city below. While still producing power, it's now a popular recreation spot for Bishop.

I took highway 168 from Bishop 18 miles up to the lake. The route took me from a high desert plane to a high alpine getaway.

(Looking back towards Bishop)

The temperature variation went from 96deg in Bishop to 76deg at the lake. It was a nice break from the heat down below as I had been mining garnets & epidote all morning.

As you get close to the lake the road becomes narrow and tree lined with pines & quaking aspen(poplar) trees.

Arriving at the parking lot you are lucky if you can find a spot on a summer day. There are only about 30 spaces, but there is overflow parking on the road up to the parking lot. I was lucky as a spot became available just as I pulled in.

The lake allows boats on it with a full boat launch as well as docks, but the docks appear to not be used much anymore due to the level of the lake. Maybe later in the season they are used.

From end to end the lake measures about 1 mile long and about 2,000' at it's widest point. It sits at an elevation of 9,128'(2,782m) and is surrounded by stunning peaks of the Sierra Nevadas.

Aside from the incredible vistas, the lake shores are sandy from the decomposing granite mountains and the water is crystal clear several feet down.

The water was warmer than I expected it to be. While not too warm it also wasn't as cold as I would expect an alpine lake to be.

The lake has a small bottleneck between the front and the back area. The bottleneck is a large peninsula of a granite mass and boulders.

Just beyond the bottleneck the lake opens up to a much larger area.

There is sandy shoreline around much of the lake and several hiking trails for the adventurers. There is also a small cafe at the docks that serves food & drinks during the summer months. Fishising is also popular here as the lake is stocked with Rainbow Trout and a few other trout species.

As I finished up my visit I caught this sign on the way out.

There were a lot of names on that plaque so I looked into a few of the names. Luckily they didn't die here, but were probably donors, members or had some other affiliation to the lake.

As I made my way back down the mountain I stopped at several spots as the scenery is just too beautiful to pass up. The first was a hiking trail for Bishop creek, which originates from the lake.

In some of the larger parts of the creek fishermen were casting their lines for some of the trout which live in the stream.

This footbridge would drop you down into the steep flowing creek in which you most not likely survive if you had the misfortune of falling in. Needless to say, don't try to cross it.

Across the canyon I spotted a waterfall.

The zoom on my Canon Powershot got me a nice, close up of it.

As I mentioned, the scenery is incredible up here. The Sierra Nevadas are the most picturesque mountains in the USA in my opinion.

The forces that moved all this rock up towards the sky is almost unimaginable.

Looking up at some is a bit unnerving as you never know when a large chuck will decided to roll on down the mountainside.

The remains of a tree that was probably cut down for it's lumber.

A bit further down the road, but still high up in the mountains is a village called Aspendell. It's reminiscent of small towns in the Alps of Europe. Most of the trees are aspens and if I had a spare $1,000,000 it would be a fantastic place to have a vacation home.

I made my way back down the mountain to the desert below and my campground in Bishop.

Zooming in, my camping spot was right next to the green area in the center of the photo.

In my next post I'll take you to the Laws Railroad Museum which is not something I was really interested in, but it blew my mind when I visited. I took over 100 pictures as it was an incredible blast into the past of frontier living. Here is a peek.

Thanks for reading! If you're not familiar with who I am or what I do, when I'm not photographing all there is to see in Tokyo, Japan I can be found in the back country of the Western USA mining rare gems & minerals bringing you a glimpse of places you most likely will never see otherwise.

Pictures were taken with my Iphone Xs & Canon Powershot SX540 HS