Mammoth Lakes - Summer Break 2021

Because there was still the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, traveling was still limited in the summer of 2021. But since everyone in mine and my mom's friends family who could possibly be vaccinated were, we decided to venture out a little (like during spring break) and head down to Mammoth Lakes. After a long six hour drive from the Bay Area down to the Yosemite region, we (my family and my mom's friends family) finally arrived at our destination.

Because it was already around 7pm by the time we arrived, we just unpacked, ate dinner, and unwinded down.

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast, and then left to go hiking. After driving for around half an hour, we found the start to the Crystal Lake hike trail. Because both my grandma and the other family's grandma were hiking with us, combined with my dad having to take a meeting while we were hiking, we took a lot more breaks and didn't even fully reach the summit.

Before we turned around though, both the dads offered to go with me to the summit and hike down to the lake. So instead of everyone having to return, us three continued up while the moms, grandmas, and kids (my sister and the other family's kid) hiked back down. It took us another half an hour to hike up to the summit and then hike a little down to Crystal Lake. After looking at the lake and playing at the shores, I realized the long hike was definitely worth it.

By the time we hiked back up and down to the parking lot again, it was already around 2pm and since we had been locked out of our rented Airbnb, we weren't able to enter the house until around 2.45pm. The pizza we ordered arrived around 3 and we finally ate our lunch.

In the backyard of the house, there was a hot tub we could sit in. All of us excluding the grandmas changed into our swimsuits and talked/played in there during the afternoon. As night slowly seeped in, we ate dinner and went to our separate rooms respectively to relax until bedtime.

The next morning, we got to relax and do whatever we wanted. After eating lunch, my dad drove us to the horseback riding session he had booked in the afternoon. We all got to ride our own horses, I believe mine was called Mancha (I don't know if that's the correct spelling), and we went on a one hour trail down to Rainbow Falls.

There we got to go down a flight of steps (not on the horses (those were tied up to posts)) and take pictures close up to the falls. Around that time, it started raining, so as we rode the horses back up on the trail, we slightly got wet from the showers. The rain quickly stopped though, and my clothes dried out pretty quickly. After saying our thanks to the instructor, we came back home.

In the evening, the dads, kids, and I went out biking around the Mammoth Lakes (the town). We got to ride through the city and around a field, and even stop at a grocery shop all before coming back home.

Although my mom told me and my sister to pack that night, we didn't and ended up having to wake up extra early the next day morning to pack up everything and check out before 11am. During the drive back home, we stopped by multiple places. First, we went biking on a long trail around an hour out into the drive. After that, we drove through Tioga Pass and stopped by a few lakes and streams on the way out.

We even got to go to a river in Tuolumne Meadows and partially swim in there. Finally, we visited a huge, warm lake before exiting the park. We then only took another break around 7pm for dinner, and drove back home to the Bay Area.

In the span of only two full days, we were able to accomplish a lot of different activities and have fun :)