June 2021 – The Paper Dart

Getting There

We drove up to Mammoth from the Orange County area, so I will be speaking mainly about this route–although some of the lessons may apply if you are traveling from other locations. The quickest way from Southern California to Mammoth Lakes is via the 395 freeway. Despite the fact that this road travels past Sequoia and King’s Canyon National Parks, it is in no way “scenic.” The majority of the drive (about 4 hours) is through pretty remote desert country, with few places to stop and/or stretch your legs. Because of this, I highly recommend packing all of your own snacks, drinks (and possibly even lunch), just in case someone claims they are “starving” when they’re nothing but Joshua trees and dust bunnies in sight…

There are a few cute towns a few hours out from Mammoth that we have stopped in for food, or an emergency playground visit–including Bishop, Lone Pine and Big Pine. On this trip, we stopped at the Lone Pine Smokehouse for dinner (a little less than 2 hours out from Mammoth) and really enjoyed it. There was a large outdoor patio where we sat with the kids and dogs, and the food was both kid and grown-up approved. And there’s a highly recommended place next door if BBQ is not your speed. We’ve also stopped at the Bishop Burger Barn in, you guessed it, Bishop (less than an hour from Mammoth), and really enjoyed it as well. This stop is definitely a true hole-in-the-wall with little actual seating, so I don’t recommend it if you’re not willing to eat in the car or on a plastic lawn chair…

If your kids are young enough to use a travel potty, I definitely recommend bringing one. Rest stops are few and far between and, if you’re kids are anything like mine, “emergencies” are bound to come up in the most desolate locations… We have had both the Baby Bjorn potty and the OXO pop-up travel toilet, and I recommend them both.

Where To Stay

Since having kids, my preferred accommodation in Mammoth is a condo or apartment rental. I love having access to a kitchen so you don’t have to pile everyone into the car for every meal. Many of the condos in the area are also designed to fit a lot of people in a small amount of space (which makes sense when guests are more than likely to be out in the woods, or on the slopes, all day), so it’s easy to find a place with bunkbeds or a loft room for the kids.

My favorite area to find a condo is in Snowcreek (not to be confused with the Snowcreek Resort, which is a bit pricier but has access to more amenities like a golf course and athletic club). The more modest Snowcreek condos we stayed in are spacious, well-kept, and adjacent to a beautiful meadow, replete with walking paths, a small creek, and a duck pond. During our most recent trip, we picked a unit that looked out on the meadow, and we spent many early mornings and late afternoons lounging in the grass, or traversing the creek.

We have also stayed at The Village Lodge, which also offers condo-style rentals, but is located in the commercial center of town, surrounded my restaurants and shopping, and steps away from the gondola. This resort also houses an amazing outdoor pool, perfect for those hot summer afternoons.

Hikes and Outdoor Activities

Horseshoe Lake Hike

Our favorite hike to do with kids in the Mammoth area is definitely the Horseshoe Lake Loop. Horseshoe Lake is about 20 minutes from the center of town, and is part of a cluster of beautiful mountain lakes. This lake in particular is fascinating, in that it is partially surrounded by a grove of dead trees–all of which were killed by the carbon dioxide that’s being emitted by still-cooling underground magma which resulted from a series of earthquakes that hit in the late 80s. While there are signs labeling the area as “hazardous,” it’s really only dangerous if you dig a hole in the sand and stick your head in it (so, you know, don’t do that).

The lake itself is crystalline blue and freezing cold, but my kids still had a blast splashing around in the shallow water. There were a few people paddle boarding in the lake, or letting their dogs run in the sand. In dry years, the lake shrinks significantly in the summer, so if you’re visiting in July or August and have your heart set on deep water, it’s best to check on water levels with the locals before you make the trek.

There are several trails which begin at Horseshoe lake, including the Crater Meadow Trail and the McLeod Lake Trail. Both of these trails have beautiful views, and some elevation gain to them, so they may be better suited to families with older children. The Horseshoe Lake Loop, however, was the perfect adventure for our three little ones, as it’s a short 1.8 miles, circles the entire lake, affords some nice views and entertaining creek crossings, and is wide and flat enough to accommodate a jogging stroller.

Rainbow Falls

The Rainbow Falls / Devil’s Postpile Trail is another great hike for kids, which can be done in stages, depending on your kids’ ages and abilities. The hike from the Devil’s Postpile Ranger station to the falls is about 2.5 miles, and stroller-accessible. Devil’s Postpile itself is a fascinating geological formation made up of hundreds of towering columns of rock. On the hike, you’ll get views of the columns themselves, as well as the impressive piles of rubble that have chipped off over the thousands of years of their existence. The trail ends at Rainbow Falls, where you can access several other trails, or take the stairs down to the bottom of the falls, where you can put your feet in the water, or just enjoy the sound of the cascading water.

June Lake

June Lake is my absolute favorite place to spend a sunny summer day in Mammoth. The lake is crystal blue and surrounded by green-washed mountains. For most of the summer, there is a long stretch of shallow water on the side of the lake closest to the parking lot (in drought years, it may look a little different). My four-year-old daughter was able to safely explore this portion of the lake on her own, climb on submerged rocks and float around in her water wings. For warning, however, this lake is fed by snowmelt (even in the summer) so it’s pretty cold–but if you have kids, you know “the cold doesn’t bother them anyway.”

This lake is also an excellent spot to launch a kayak, paddle board, or inflatable raft. While there are rental locations at other nearby lakes, you need to be able to transport your craft to June Lake and launch it yourself. There is also very little shade at the June Lake beach, so I highly recommend bringing an umbrella or beach tent. And sunscreen.

There are several hikes that leave from the June Lake beach area, but we haven’t done them in a while as most are not stroller accessible. If your kids are old enough to walk a few miles on their own, I highly recommend checking out this post by June Lake Accommodations, which describes all of the local trails in detail.

Gull Lake

Gull Lake is just minutes down the road from June Lake. It’s less of a swimming lake, and more of a boating and fishing lake. The Gull Lake Marina rents everything from pontoon boats, to kayaks and paddle boards, and for an affordable price. There is also a local tackle shop where you can pick up everything you need to fish the lake, or the nearby trout pond. (They also have lounge chairs and board games available for the kids to stay entertained while you shop.)

If your kids are little, like mine, you might also enjoy the gull lake playground, which is located to the right of the marina, and overlooks the water. It is surrounded by great views, picnic tables, and clean restrooms.

And when we’re in the area, we always head to June Lake Brewing for lunch and afternoon beverages. The beer is great, and the Hawaiian food truck, Ohana 395, which is parked outside Thursday through Sunday cooks up hands down the best burrito I have ever eaten. I can not recommend the food, and the atmosphere, enough.

Mountain Bike and eBike Rentals

While our kids are currently a little young to bike such hilly terrain, when they’re older we definitely plan on renting eBikes to explore the village and surrounding mountains. eBikes can be rented in the village, or at Footloose sports, and are basically just mountain bikes with pedal-assist technology (so you don’t have to struggle up those steep inclines all day). We saw many families using these bikes on the paved trails around Horseshoe lake, and throughout town.

Where To Eat

Stellar Brew and Natural Cafe

Whenever we visit Mammoth, Stellar Brew is our go-to for morning eats and drinks. They have great coffee, smoothies, pastries and breakfast sandwiches (and is there anything better than a breakfast sandwich on a cold, mountain morning?!). I recommend heading over early, as the line can get long, and they can run out of sammies if demand is high.

Roberto’s Cafe

Roberto’s is notorious in Mammoth for their authentic Mexican food, and “world-famous” margaritas. The ambiance is fun, and we always leave with full bellies, and leftovers. During the pandemic, they were doing to-go margaritas with your takeout orders, and I sincerely hope they continue to do so in the future. I am personally a huge fan of both the duck quesadilla, and the fajita veggie burrito, but, honestly, it’s all good.

Mammoth Brewing Company

Mammoth Brewing Company is by far my favorite spot to have a casual mountain lunch. The brewery itself has some indoor seating, but the best spots are outside on the dirt lawn. We gathered with several other families on shaded picnic tables, and munched on everything from peach pizza to a shaved Brussels salad. The brewery serves a variety of beers, or you can try a seasonal flight of 8 different options–including a delicious hard kombucha. The yard is also dog-friendly, and our kids had a lot of fun romping with the other patrons’ pooches.

Shelter Distilling

Shelter Distilling is a relatively new distillery & restaurant located in The Village at Mammoth. When we visited, we were able to grab a picnic table next to a heat lamp, just outside the restaurant. It was the perfect spot for all ten of us (we went with two other families) to gather and let the kids get a little rowdy. The food was excellent (think fancy bar food, pizza, tacos, charcuterie, etc.), and the grown-ups all enjoyed sampling some really interesting cocktails, many of which we made with in-house spirits. This restaurant is also located just steps away from Hugs Ice Cream, so the kids were able to indulge in a little after-dinner sweet treat as well.

Books For This Trip:

Enjoy!

I hope you found some of these resources helpful in planning your trip. If you do end up using some of this advice, hit me up with a comment about how it went. Enjoy!

I’ve gotten five phone numbers from 30-something women in the last month. That’s probably more than I’ve gotten from men in my entire life (don’t feel bad for me, two of those have been from my very handsome husband). I’ve gotten numbers from women at the park, outside of dance class, and even at Trader Joe’s. And even more impressive I think, is the fact that I’ve actually used all of those numbers. Despite the fact that we are still one foot into a pandemic, and my newborn is allowing me no more than 3 consecutive hours of sleep at night, I am suddenly more social (and more excited about being social) than I’ve been in a very long time.

I’ve never considered myself an extrovert. In college, I used to sneak out of parties a little early so that I could protect a moment of alone time before bed. For the majority of my adulthood, I was very much the same, and took up long distance running for both the solitude it provided, and it’s usefulness as an excuse for skipping out on many an “after-hours” event. When I became a parent, I was more than a little bit grateful that the notoriety of my three young children’s sleep habits (or lack thereof) essentially eradicated my need to come up with excuses for why I needed to be home, and in bed, by 9pm.

It’s not that I don’t like people. I have a few close friends who are fiercely important to me, and I have always enjoyed getting together with my broader circles in small, predictable settings, but I was never one to enjoy making small talk in a room, or playground, full of loose acquaintances.

And then, Covid hit, and I spent 15 months at home with my children.

At the beginning of the pandemic, I took a leave of absence from my teaching job. As a result, I went from talking to approximately 150 people every single day, to two. And one of those people couldn’t even talk back. I quickly discovered that, as much as I loved my then three-year-old and one-year-old, they were far from suitable conversationalists. Many an afternoon, after the 10,000th request for a snack, or the 300th read-through of 5 Minute Frozen Stories, or the 20th round of singing Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree, I would stare out the window and think to myself, “I would LOVE to talk to another adult right now.” And, it wasn’t long before my so-called “introverted” self realized just how much I hated being alone.

As the weeks wore on, It struck me just how much I missed connecting–not only with family and friends, but with the hundreds of other people I used to orbit around every day. I missed laughing with teenagers over the inane memes they would show me on their phones before class. I missed catching someone’s smile across the room at a staff meeting, and returning it with a silent snicker, or a good, old-fashioned eye roll. I missed the checkout woman at the grocery store telling that she, too, had bought her son the same, ultra tame, Volvo Hot Wheels car that my son was clutching in the front of the shopping cart, and that he still played with it years later. And I missed meeting other moms–at the playground, the coffee shop, heck, even the doctor’s office–and having a whole world of other people to talk to about how beautiful, difficult, exhausting and inspiring my day had been.

Finally, in April of this year, I received my second Covid vaccine. Suddenly, I was flush with antibodies, no longer pregnant, and ready to open the flood gates.

Whereas old me would have loved nothing more than to spend every evening at home on the couch, post-pandemic me has something on the schedule every dang day. Every morning, I find myself chomping at the bit to do things, see people, and make plans. My one-time aversion to small talk is no where to be found, and I am suddenly thrilled by the idea of chatting with absolutely anyone who will have me. And while a part of me wonders if my friends and neighbors will be put off by my newfound exuberance, I have quickly come to notice that I’m far from the only newly minted chatty Kathy in town.

At the park, the parents who have spent a year on separate corners of the sandbox are suddenly clumped together again, chatting about preschool and the Trader Joe’s snack aisle, and hypothesizing as to why toddlers can’t seem to keep their tongues out of the sand. Moms I had passed a million times on the trail at the nature center have started stopping to say hi, or staying to finish out the walk with us. I have started talking with neighbors I had never met about soccer, and T-ball, and the insane things we bought, or built to entertain our kids during the pandemic. Our kids have overheard us, and invited themselves to a jump session in Charlie’s bounce house, and a playdate at Louis’s dad’s shoddily-built treehouse. We’re spending so much more time laughing, agreeing, exchanging numbers, and grabbing lunch together on the way home from the beach that I feel like a 12-year-old at sleep away camp–out of the house, newly self-assured, and ready to capitalize on my first taste of freedom.

In the “before time,” I had so many opportunities to connect, that I stopped seeing the value, and essentialness, of connection. I had a million opportunities to make new friends, and often squandered them, or willingly let them move away from me, for no reason other than the fact that I assumed another chance would eventually come my way. I threw around labels like introvert and extrovert with a definitiveness they didn’t deserve, and diagnosed myself as the former without taking a moment to consider the ways in which being social were fundamental to my daily existence–both at home, and at work.

So, for the first time in my life, I’m calling myself an extrovert. Not due to any kind of personal renaissance, or reimagining of the the term itself, but more because I’ve started to realize that all of us, in our own ways, are extroverts. As much as many of us might enjoy a quiet night with a book, what we need is community, companionship, and an openness to letting others in. And while I know that this initial excitement will eventually fade, and that our memories of this year at home will become a little softer around the edges, I hope that we never forget how incredibly valuable life, and the people, outside of our own four walls really is.

Traveling to Mammoth With Kids