Sunday, June 18, 2023

Punam Crater

We drove to the Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area this morning to do 3 short hikes. We went to the south shore first and started with the Panama Crater Trails. We hiked the Crater Rim Trail and the Plug Trail for a total of 2.5 miles with 200 ft of overall gain. This is a fascinating place.

View of the Sierra Mountains from the parking area.

We hiked clockwise around the Rim Trail.
View to the west from the crater rim, beautiful view of Sierra Mountains.

View to the south along the crater rim, looking towards Mono Lake

We saw lots of buckwheat in bloom along the rim trail.

As we continued around the rim, we could see some Sierra Peaks over the Plug Dome inside the crater.

To the north, beautiful Mono Lake

Pano from the east rim. looking into the crater at the Plug Dome

View to the south along the rim trail

We enjoyed walking around this crater rim trail!
View of the Plug Dome inside the crater from the southwest of the rim

Some obsidian and large rock formations up on the Plug Trail

view to the west along the Plug Trail

Lots of interesting rock formations up on the Plug Dome





Lovely rocks


Views from up on the Plug Dome





Lizard


some of the wildflowers we saw along the trail this morning:

  







 

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