Biking in the Caldera

Last Friday, Greg, Julia and I decided to do some biking. I was hesitant to do a trail because I didn't want to tweek my knee, and Julia was using a bike she'd never used before so... Long Valley Caldera exploring was the answer.

Long Valley Caldera is about 20 miles long and 10 miles wide, and is one of the largest caldera's on Earth. And I live 15 minutes away.

We were questing for Little Hot Creek, and clearly went by the side road. But we parked at the Hot Creek site and biked down into the Caldera more and hung a left on 2S07 which ends up going all the way back to 395 if you want it to. We would have been far from our car, and didn't care to make a loop out of it.   Normally it'd be really hot along this road, but the partial cloud cover and later storm, made for a beautiful ride as usual.

2S07 in all it's wide gravel glory

Arcularus Ranch Entrance

Smaller Side Road

Looking toward Mammoth Mountain and the Minerets from the Caldera

Julia and Greg

 There was a Grebe in the water. Look for the white dot. 

 Heading back to Hot Creek the rain was coming in 

It was no mid-western rain storm said Greg, but it was pretty great to watch.  This is looking South toward the White Mountains where the Glass and White overlap.

We finally got back to our cars 16 miles later.  Hot Creek is steaming on the bottom right.
If you want to learn more about the Caldera and volcanic activity check out this Volcanic Virtual Tour!