(Since we're staying in the same local time zone for once, all times in this thread are based on Pacific Daylight Time [PDT])

This excursion began about 6:00am when my folks picked me up from my residence in Tustin -- in a fully-loaded 2011 Dodge Grand Caravan with all the bells and whistles you could think of. Sweet deal.

We used SR 55, SR 91, and I-15 as conduits for the star highway of the day, US Route 395. We have driven short sections of this route in previous roadtrips, but never the scenic parts. That was to change today.

From Hesperia, we started north up 395. Desolate stretches of the Mojave Desert soon transformed into the Scenic Byways of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Whoa, this is some good stuff... jagged high cliffs as far as the earth's curve allowed us to see. The high points of Mt. Whitney and surrounding peaks came into view as we approached Lone Pine, CA. Leftover snow from the previous winter season still clung to high portions above the tree lines. And a waning gibbous moon conveniently setting above the peaks made nice backdrops for the constant snapping of photos.

We made a brief detour and headed on Hwy 158, aka the June Lake Loop. There's a lot of picture-perfect country on this road, not surprising since the location inherits from the Sierra Nevada family. In addition to snapping some photos of streams and lakes, we hit up the Silver Lake café (by said lake) for lunch, bought souvenirs and then continued up the rest of the loop. The final and largest Grant Lake, surrounded by bare mountains, made the whole area feel very extra-terrestrial.

Back to Hwy 395... we remember viewing some tufa columns at Mono Lake before, so we thought we'd take a quick gander again, but that must have been on the south end of the lake (off Hwy 120) because the Mono Lake Scenic Area Visitor Center we found on 395 only had vistas and trails, interesting stuff for sure if you have the time to look. Onward...

We soon left the panoramic views of 395's Scenic Byway behind as we approached the state border to Nevada by Topaz Lake. A short time later we arrived at our hotel in Minden, NV around 3:45pm.

The day wasn't over yet. After a quick rest to re-energize, we headed 10 miles further up 395 to Nevada's capital, Carson City, and made a bee-line for the capitol building around 6:45pm. Took pics of that as well as the grounds, found a quick bite to eat and headed back to the hotel.

We're trying to decide if we can squeeze in a visit to Virginia City, NV, 45 minutes from here. Our next overnighter is only 166 miles away so if the view points of Lake Tahoe look like they won't take up too much time, then we may go see what the little town has to offer, despite the increasing number of closed attractions thanks to the end of Summer.

Really long day. Hoping we can get some of our wind back with the short driving distances tomorrow...