Where?
Mammoth Lakes California. Mammoth, Of Course!
Here’s the Ceremony location:
And here’s the Reception Location (immediately after the ceremony):
We spend at least 15% of our lives in Mammoth. It’s a small town of about 3,000 people. But on holiday weekends during the ski season it bloats to 25 or 30 thousand.
Why mammoth? Do you need to ask? Sheesh! Debbie and I ski. It’s how we met and we both made a vow (at some point in our lives) to never spend our lives with someone who doesn’t ski. But even more than skiing, Mammoth is one of the most beautiful spots on the planet.
Yes there are beaches and rain forests and islands, but for us, nothing compares to the Eastern Sierras. To get to Mammoth from LA, you travel through the Mojave Desert, along highways 14 and 395. Highway 395 is unique in it’s own right. It starts in the Mojave desert in Hesperia in the south and ends on the Canadian border on the north. It’s 1305 miles long. Two hundred fifty miles north of L.A. you climb into the Sherwin mountains to Mammoth Lakes.
Mammoth Mountain rises to 11,053 ft (3,368 m for our metric friends) and is in the heart of the massive Sierra Nevada range; one of the longest mountain ranges in the world. The last 100 miles of the trip from LA to Mammoth takes you through the Owens Valley, bounded by Mt. Whitney on the west and the White Mountains on the east. The valley is one of the longest and deepest valleys on the planet. With an average floor elevation of 4,000 ft, mountains rising in elevation to over 14,000 feet on both sides and a length of almost 80 miles, it is a geological phenomenon and a place of extremes.
In the White Mountains live the Bristlecone pines. The oldest living thing on the planet. According to ring dates; one tree is 10,000 years old. So just the trip to Mammoth is an amazing journey.
Along highway 395 after entering the Owens Valley near Ridgecrest (California’s earthquake central) there are four little towns before you get to Mammoth: Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine and Bishop. Just past Owens lake going north, Lone Pine is the gateway to Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the continental US at 14,505 ft (4421m). Less than a hundred miles to the east is Death Valley National Monument, the largest park among the national parks and monuments. At the southern end is the lowest point in the continental US at 282 feet (86m) below sea level.
The trip includes deserts, dry lake beds, rivers and streams, volcanoes, mountains, sage brush, pine trees, gold mines and ghost towns. We chose Mammoth because it is a place that we love and has held uncountable adventures for us. This is our new adventure…