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Just a mile from the Tufas of Mono Lake is Mono Crater.  This crater is a dead volcano crater that last blew about 600 years ago.  There is a short dirt road leading to a parking lot and from there 1-2 mile hikes around the rim and into the middle of the crater.

Here we are on the rim of the crater with the middle "cone" to the right of this picture.

The crater is filled with this glass-like Obsidian rock.  This is the stuff that makes the best arrow heads.

Again on advice from the ladies running the campground, we drove up the road to the Tioga Pass.  Below is Tioga Lake that is just before the east entrance of Yosimite.

The hike the ladies suggested was to an old mining town called Bennettville.  They said look for a piece of machinery on the side of the road just past Tioga Lake.  They failed to think they the bushes could be over grown so it took a couple of passes to fine the trail head.

I don't think this hike was to much public knowledge; we had the entire hike to ourselves.  There were some pretty mountain ponds to walk along.

Since it was a wet winter the flowers were later then normal, it was great to still have plenty of blooms to see even in mid August.

Near the mine was still a snow patch with a nice waterfall.  Everyone always likes a chance to throw snowballs!

The next images are of the mine and the old equipment left behind.

There is only a couple of structures left of the mining town.  The ladies said someone were carrying in supplies to restore the cabins.

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