Glass Mountain is an ancient volcano in far flung Eastern California. Rising to an altitude of 11,128' , its jet-black profile hides fields of obsidian and a few hiking trails to boot.

Getting to Glass Mountain
Getting was half the fun for me. I started in Lee Vining, California which is a small town on the shore of Mono Lake, California close to the eastern entrance of Yosemite National Park. From the intersection of Highway 120 with US 395, I drove south for 4.7 miles. At a very obvious junction with CA 120, I turned left and set my odometer to zero. This is a beautiful drive only open about 5 months of the year during the summer to early fall. Sometimes its closed even into June if the weather is still snowy. From the junction of CA 120 and US 395, I drove 31.8 miles to Black Canyon road which is easy to miss if you're not looking for it. I drove 0.8 miles before coming to a fork and stayed to the right which is Sawmill Meadows Road. This continued for 6.6 miles gaining a ton of elevation before arriving at another fork with a sign for Sawmill Meadow pointing left. After turning left, I went another 3.6 miles before discovering a very faint trailhead for Glass Mountain. All of these roads are well graded dirt highways though a few chucks of obsidian rock were hazardous on the wheels. I'm glad I didn't bust a flat. Of course, check with Inyo National Forest for any road updates but as of September 2018, the road was in excellent condition all the way up.

Hiking Route of Glass Mountain
May I emphasize this is a route not a trail? Its fairly standard in the way of bushwhacking and orienteering but be extra prepared nonetheless! Here's a rough idea of the route:
As you see above, the "trailhead" is simply the obvious bend in the road just before the turnout for Sawmill Meadow. There's a few large logs pulled up to prevent any further travel by vehicle but once I hopped the makeshift barrier, I found the trail. It appears it was an old jeep trail at one point so this made initial route finding easy. After a few hundred yards, the trail enters the canyon of a small, dry creek bed and mostly stays to the right of the canyon's bottom as it ascends. At several points I found diverging herd paths but as long as I used the dry creek bed as a marker, I didn't get lost. After getting out of the small canyon created by the creek bed, I came across fields of obsidian. This is why the mountain is titled "Glass Mountain" is the abundance of this rock which is essentially volcanic glass. When lava is cooled quickly, obsidian is the result. Though not a rare nor precious stone, its relatively uncommon. Sharp to the touch, obsidian makes perfect arrowheads and is used experimentally as a scalpel blade. I cut myself accidentally picking up one of these razor sharp stones!





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