Ever since I saw the most mesmerizing photo a year ago with a girl in steamy hot natural pool surrounded by snow, I knew I needed to visit Mammoth Lakes! Took me a while to plan and get a crew together after I first learned about it, but needless to say it was one of the most fun and memorable trips of 2017! I collaborated with Lovestitch Clothing @lovestitchclothing on this trip as well, so many of the looks I'm wearing are from them - the blush tied top, paisley printed long sleeve maxi dress, and the black floral long sleeve dress. Loved these outfits for the vibe of the trip!
The lovely ladies that accompanied me on this trip were Hannah Sesser (@hannahrosesesser), Sarah Lydia (@thesarahlydia), Haley Hudson (@darlinghaley), Jazlyn Sward (@jazlynnicollete), and Claire Dean (@clairealydean). Chiara Spee (@chiaraspee) joined us for the first day but unfortunately was not feeling too well so she headed home early. After we carpooled up to Mammoth and met at ZPizza, we shot around the Mammoth Visitor center until dark and made our way to the Airbnb. We struggled for an hour or so getting into our Airbnb.. turns out when you view your trip itinerary from the email they send you and on your account online it doesn't include the dreadful scavenger hunt your host messaged you months back to get the keys. Haha what a joke it was. We thought we were going to have to turn around and drive six hours home because we couldn't get in and couldn't afford to drop another few hundred dollars on a hotel nearby. Thankfully by the grace of God we were able to get ahold of someone who gave us information about where to retrieve the keys. Definitely was freaking out for over an hour, but once we got inside all was good. We finished off the night at a bomb Thai restaurant. We had a very veg-friendly crew on the trip so ordering and eating out was a dream because we could all share!
Saturday started off with brunch and then off to Convict Lake. It was such a beautiful site - snowy peak mountains surrounding a cool blue lake. It was so windy though, almost blew us over a few times. Shot around and explored the area and then went to lunch. We decided to try and find these magical hot springs that I had heard so much about. Turns out the visitor center can't even tell you about them because they don't have proper facilities or bathrooms so we had to go off of some random blog post directions. We parked the second car (Sarah's) before we headed out on a bumpy dirt road. Sarah's front right tire got caught in a sunken hole filled with water and we couldn't get the car out! At this point, we we're freaking out, thought we had to call a tow truck, have my car tow her car out, etc. neither of which were good options. We ended up finding a random toilet seat in the lot and covered the hole with it so Sarah could maneuver her way out of the hole while we all pushed the car (in our decked out outfits mind you). It was quite the site to see haha but it worked! So we all hopped in my car and went down this sketchy dirt road for about 20 minutes before we realized the hot springs were nowhere close to there and we'd made a wrong turn. WWOWWW. All of that just to have to turn around because we messed up. We ended up making the most of it though and finally found where we were supposed to go about 2-4 miles away. Ah-ha! We finally made it to the magical hot springs! We walked down a wooden path for about ten minutes only to arrive to have each hot spring packed with people. At this point, it was almost sunset and we didn't have much time to shoot anyways. We made a decision to come back for sunrise the next day to shoot instead and for now just hang and shoot around the area. So back to the Airbnb we went for the night to share stories, snacks, drinks, and talked for hours.
Sunday we woke up around 4:45 to catch the sunrise at the hot springs. Since we had been there the day before but didn't shoot in them, we knew right where to go this time around. There were a couple people there at that time surprisingly but we worked around them and everyone was pretty friendly. I photographed the girls and then snuck some in of me at the end that Hannah and Jazlyn took. These shots though - so good! Life and trip complete!! We finished up and headed back to our Airbnb within an hour or two. We packed up our things and finished off our trip at brunch before carpooling back down to Los Angeles. Seriously had the best time with these girls on this trip. Mammoth Lakes you will be missed!! Until next winter!
