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If you mention a California Wedding in May it’ll most likely conjure up a vision of the sun, sea or a famous city or two. But not this one, oh no this was completely different! This wedding was in the snow at the top of Mammoth Mountain at 11.053 ft. The air was in short supply... just ask the bag piper! But the food and drink were a plenty.

Admittedly Mammoth Lakes is not the easiest of places to get to. There was talk of Horizon Air offering a flight from LA to the small airport just outside Mammoth, but as yet it hasn’t materialised. So that leaves 3 options, you can fly into Las Vegas or LA and drive from there, the driving time from both is between 5 and 6 hours. The other option is to fly into Reno which is closer and just a 3 hour drive. From Reno there is also a local bus service that operates on certain days of the week and takes about 4 hours. If you want to make a contrasting two centre holiday then it’s an ideal destination, or allow extra time and make a mini road trip out of the journey there or back to the airport.

On this occasion we flew into LA and hit the road. Rush hour in LA is not recommended with 5 lanes of traffic nose to tail in both directions. It’s not for the faint hearted.

Bearing in mind this was the middle of May, the skiing was still fantastic although only available out of Main Lodge. There are another 2 base stations at Mammoth; Eagle Lodge & Canyon Lodge both of which closed a week or two earlier. At this time of year it’s just like glacier skiing so best to get up early and finish around lunch time when the snow starts to get soft. With a quick change you can ditch the ski gear and pull on shorts and t shirt. If you like the great outdoors then it leaves the rest of the afternoon to get out and about on the mountain bikes and follow the trails around town or take in 18 holes of golf at Sierra Star golf course (opening of the golf course is usually towards the end of May but very much depends on the snow).

About a 1 hour 15 min drive from Mammoth Lakes takes you to the ghost town of Bodie. It's an original ghost town from the 1800’s which was abandoned and it’s been preserved in a state of arrested decay. It literally is a whole town, you can buy a map and wander around, look through the windows of the houses, the school, the local shops. Everything is just as it was left. It really is quite amazing and spooky, unlike anything else I’ve ever seen, just walking around makes the hairs on your neck stand up.

Our mini road trip back to LA saw us drive 30 minutes to Lee Vining and then onwards towards the Tioga Pass heading for Yosemite National Park, The Tioga pass closes with the first snowfall and usually opens to vehicles from late May or early June through to November, exact dates depend on the weather. The drive to Yosemite Valley’s floor is really quite breathtaking. Even National Geographic magazine describe it as “one of the most scenic in the Sierras”. Having picked up a guide book a few days earlier, I went from knowing nothing about Yosemite to an expert on the well known features and as we drove along I found myself shouting out stop there’s Half Dome, there’s El Capitan, pull over there’s Bridal Veil Falls. We drove up to Glacier Point, this precipice is 3,214 feet above the Yosemite Valley floor and again the views from here are stunning. Our journey took us out of Yosemite through the south entrance but I would definitely go back and ideally spend a couple of nights there to explore the area. Our journey onwards took us through Fresno and an ever changing landscape. We’d gone from snow capped mountains to the green lush landscapes of the National Park, flat prairie like farming land, then the wine country with rows and rows of vineyards before reaching the Pacific Ocean.. and we hadn’t even left the state of California. It’s no wonder 25% of Americans don’t have a passport!

Our final stop was at Disneyland but that’s for another journal.