Natural History Wanderings

As most of you now know, Hurricane Hilary has been upgraded several times over the past 24 hours and is expected to make landfall in Southern California this weekend and slowly work north into Inyo and then Mono County as a degraded but still very powerful Tropical Storm, unleashing huge amounts of rain on Southern California, Inyo County, Death Valley (don’t try to get to or from Death Valley this weekend!!!) Southern Nevada and lesser amounts as it heads north. Inyo County is expected to be deeply impacted as noted below, with impacts all the way to Mono County (the Inyo/Mono county border is near the middle of the Sherwin Grade as you climb up the grade), especially in the higher elevations, starting as soon as Saturday, which is TOMORROW, AUG. 19.

ANYONE PLANNING TO TRAVEL TO THE EASTERN SIERRA BACKCOUNTRY THIS WEEKEND SHOULD RECONSIDER DUE TO THE POTENTIAL FOR FLASH FLOODS, ROCK AND LANDSLIDES, ETC.

DO NOT GO TO DEATH VALLEY THIS WEEKEND OR PREPARE TO BE STUCK THERE OR TO BE IN DANGER.

We will update this page as things progress; perhaps Mono County will be lucky and the extreme rain will track east but if we have learned anything this year, it is to plan for the worst.