Mammoth: March 2026: Days 5/6: Cold and snow

Mammoth

March 2026: Days 5/6: Cold and snow

Someone is a sore loser.

No snow. Sad.

The brand-new Limelight Hotel.

Rock Spring Mammoth condos going up.

Chilly walk from Mammoth Brewing.

Toomey's menu.

Minaret Club right next door.

Calamari had some spicy mayo. Was good.

Wildberry whisky sour, not bad. Not too sweet.

Lucas' fish and chips was massive.

Mike's pork chop also massive.

Elk ribs were okay.

Lan Lan's clam chowder.

Elk ribs-- taste good, portion not as impressive as the pork chop.

Perfect medium rare.

What is that expression.

Misbehaving.

The Village at Mammoth Lakes.

Cold and windy, at least by April standards.

Visibility bad yesterday and today, at least above 10,000 feet or so.

Last minute selfie.

Ready to go, 95% charge, 234 mile estimated range.

Limelight Hotel. Last two days of snow... barely a trace.

Time to go home.

Back at Copper Top BBQ.

Tri-tip still delicious.

Close-up.

Potato salad also good.

Chicken sausage and pork ribs.

From 95% to 51% at Coso Junction.

Ford Mustang Mach-E 4X should have ~290 mile range when new.

Charged from 51% to 81%, only 37kW rate, but free is free.

Should make it back with 23% charge.

Uhoh. Car says will make it back with only 25 miles rnage (less than 10% charge) left.

Google Maps usually more accurate, even that now says 15% charge left.

Slowed down for 45 minutes - high winds - mountains = now 34 miles range estimated left, currently 20% charge.

Brake coach. Nifty.

Almost back, but 46 miles range left and 16% charge don't jive.

Made it back with 15% charge and 45 miles range. Again doesn't jive but happy to have made it back without having to charge again.

With the last days of the season (and the trip) getting a few inches (6 or 7 inches?) of fresh snow... hard to complain? Things were looking pretty bare, what snow there was was getting either icy or sticky in spots, so a few nights of cold and snow were very welcome.

With spring break in full swing, quite a few families on the mountain, and places like Mammoth Brewing were absolutely packed. Did our last dinner of the trip at Toomey's instead, which was actually pretty good. Maybe stick to the pork chop, clam chowder, and fish and chips only next time; the other two dishes were tasty but not quite to the same level. Minaret Club, the connected bar next door, has a bit of an 80's vibe that is strange, the drinks are expensive, but why not?

Got in some solid runs the last two days despite things being cold, cloudy, and snowy. Actually left about the right time, as the last day, we had finished lapping Chair 4 and switched to Chair 8, only to find Chair 4 (Roller Coaster) closed due to high winds riiiiight as we were doing the last run of the day off Chair 16 (Canyon Express).

The drive back was the reverse of the drive up, Copper Top BBQ is still delicious, only hiccup was high winds on the return. Charged up to 80%, which should have been plenty to make it back, but instead, ended up slowing down through Red Rocks, then doing a big chunk of the mountains south of Palmdale dead at the speed limit, as the comfortable range buffer shrank to almost zero (less than 10 miles predicted range left on arrival at some points). Sigh. Google Maps' predicted range turned out to be more accurate than Ford's onboard calculator, but either way, more stressful than it should have been.