We spent last week in the Mammoth Lakes area on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountains. In order to get home a little earlier, we boon-docked the last night south of Mono Lake in the area south of Rush Creek.
This view looks northwest. Test Station Road connects Highway 395 (off the map to the west/left) to the South Tufu and Navy Beach areas which are off the map to the east/right. Test Station Road crosses Rush Creek via a culvert and intersects with Rush Creek Road. Rush Creek Road is hard-packed and wide and crosses Rush Creek a half mile to the west but there is no bridge or culvert. The water is about 12" deep or maybe more with large cobbles. We haven't found that 4WD is needed but the large cobbles could be unnerving without good clearance and 4WD.
We always enter this area via Oil Plant Road which turns into Rush Creek Road. Saturday morning, we dropped the top and drove down to Rush Creek Road and were ready to turn left/west onto Rush Creek Road from the 4WD road which follows the dirt wash to the south. But we found a truck blocking the road. Calling out didn't get the attention of the driver so we got out and walked up to the truck which turned out to be a small AAA tow truck.
And here is why he was called out:
The tour bus driver had somehow turned onto Rush Creek Road from Test Station Road but fortunately stopped before driving straight into Rush Creek! He then tried to turn around but got stuck. The tour bus was full of Japanese tourists.
We didn't find out when the detour happened but it might have been the previous evening which meant that the passengers spent the night in the bus. The tow truck driver had been there maybe 30 minutes or so when we arrived and had spotted the driver of the tour bus and got them unstuck. (There is no way that small tow truck could have provided any support so I think it was mainly a matter of telling the tour bus driver which way to turn.)
Why he was on this road, we never found out. Following his GPS?