Spending quiet time in the Eastern Sierras

Young Chang

Try to picture this. A place where power boats aren’t allowed on

the lake because they’re too noisy. Where not one television set can

be found in the 15 cabins of the resort. Where phones don’t exist,

save for a single cute one at the lone resort cafe.

“I loved that,” said Sally Kenney, a Costa Mesa resident who

visited the Silver Lake Resort in the Eastern Sierras with her

husband Michael and son Tyler last week.

The three of them drive the seven hours to the cluster of lakes

every year. Sally Kenney’s extended family has been vacationing there

for 50 years.

With lakes that shine silver at night, and mountains and trees

that loom in the most vibrant way, it’s not hard to see why.

“Almost everybody knows everybody because the cabins are so

popular that they give the first shot at it to whoever had it the

last time,” said Michael Kenney, a former Daily Pilot employee in the

advertising department and now a teacher in the Anaheim Union High

School District. “It’s that popular of a place.”

The resort and Silver Lake are just north of Mammoth Lake, in an

area known as the Four Lakes.

“Silver Lake is the prettiest one by far,” Michael Kenney said.

“Carson Peak reflects in the morning off the lake. It’s reflected

like glass. That’s my most favorite time, early in the morning.”

Trout fishing is popular, as the Department of Fish and Game

regularly stocks the lakes with the trout, and not-too-steep roads

make biking an easy pastime.

The Kenneys spent their week fishing, hiking, boating and

horse-back riding.

Tyler Kenney, 11, spent his time hanging out with friends he’s

grown up with every summer. The samekids and families return yearly

to the resort.

One of Sally Kenney’s prized moments was boating during sunset,

when the water was “just glassy and just gorgeous.”

She also admits to thoroughly enjoying a pedicure and massage at

the well-known and rather ritzy Double Eagle Spa and Resort nearby.

But Kenney, who runs Sally Stanton Total Fitness through Newport

Beach’s Parks and Recreation Dept., had to confess that one of her

favorite moments during the trip didn’t involve her husband and son.

Laughing, she recalled the drive up to Silver Lake alone, in a

convertible, while the Kenney men rode up together.

Driving into the luscious mountains with the bluest of skies above

her and the puffiest white clouds ahead of her -- and with Barbra

Streisand blaring in the car, -- was just “awesome,” Sally Kenney

said.

“It was just an incredible feeling of being with nature,” she

said. “You just don’t see the vividness here in the sky or nature.”

* Have you, or someone you know, gone on an interesting vacation

recently? Tell us all about your exciting adventures. Drop us a line

to TRAVEL TALES, 330 W. Bay St., Costa Mesa, CA 92627; e-mail

young.chang@latimes.com; or fax us about your journeys to (949)

646-4170.