Photos taken on 11/4/01, after a 10/30/01 rain. It only rained 1/4 inch in 12 hours. This is NOT heavy rain. This is below the wall at the south end of Lee Vining.

This first photo is looking over the side of the wall at location runoff crossed the sediment fence. The darker wet soil is on the dirt road adjacent to the gully that doesn't show up well here.

This shows the rill erosion from water that ran off the pavement on the right. Numerous rills exist beyond the main one and show how runoff concentrated at this end of the wall.

These two photos show the same area, one from the bottom and one from the top. The one from the top shows the gully erosion better.

This shows the hole under the sediment fence that the gully enters.

The erosion continues below the sediment fence. Russian Thistle has taken over this area as it has other disturbed areas in the Mono Basin, for example, along the lower portion of the Sandhouse Grade, widened by Caltrans a few years ago.

This is the same spot from above. Note the footprints in the dirt that was used to fill in the gully just above the sediment fence.

A closer shot of the covered up hole.

Ready for the next rain to wash it out again (as it did, with much worse erosion over Thanksgiving weekend).

Below the line of boulders (see first photo to see where boulders are) water was still concentrated and eroding the gully on the steep hillside.

The concentrated stream of water crossed the Lee Vining Creek Trail in the shadow below the sunspot.
NOTE THAT THE LEE VINING CREEK TRAIL NEVER BEFORE HAD AN EROSION PROBLEM HERE.

A closer shot of the eroding trail. The water then went down the hill to a dry side channel of Lee Vining Creek.

As of December 2003, every solution Caltrans tried has failed.
The erosion problems continue.