Sometimes I wonder how places get their names. Usually there is a story that the name is based on and other times you can't figure it out. With Mammoth Lakes, you don't have to destroy any brain cells figuring it out. There are lakes near the town of Mammoth Lakes - lots of them. Over 100 lakes are located in the vicinity of the town, many of them carved out from glaciers in the ice age. On my recent trip there, we visited quite a few of the lakes and my favorite one was Convict Lake. The lake lies at an elevation of almost 7,900 feet and is a pristine mountain lake. Fishing is a huge attraction at the lake, primarily rainbow trout. We ran into a lot of fishermen at all of the lakes that we visited. I found out that Convict Lake is stocked weekly in the summer. There is a three mile trail that runs around the lake and we spent some time on a portion of the trail awaiting sunrise. While there were a few ripples on the lake, it was still enough to get a decent reflection and the ability to see some of the rocks underwater in the foreground.