Boondocking Hwy. 168 - Bishop, CA

So, just to let everyone know. We moved to Casa Diablo Road ourselves a few days ago. I can confirm the section near Bishop is accessible. Not a ton of boondocking spots out here, but there are enough if you look around and explore the dirt spurs. We're 40-feet in length plus toad.

profdant139 wrote:
I had never heard of the Casa Diablo area -- it is east of Crowley Lake, off of Benton Crossing Road, and there appears to be a lot of room out there! The access road looks like it is about 4 miles east of the lakeshore, and it angles south off the Benton road. I am attempting to attach a fragment of a topo map -- not sure how it will look online -- and the access road is just to the east of the word "Benton" at the top of the picture:




Edit: yep, just as I had feared, the image is degraded -- I tried to save it as a high quality image but no luck. Anyway, you get the idea.

That's the northern section of Casa Diablo. I'm sure you could boondock out there, but I'm not sure how rough the road is (it might be very, very rough). The section I'm referring to is the southern section near Bishop. That part of Casa Diablo goes across the volcanic shelf just north of Bishop and is wide and firm.

greenrvgreen wrote:
Benton Crossing Rd ("Green Church Road") is virtually all available for boondocking (NFS) from 100 yards in from the Highway until you get down to the river, where it returns to LA DWP control. Don't mess with DWP--just recall what they did to Jack Nicholson's nose!!!

Is Casa Diablo the road that leads into the "Canyons", aka rock climber's paradise?

No, it's *not* the Rock Climbers paradise. The area you're thinking of Buttermilk Country (Buttermilk Road) which is just west of Bishop. That's a potential boondocking spot, but I've heard it's mostly for smaller rigs.

The area I'm talking about is just north of Bishop. Casa Diablo road runs north from Bishop all the way to Crowley Lake (Benton Crossing Road), but it's much rougher on the northern end. The better section of the road (easier access) and where there's better boondocking is on the southern end from the Bishop side. Some friends of mine are there right now and I had other friends who stayed there last week in a 35-footer.

Benton Crossing Rd ("Green Church Road") is virtually all available for boondocking (NFS) from 100 yards in from the Highway until you get down to the river, where it returns to LA DWP control. Don't mess with DWP--just recall what they did to Jack Nicholson's nose!!!

Is Casa Diablo the road that leads into the "Canyons", aka rock climber's paradise?

I had never heard of the Casa Diablo area -- it is east of Crowley Lake, off of Benton Crossing Road, and there appears to be a lot of room out there! The access road looks like it is about 4 miles east of the lakeshore, and it angles south off the Benton road. I am attempting to attach a fragment of a topo map -- not sure how it will look online -- and the access road is just to the east of the word "Benton" at the top of the picture:




Edit: yep, just as I had feared, the image is degraded -- I tried to save it as a high quality image but no luck. Anyway, you get the idea.

Casa Diablo Road apparently does have some nice camping spots, but from the description on this link, it sounds like the road is not suited to larger RVs:

http://www.trails.com/tcatalog_trail.aspx?trailid=BGS135-040

We're about to head to this area sometime this coming week. If govmt closures are still in force I've heard there is plenty of boondocking around Casa Diablo Road just north of Bishop.

Buttermilk Road (as someone else mentioned) is also a possibility, but better-suited for smaller rigs (or so I've heard).

JT wrote:
I'm not surprised at the early closures of concessionaire-run campgrounds. I'd just head for the open ground in the Alabama Hills area, but the time I'd planned to be on the "other side" coincides with the Lone Pine film Festival, which always draws a big crowd and runs tours along Movie Rd., among other places. Don't know much about Inyo County parks, but I'll check. Thanks.

Sigh.... :R

Thanks for the info, that's the exact date I was planning on boondocking, oh well.

Aloha ~ Todd

The designated camping areas in the US forest lands that are "primative" and require self-contained RV's are the best bet for the month of October. I always take the excellent USFS maps for the areas where we will be traveling as these locations are clearly marked along with the various dirt roads in the forest.

Private parks may be open but with campers displaced from the public campgrounds these places are likely to have fewer availablel spaces if they are still open.

Guess we now need to worry about the Tea Party Republicans shutting down the campgrounds in our trip planning. Doubt they lose any sleep over the travails of the little people, including all the employees of the park and forestry service and their families - not going to be a happy Christmas for their children.

Or maybe the Volcanic Tablelands, north of Bishop? The roads are probably pretty rough, but maybe better than Buttermilk?

(I wonder if the washboard is why they call it Buttermilk -- it started as milk but then got churned up by the roads!!)