California's mini Alps

Can you share what campgrounds you stayed at?

RTCastillo wrote:
Rediscovered California's mini Alps, before the full snow melt up at Sierra Nevada camping along Highway 395 at the state's back roads -- which with California's budget surplus are now improved and well-maintained.

The highway are with high density of public uncongested campgrounds with side by side national parks, national forests, county parks and recreation areas and even city parks between Bishop through CA-NV border.

Cheap gas, however, stops at Bishop and beyond that going up north, you'll get hit with $4.00/gal gas.

What "Budget surplus" are you talking about? BTW, It was $4.00 a gallon last year when I was there, I'd have to think it's pushing $4.50 - $5.00 a gallon with the new gas tax ....

FWIW and off-topic, but (maybe) interesting: We have right here just ~50 miles East of Silicon Valley's hustle and bustle - a hiking/backpacking area that folks who do the High Sierras say is way more difficult than the High Sierras. I have hiked and backpacked in both places and tend to agree.

Henry Coe State Park is a vast back country area that is low altitude, so it can be way hotter than when High Sierra hiking/backpacking. Hiking there requires continuous elevation gains/losses in steep valleys which - when combined with the heat - is a killer situation. It's beautiful, serene, has bodies of water full of fish ... but boy is it tough to get in there. I wish I could have my RV air-dropped way back in there beside it's most remote lake!

I'm not sure about how flavor profiles apply to the mountains, except maybe that the Sierras are an acquired taste?

But you are right that it takes a lot of work to get deep into the Sierras -- there are few roads that cross the range, and the hikes up from the valleys are long and tough, especially on the east side.

profdant139 wrote:
Mini? Do you mean the Sierras? I've never been to the Alps, but lots of folks from Europe (who I run into in the Sierras!) have told me that the Sierras are pretty much as world-class as the Alps.

They are different -- the Alps and the Rockies are made of sedimentary and metamorphic rock, which is softer (and hence easier to carve into sharp shapes). The Sierras are a little rounder, because they are made of granite (which is harder for the glaciers to carve).

Admittedly, Mont Blanc is higher than Mt. Whitney, but the Sierras are pretty major hills.

Lesson in life for me: I might have started to enjoy gourmet and fine dining after I was given a training by my company on flavor profiles and it’s sciences.

I do attend those short geologic, ecology or biological systems in national park. For a family of academics, I had to just adapt the mind set that those get more amazed even if I might have known it from somewhere else with reading.

But yeah, Alps are sharper tips that made it so awesome and seem grander from multiple perspective while Sierras and the foreground undulating Hills and meadows can be viewed only from few stretches of the byways.

Thanks for the information. And I love the Sierras and been on he end-to-end of it with Yosemite as my annual, or more, pilgrimage any season of the year.

Mini? Do you mean the Sierras? I've never been to the Alps, but lots of folks from Europe (who I run into in the Sierras!) have told me that the Sierras are pretty much as world-class as the Alps.

They are different -- the Alps and the Rockies are made of sedimentary and metamorphic rock, which is softer (and hence easier to carve into sharp shapes). The Sierras are a little rounder, because they are made of granite (which is harder for the glaciers to carve).

Admittedly, Mont Blanc is higher than Mt. Whitney, but the Sierras are pretty major hills.

F-TROUP wrote:
"Improved and well maintained" Hummmm

Yeah - I agree, excellent time for photos...

"Improved and well maintained" Hummmm

I agree that US Hwy 395 in California is in pretty good shape. If you can cross the Nevada border to fill up at Topaz Lake Casino, you can save money.