Looking for boondocking near Bishop / Big Pine

I'm thinking towing any kind of trailer all the way to the end of the dirt road to the Bristlecones (and the Patriarch Grove) would be a long, hot, slow trip. There are a few nice turnouts along the way where one could set up a rudimentary camp. Here is a link to a trip we did in the XTC's: it has some pix of the turnouts:
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27277376.cfm
For a shorter trip, why not hook up and go up to the end of road (or near) toward Mount Pinos?
Or up Apache Canyon? It's plenty lonely out there. We camped all around there, summer or winter in the 1970's and 80's. I had a backpacking buddie that had a cabin in 'Parque du Fraz-ee-ay' (Frazier Park) we used as a base camp. We also collected the best firewood ever up there: pickled Pinyon. What great stuff. Alas we have no pickled Pinyon picking presently and must use Oak, Fir, and Manzanita to make heat in our home on the West Slope.
jefe

When I was living in LA I always dreaded the approach of the DWP collections man. He carries a hammer and a pliers and he always gets his money!

Worse than murder -- I have heard that the DWP will wake up trespassing campers in the early morning and ask them to leave before making coffee. That is just brutal.

Good advice which I took to the Inter-Agency Office in Bishop. On the wall there is an authoritative map that will be quite reassuring to boondockers.

At Benton Crossing Road the DWP land abuts the highway but ends less than a quarter mile in. You can see the signage announcing DWP property but of course they never tell you when you've left it. The animal hospital on the left is not on DWP land.

In that area the DWP holdings begin again very close to the river, several miles down, and follow along the river. In between it is all fair game for boondocking.

Campers would do well to give the LA DWP a wide berth, considering their well-documented history of fraud, assaults and murder, at least according to the movie "Chinatown".

greenrvgreen wrote:
As Prof says, there is plenty of dead basic boondocking north of Bishop, south of mammoth. Benton Crossing road (green church) just south of the airport has virtually unlimited room. So if you get skunked with the first-come sites you'll have a fallback option. Be sure to bring a genny that can power your a/c (which will be running constantly).

Also, there's another meteor shower coming and as usual Prof will attempt to downplay the risks of getting struck by a meteor.

Before assuming, a lot of that area may very well be Los Angeles Dept of Water and Power property, which does not allow over night camping on their property. I'd get USFS maps and BLM maps before you start researching where to camp in the Eastern Sierras.

There's a dry campground right up near bristlecone. Shouldn't be a problem getting your rig in there. Here's a Google maps link.

Dropped Pin

near White Mountain Rd
Inyo National Forest
CA

http://maps.google.com/?q=37.333910,-118.186833&hl=en&gl=us

There are some boondock spots on Mazurka Canyon Road in Independence just south of Big Pine. One is close to the Owens river, on the south side of the road before the pavement ends about 3 miles from 395. Or, continue up the hill slightly after the pavement ends, and there is a spot just your size on the right side of the road. If you go on up the canyon to explore, there are several big flats the natives used to summer in, and a peak with repeater towers on that you can see up and down the valley for miles.

Go a bit south to the Lone Pine area and try the Alabama Hills.....I have camped all through the Eastern Sierra area and this is my favorite.....

Much much movie history in the area.....The Movie Museum in Lone Pine is worth a visit.....

No chance of getting hit this year -- I am not going out to see the Perseids because the moon is going to mess up the viewing. But mid-August of 2015 will have a new moon, so I will be out there in the darkest middle of nowhere, wearing my Official Meteor Shower Hard Hat. ;)

As Prof says, there is plenty of dead basic boondocking north of Bishop, south of mammoth. Benton Crossing road (green church) just south of the airport has virtually unlimited room. So if you get skunked with the first-come sites you'll have a fallback option. Be sure to bring a genny that can power your a/c (which will be running constantly).

Also, there's another meteor shower coming and as usual Prof will attempt to downplay the risks of getting struck by a meteor.