Looking for boondocking near Bishop / Big Pine

[PUCampin]

I am thinking of a trip over the holiday weekend to the ancient bristlecone pine forest. I want to stay near by, but there are not a lot of campgrounds, and anything reservable is long gone. I am trying to get options if all the county campgrounds along 395 south of Big Pine are full. I also assume grandview will be full.

Are there any easy spots in the white mountains along 168? Google seems to think there are campgrounds in Westgard pass but I can find no other referance to them. Any other areas to look at? What about right around Bishop?

My TT is 22ft so I can get into some smaller spaces and have been in a couple tight spots but the more open the better. Thanks

Daniel

[jefe_4x4]

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

[greenrvgreen]

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!

[profdant139]

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.

[greenrvgreen]

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".

[NinerBikes]

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.

[rrwantr]

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

[Camorhino]

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.

[sd1209]

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.....

[profdant139]

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. 😉

[greenrvgreen]

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.

[PUCampin]

Yes, the upcomming holiday Aug 29- Sep 1, which is why I am a little concerned about finding something in the first come first served campgrounds, I would not be getting there till late afternoon. As you well know, here in SoCal if you do not have reservations on a holiday weekend you are out of luck or find a place to boondock. But I have only been to the Eastern Sierras onece in the last 10 years or so, and that was October so everything was pretty empty. I have no idea how they are on a holiday. I suppose I could call the NFS and see what is typical.

I definately want to do Bristlecone, it has been a very long time since I have been, and the rest of my family has never been. I would make a day trip out of it for one of my 2 days there and was hoping to stay a bit closer and wondered if anyone had boondocked in the white mountains. I guess I could drive up to grandview but it is quite a trek to have to turn around if full, though from what I remember sites are not really designated. Even though our TT is only 22ft end to end, I have become much more cautions about having reservations than when we had a pop-up, maybe overly. Maybe we should just go.

The Bishop Creek area is nice and would only add 30 miles each way to Bristlecone. Again, my concern would be arriving to find nothing open. It seems a lot harder than it used to be to just roll up to a campground and find something open.

I appreciate your suggestions, really enjoy reading about your trips and looking at your pictures (as well as everyone elses. With the craziness of my life right (DW went back to school) now I have to camp vicariously through everyones pictures!! We have only been out twice this year, June and July. Very frustrating!

[profdant139]

There is boondocking in the volcanic tablelands north of Bishop. (This area can get hot, though.) When you say "holiday," is that Labor Day?

I also like the Bristlecone area, but let me give you an alternative idea -- the Bishop Creek area. There are lots and lots of campgrounds up there -- it is almost never completely full. Plus, there is a lot of hiking up there, while Bristlecone has fewer trails. There is some boondocking not too far away in the Buttermilk Country area, but the campgrounds are at higher elevations and are cooler.

The other advantage of the Bishop Creek campgrounds is that many of them are right on the creek -- lots of things for three active kids to do!