Eastern Sierra and White Mountains Tour

[R2DTube]

We went on a fantastic week-long trip, camping and hiking our way thru the eastern Sierra and White Mountains. Thought I'd share some pictures. The first one is at Olmstead Lookout in Yosemite. The second is our first night at Aspen Campground, just down the road from Yosemite towards Lee Vining. Our first choice campground, Saddlebag Lake, hadn't opened yet! Late July and still not open, I think due to this year's heavy snow pack slowly melting and making everything all wet and gooey. The third picture is our campsite in Grandview Campground in the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. A hike to the peak of White Mountain is a must, if you enjoy that sort of thing, all 14246 feet of it! The fourth picture is our site at Lake Sabrina campground near Bishop. I'll post a few more pictures from our hikes. What a great trip. Coming home to LA gave me culture shock after being in all this beauty!

[R2DTube]

First one is White Mountain peak. Picture doesn't do it justice! Second is (I think) a big horn sheep on the way up White Mountain. We saw lots of these guys (and gals!) grazing and not really paying much attention to us boring humans. Sorry about the lousy iphone picture... Third is Blue Lake up behind Lake Sabrina. Fourth one is on the way down from Bishop Lake.

Thanks for allowing me to bore you all with some pictures from some of my most favorite places in the world!

[Johnco]

Thanks for sharing, it's been years since we've been up that way and you've jsut provided the motivation!

[tpi]

Hi very nice pics. Looks like you stayed in some great camping spots.

I've always been intrigued by Grandview campground-especially for stargazing. Did you find your 16 was the maximum which would fit in there? I would try my 25 but concerned about brush scratching the sides, and too small spaces.

[spenfolder]

Looks like an amazing trip!

Stan

[R2DTube]

Thanks for looking, everybody!

TPI - about Grandview... I think your 25 might be a bit too big. Our 16 fit just fine, but I did have to squeeze by some brush, which of course made a few marks on the trailer. Nothing too bad, I'm hoping I'll be able to rub them out. Made me cringe when it happened though...

And yes, the stargazing is amazing up there! We were lucky and had just a sliver of a moon, really dark skies, and stars like crazy.

However, it was impossible to stay awake much past 930-10pm due to all the hiking we did! Or maybe it was all the wine we drank...

[TBRich]

Great pics...thanks! Makes me wanna go up there. Some day. And yeah, there is that wine thing.

Stars, wine, wine, stars, wine... snore.

[tvoneicken]

Nice trip! We're heading to the area in two weeks. At what time did you manage to land a spot at the Aspen campground? Was everything else full?
I'm curious where the tight spots are for Grandview, is that getting around the campground itself? Haven't been there in a long time so I don't remember. I suppose that campground wasn't full, was it?
Any other campgrounds you liked?
"Coming home to LA gave me culture shock after being in all this beauty! " -- aaah, sounds like the trip was a success ;-)
Thanks much for posting!

[valmog]

Beautiful photos of what looks to be a wonderful place. We live in Portland and have been to just about every national park in the Western United States....except Yosemite. Have heard it's crazy busy in the summer. We'll get there someday though!

BTW love seeing photos of your little 16 ft. We got one just two weeks ago and have only had it out on one trip. Everyone thought we were crazy for getting the 16 ft, but we loved the layout! Taking it out again this weekend in eastern Oregon...can't wait!

Thanks for sharing the photos...hope you put up more!

[R2DTube]

Tvoneicken- We found a spot at Aspen at about 5pm on a Sunday. Yes, everything else was full, including Tioga Lake, Ellery Lake and Junction Campgrounds, all just outside of the eastern entrance to Yosemite. It does get very busy there in the summer time!

About Grandview, it's a fairly large campground, and some of the sites seemed big enough for larger trailers, but there are some tight turns to maneuver through. I seem to remember the tighter turns toward the end of the campground loop. We were in site #20, which was big enough for a semi truck, but getting to it required squeezing through some brush. My opinion is to leave the big rigs at home. And no, Grandview was not full when we got there at about 3pm on a Tuesday. Far from it. I think we were one of maybe 5 other campers.

There are so many great campgrounds all throughout the eastern Sierra. We like to camp near hikes. One favorite hike is Duck Pass. The trailhead is at Coldwater Campground near Lake Mary, just above the town of Mammoth. It's a big campground, lots of big rigs there, but no hookups as I recall.

Valmog- nice photos of your 16! You all must be pro photgraphers, or designers perhaps?

TB- yes, that ol' wine coma comes on easy! I can't wait for next time!