High Sierra Topix

I agree! I can do without a campfire. This weekend we sat around at 11K in the dark and had a great time without a fire. It was windy, but not too cold, and the stars and Milky Way were beautiful. Until last year, I never camped with campfires. I don't think we'll find a place to have one, even if we end up in the Mazourka Cnyn area, because its just too windy to have one. I saw the Big Pine fire area damage yesterday when we drove out and it was ugly, and another reminder that we don't need a campfire. At this point, I just want to find a place where we can park/camp together. Right now we don't have much of a choice, everything is booked.

Are the campgrounds booked or past reservation season?

Like I said before, I don’t carcamp, so I don’t know much about campgrounds. I’m a sleep-in-the-truck carcamper and have my little places to pull over. I called for reservations at Onion Valley CG, Grey’s Mdw CG, Four Jeffrey and Willow and all were booked for that weekend. Since I don’t carcamp, I don’t know the names of any other CG’s, so if anyone knows, I’ll try it.

I’ve been away since Tuttle Creek was mentioned, so I didn’t call on that one. I will try later today, so if anyone has other names/suggestions, let me know.

I don't think you can reserve spots at Tuttle Creek, but there are always tons of spaces available. I've pulled in there late at night a couple of times over the summer and had no trouble finding a spot with a bit of privacy. It is a developed campground though, so not a wilderness experience. I really don't understand the campground reservation system either, but I think there is a certain time of year that they either close the campgrounds or stop taking reservations and make have them available on a first-come basis and it's often sometime in September or early October.

Lone Pine cg.

Lone Pine cg.

Lone Pine cg.

There. Should be noticeable now.

I'm going to drop off this trip. Have fun everyone and I hope you find a nice campsite.

Ok, I just reserved 2 campsites at Lone Pine Campground for Sat night only. It came out to $48, so I didn’t do any reservations for Fri night. I think there's only 2 people carcamping (Trekker and Rosie?) and wasn't sure if you wanted to pay $24 for Fri night. I was expecting $5/night (shows how much I know about this). So the Fri night campers might want to go to Tuttle Creek.

We're allowed 6 people/site, and 2 vehicles. Extra vehicles are $5 (I didn't pay for those). No campers allowed. Check-in is 2pm Sat, out by 1pm Sun. $9 non refundable reservation fee for each site.

We have sites #16 and #32.

Dude, I have a new cooler that's DYING to be broken in. Everyone like scotch, right?

I am SO in!

-L

and that's why i'm out - i don't like scotch.

Thanks for doing all the work on this, Cori! This is going to be so fun!

I think I will make that reservation for Friday. I'll be driving from the San Diego area, so this way I'll be up there for the Saturday hiking (without having to get up at 3:00AM.)

Cori, could you give me the number to call for Lone Pine Campground? Also, between those two campsites, does anyone know if one is in a better location than the other? I'm totally unfamiliar with this campground. Trekker, you're welcome to share my camp site on Friday if you'd like...I think you had said that you might come in early also. Anyone else is welcome!