High Sierra Topix

Not really a back packing post, but assumed some one might be interested in the area. The original plan was to do an easy trip with the wife to Cottonwood lakes and maybe hit Soldier lakes. Call me a sissy (that's rhetorical) but when Mav posted the weather advisory we decided to just do some camping in the Alabama hills and play it by ear. Even there it was windy and cold with some gnarly storm clouds showing up Friday afternoon into evening. Since I had never been, we decided to head up to the bristlecone forest and White Mountain Peak. Both places were very interesting. The drive up to the Pines was about a 1/2 hour from Big Pine, and the trail head to White Mountain Peak was about 50 min to travel 16 miles. I had no idea the white mountains were so tall or beautiful.

Only two Sierra summits are higher than White Mountain Peak: Whitney and Williamson.

Drove from Big Pine Creek at like 5 AM and hiked to the top of White Mtn. on the open gate day this year, (7/30 I think it was). It was a little under 2 hours to get to Barcroft from the campground. Went back the next day with bro and nephews and did the 4 mile loop down through the Methuselah grove starting at the visitor's center. Like you, it was my first time in the Whites. I was blown away. Just some flat out jaw-dropping views across the Owens Valley and also back the other way into NV.

We are definitely going back up there next year during our Sierra trip and will probably do some dispersed camping up there. Looks like there are all kinds of good spots.

In regards to dispersed camping in the Whites - If you have a vehicle with good clearance and 4wd, there is a spur road that heads east after the Patriarch Grove and takes you down a shelf road into the Cottonwood Creek basin. I dispersed camped down there a few years ago when a friend and I hiked White Mountain Peak on an open gate day. There are also a few two track roads that lead north off of the road that runs along Crooked Creek which get you back into a few good dispersed sites as well.

Thanks for the info, definitly headed back with the pop up cabover to do some dispersed camping and mountain biking up there next year. Maybe during sierra mosquito season.

Thanks for the heads up on the dispersed camping regs. We take an FJ up there so getting to the off-road spots should be no issue. I saw all of those little jeep roads going off of the main road and just assumed there were probably established campsites off of those. Good to know.

We went to the White Mountains this year for our typical SNAFU trip. Parked at the gate and spent a night in rain that froze when it hit the top of our Snugtop, which froze the sliding windows open. I got up early, broke the ice off of everything, made coffee with my little cat food can alcohol stove, ate an energy bar, and started out on my hike to summit with car key in my pocket, like an idiot. Dang Tacoma locks itself when key gets out of range (neither of us old-timers knew this), so husband woke up later, only to find he was locked out of front of truck. He thought I must have locked key in front of truck, so he tried everything, and then finally broke back sliding window and squeezed in to find no key. I returned after summiting on a lovely day, on which the high temperature was 36. We camped at Grandview that evening, which was deserted and beautiful, then next day hiked the Methuselah Grove. I'll go back to the White Mountains anytime, even though that dang truck window cost $1100 to fix .

Nice story! Only one key?

SSSdave wrote:Note one cannot overnight, either vehicles, tenting, or backpacking, within boundaries of the reserve. See the Inyo NF site and especially the NF map. That noted, there are bristlecone pine areas outside the reserve, beyond the Patriarch Grove and also near the radio tower.

David
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David do you have a link for those maps? I'm doing some work prepping for our trip in August and I am having a hard time determining just which areas are off limits to dispersed camping once you get on White Mountain Road. Everything I can find on the Inyo NF website says no dispersed camping in Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest but I can't find anything where those limits are delineated. Would camp at Grandview if we had to, but I was thinking more of a dispersed site off of one of those many dirt spur roads off of WMR closer back to 168 in the pinyon/juniper forest.

Thanks in advance for anything you may be able to relay.

Jeff