Unofficial camping at Pine Creek trail head?

[scottmiller]

I'll be going west to east from Lake Edison,coming in to the Pine Creek trailhead from the west and exiting the Pine Creek trailhead from the south to Granite Park, and then looping back around to Lake Edison. The plan is to stay at Lower Morgan lake, and then have a long hike to Granite Park via the Pine Creek trailhead. We are being very flexible, so there is a chance that we could arrive at Lower Morgan lake, and be in an excellent mood to hike the remaining 7.4 miles to the Pine Creek trailhead and stay there for the night, thus shortening the hike up to Granite Park considerably.
It doesn't look like Morgan Creek would have very much in the way of campsites, and most of the trail is far from the creek.
There is a campground at the Pine Creek trailhead, which you reserve and pay for, but because we are being free spirits and all that we don't want to make a reservation that we probably won't need. So, is the Pine Creek trailhead a place where a couple of tired geezers can stay for a night, possibly somewhere outside the campground? I don't want to show up and not be able to stay there.
Thanks, - Scott M

[Gogd]

About 3-4 miles of the road leading to the trailhead head pass through national forest lands, albeit there are a couple of privately held land parcels en route. You should be able to find a flat space for dispersed camping, which is permitted on national forest lands.
Ed

[c9h13no3]

This map shows where dispersed camping is allowed. The green areas (non-wilderness national forest) and yellow (BLM lands) are what you're shooting for.

Also, if you exit the wilderness, you technically need a 2nd permit to re-enter at the Pine Creek trailhead. That is a weird route.

[wildhiker]

This map shows where dispersed camping is allowed. The green areas (non-wilderness national forest) and yellow (BLM lands) are what you're shooting for.

Also, if you exit the wilderness, you technically need a 2nd permit to re-enter at the Pine Creek trailhead. That is a weird route.

Yosemite Park explicitly states that you may cross a road and return to the wilderness without needing a second permit. My understanding is that Inyo Forest is less strict than Yosemite, for example, allowing PCT or JMT thru hikers to exit and even go into town to resupply and then return to the wilderness on the same permit. So you may technically not need that second permit, and even if you do, I doubt anyone will check you for it.

-Phil

[SSSdave]

Thanks @c9h13no3 for that new link to a very useful map. Never expected NF's given how they historically have tended to hide such information, would ever create such a dispersed camping map. Likely due to the pandemic during which significant numbers of clueless have been doing so while they stopped enforcement, decided they need to create a more open policy. They would not be able to enforce policies they hid from easy public access. If one mouse selects on various colored areas, a pop up will indicate the type of land and policy and may include links to more thorough information.

Of most interest are the darker brownish red NF lands where dispersed camping is prohibited. In such built up areas with infrastructure, camping is allowed only in public or private campgrounds. Note those areas are not just NF lands as they also include private and city lands, ie Mammoth Lakes.

To supplement that for even more clarity, I just created the below terse key.

[windknot]

This map shows where dispersed camping is allowed.

Great map, thanks for sharing the link!

[c9h13no3]

Likely due to the pandemic during which significant numbers of clueless have been doing so while they stopped enforcement, decided they need to create a more open policy.

That's precisely it. The map is part of this page, but you have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find it. The pandemic made for a lot of dispersed camping around Mammoth, most folks doing it poorly. So the town pooled some money and made that site to try and get folks on the same page. It is really a laudable effort to improve things.

[BrianF]

I have slept in my truck at the trailhead parking several times and never been bothered. Not the nicest spot but there are places to throw down a sleeping bag.
I just saw somewhere a thread that the old mining road that makes alot of the route from Morgan to pine creek is in bad shape and severely washed out in one spot making for a dicey traverse. Do some research into that

[c9h13no3]

I just saw somewhere a thread that the old mining road that makes alot of the route from Morgan to pine creek is in bad shape and severely washed out in one spot making for a dicey traverse. Do some research into that

This is a good call. I think a trip report I read said to get across the washout they had to do some "3rd class climbing on loose rock embedded in the dirt". So if you're doing this to avoid the scrambling on Gabbot pass or Cox col, it may not fit your needs.

[windknot]

I think a trip report I read said to get across the washout they had to do some "3rd class climbing on loose rock embedded in the dirt". So if you're doing this to avoid the scrambling on Gabbot pass or something, it may not fit your needs.

Yep. I went down the Morgan Pass mining road in 2018 and it was definitely some dicey scrambling to get around the washouts. I wrote about it in my report here (description of the washouts is toward the end, so skip to the bottom if you just want the beta): viewtopic.php?f=1&t=18901