Yesterday we drove a round-about way through Nevada to travel from Bishop to Lake Tahoe. I imagine there is much to explore off the beaten path, but there wasn’t much to see from the highway except at Walker Lake and the Hawthorne Army Ammunition Depot.

Early this morning the low temperature in South Shore was 14° F. Luckily, it didn’t stay that low after sunrise. Looking for an easy place to snowshoe on the way home, we headed up Luther Pass (highway 89) thinking we’d try hiking into Big Meadow, an easy summer hike we’ve done in the past. I missed the trailhead (no cars were parked there) and drove on a bit farther to where a bunch of cars were parked. Luckily, we were able to talk with a couple of cross-country skiers and determined that the trail heading out from there was not one we wanted to try as beginners.

They suggested we continue on to Hope Valley at the junction of highway 89 with highway 88. This turned out to be an excellent suggestion.

We had beautiful weather and blue skies and wonderful views from the valley to the surrounding peaks. We hiked until we began to feel tired and then looped back to our car. We only did about 2.5 miles, but it was enjoyable. I’d like to go back and try some other trails in the immediate area.

Before heading for home, we stopped at Sorensen’s Resort for coffee and chocolate cake. I think this would be very nice lodging for an overnight trip to the area.

Hope Valley snowshoe | 2.5 miles
Mapped with EveryTrail

After breakfast and grabbing a coffee at the Alabama Hills café, we stopped by the White Mountain Ranger Station in Bishop to get an idea of the road condition up towards the Bristlecone Pines where we wanted to do some snowshoeing. It’s a good thing we did. While there is a gate that closes the road for the winter, the road is effectively closed by snow a few miles before the gate and getting to the Bristlecone Pines was impossible, at least for us. So Rock Creek became our objective.

Clouds were building over the Sierras, and by the time we got to the snow park on Rock Creek it was windy and snowing. Never having snowshoed before we were a little clumsy getting our gear on, and the snow and cold wind just made it worse. Fortunately, once we got going we were dressed warm enough.

We chose a blue diamond (intermediate) trail on the east side of the creek that I think was the prettiest. The other choice was to follow the road on the west side of the creek. The trail hadn’t seen much use since the most recent snow, so I was often blazing our own track. I found it tough going in the areas where the snow was powdery. We made it almost 2 miles up the trail before we decided to turn around, although going back downhill and stepping in the tracks we had made was definitely easier. We met a cross-country skier who asked if we had made it to the lodge. I didn’t realize there was a lodge, and when we told him our mileage, he said we must have been within a couple of hundred yards of it. On the way back it stopped snowing and we had some sunshine and blue sky.

Rock Creek Snowshoeing | 3.9 miles
Mapped with EveryTrail

Returning to Bishop, we again stopped at the Ranger Station and asked about petroglyphs. With a map in hand, we headed north on Fish Slough Road to the first of three petroglyph areas. Sundown was approaching, so after checking out the petroglyphs, I hauled the tripod up on top of a slight rise and tried to get some sunset photos. The clouds really didn’t cooperate.

Just before dawn I walked across the highway from our motel, rested my camera on a fencepost, and began taking photos as the sunlight hit the peaks of Mt. Whitney. It’s been a few years since I’ve visited Lone Pine and I had forgotten how breathtaking the view of the Sierra peaks is.

After breakfast we stopped at the Alabama Hills Café for coffee and a roll, then headed to the Interagency Visitor Center for some ideas on snowshoeing. We got a recommendation for heading up White Mountain Road to the snow gate and then snowshoeing a couple of miles along the road to the Bristlecone Pines at the Schulman Grove. Since I have always wanted to visit the Bristlecone area, this became our tentative plan for tomorrow morning.

For the rest of the morning we toured through the Alabama Hills, checking out the old western movie locations and hiking to a couple of arches (Mobius Arch and Lathe Arch) that beautifully frame Mt. Whitney. We unsuccessfully searched for the Eye of Alabama Arch. I stupidly forgot to download the GPS coordinates for it. As a result of doing the Movie Road tour, Karen decided there were a few old movies to put into our Netflix queue.

After lunch we headed up to BIshop, but stopped at Manzanar, one of the WWII Japanese interment centers. The museum is very interesting—the driving tour less so because not much is left. I left feeling sad that our country treated citizens so poorly.

We had a great dinner at Amigos. Some of the internet reviews claim it is the best Mexican restaurant ever. We really like what we had.

Ridgecrest, a town we’ve never visited before, seemed very quiet on a Sunday morning. I suppose the town’s main reason for existence is the China Lake Naval Base that immediately borders the town. In fact, the main roads terminate at the base gates.

We grabbed coffee early and then headed south to Randsburg, a gold-mining almost-ghost-town. Today, a few folks still live in Randsburg, and businesses cater to the tourists and OHV riders. Gold was discovered in 1897 and for a few years Randsburg boomed with two to three thousand people. We wandered up and down the main street, taking a few photos of some of the interesting buildings and artifacts on display.

From Randsburg, we drove west to Red Rock Canyon State Park. I remember coming here as a boy (before it was a state park) and playing around on the rocks. We wanted to hike for a little bit, but without any trail maps we just hiked up a wash alongside some the colorful cliffs for a mile or so.

After our little hike we drove up Last Chance Canyon, stopping first at Bickel Camp. Walt Bickel started gold mining here in the 1930’s and continued into the 1980’s. This is placer gold (dust flakes), so Bickel used a dry washer to separate out the gold. Most old mining claim cabins have been vandalized and/or removed by the BLM, but Bickel Camp has been protected by Bickel’s son-in-law and the non-profit group Friends of Last Chance Canyon. A full-time caretaker (currently Mark Aslin) lives on-site and gives visitors a remarkably good tour and description of the camp’s operation and artifacts.

After Bickel Camp we drove on farther on the dirt roads (well-marked, but not by the BLM) to the Burro Schmidt tunnel. Schmidt had a mining claim in Last Chance Canyon, but no easy way to transport ore away from the mine. He decided to tunnel through Copper Mountain to the south side where he figured he would have easier access to mills in Garlock and Randsburg. Starting in 1906, Schmidt worked seasonally to drill and blast a tunnel through solid granite single-handedly. He finished the 2000 foot tunnel in 1938 but never used it.

We broke out our flashlights and walked the length of the tunnel and back contemplating the obsessiveness that can accomplish such a huge, but useless, project. I’m sure there’s a lesson in there somewhere.

On our way up highway 395 to Lone Pine we made one last stop just after sundown at Fossil Falls. In a much wetter era, the Owens River flowed through here, carving a sculpted channel through a lava flow that blocked the river.

It was after dark when we checked into our motel in Lone Pine, so we couldn’t see the Sierra crest, but I was looking forward to the morning light on Mount Whitney.

We ate dinner at the Mt. Whitney restaurant.

Today we began a few days of vacation to the east side of the Sierras. We traveled south down Highway 99 to Delano, then east on 155 to Kernville. Along the way we stopped in Glennville to see one of my nieces, but unfortunately missed her being available.

We wandered around Kernville a bit, checking out Antique stores, and then drove up river a couple of miles to view a river access beach. I imagine it’s quite crowded in the summertime, but nobody else was interested at this time of year. We had originally planned to stay at one of the motels in Kernville, and then sight-see the area in the morning, but since we didn’t think there was anything else we wanted to do there, we decided to go on to a motel in Ridgecrest.

Before doing that we stopped at the Kern River Brewing Company for dinner. Our Pita Sandwich and Fish Tacos were very good.