Exploring Mono/Inyo May 14-20th

A group of six of us explored some of the hot springs, high valleys, ghost towns, abandoned mines, and all around amazing views in Mono and Inyo counties between May 14th and 20th. We traveled in two 80-series Land Cruisers and tent camped.

Although I am somewhat new to WTW, this trip is the third annual trip for this group. The previous two years followed a totally different route, so it was our first time in this area. Our general M.O. is to do some fun wheeling that takes us to spectacular dispersed camping spots.

I used the incomparable caltopo.com to do the route planning, and we navigated primarily using the Android app Backcountry Navigator, which I have been using with great success for a few years now. A map of our route (excluding paved sections on 395) can be found here:

http://caltopo.com/m/0AT0

As this trip report is rapidly becoming tardy, I thought I'd take it one day at a time.

This is a familiar haunt for us, and we picked it because it seemed like a good jumping off point for the rest of the trip.


We aired down when we got to the dirt. This was a first for us, as we haven't carried a compressor in the past. What an amazing difference!


Our dreams of soaking in the tub were dashed as soon as we saw the river. It was high and running extremely fast. We thought we'd at least be able to swim across, but no way - it was really moving. In hindsight, this should have been obvious! Oops. Oh well, we enjoyed the camping anyhow, as we watched the rafters soak with envy.


Our faithful steeds.


There was plenty of firewood to gather, and we had a nice time. Dinner was foil wrapped hot sandwiches in the coals.

Days 2-6 to come! By the way - is there a better way to do the pix? 500k max is going to really hurt when I actually get to the good parts! (It's all up now!)

** Updates **
Day 2: Bald Mtn Lookout
Day 3: Coyote Flat
Day 4: Back down the hill
Day 5: Benton Hot Springs
Day 6: Bodie & Masonic Ghost Towns

Thanks for the first installment, looking forward to the rest. Here's the thread I refer to for posting photos: http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/index.php?/topic/10786-Linking-to-Photos-In-Flickr-(iMac)

Sent from my LG-V500 using Wander The West mobile app

Alright, let's try this image hosting bit out. Here's a shot of the business end of the cruiser making some coffee

You nailed it

I've always wanted to try and get to Carson Hot springs, but I've heard conflicting stories of the access road being closed through the privately owned land.

Can you tell me if you took the Leviathan Mine Road to get to the springs?

Thanks for the TR.

GroovyDad said:

I've always wanted to try and get to Carson Hot springs, but I've heard conflicting stories of the access road being closed through the privately owned land.

Can you tell me if you took the Leviathan Mine Road to get to the springs?

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There are two routes that I know of. You can get there on the Barney Riley trail, and I believe this one has no access contention whatsoever, however it has an extremely high pucker factor. We did this once.

The way I normally get there, and it seems the way everyone I've met there gets there is quite a bit easier. This route does pass through some privately owned land, but access has always been open when I've been there. Someone I met at the springs told me that the owner is fine with the access. Whether this is true or simply a self-serving story...who knows. Although at this point there's probably a case to be made for an easement by prior use.

Anyhow, if it passes the sniff test for you, take the leviathan mine cutoff that goes west towards the river, and then head south on little cottonwood canyon.

*Edit: I should say, that even the "easy" route is a moderately challenging road that requires high clearance.

Day 2: Bald Mountain Lookout

We left carson river hot springs without our morning soak , and headed out back the way we came in. Only saw one vehicle coming in as we were heading out. The road out has some pretty narrow sections, luckily we were at a place with a turnout. Once back on Leviathan Mine, we aired back up and started down towards 395 south.

To try and stay off pavement as much as possible, we took Burcham Flat Rd as a bypass down 395. This was a very pleasant and easy road. I'd recommend it to anyone heading that way, as it is a negligible detour. Burcham Flat climbs up above 395 and opens up into some fantastic vistas.





Rejoining 395, we continued south, refueled and had lunch at Whoa Nellie Deli in Lee Vining. Yum.

In Lee Vining we hit dirt again as we headed down towards Mono Lake.



We then turned south and drove past the mono inyo craters. Wow those are cool looking! The driving around there was great, too. Slightly sandy and some fun rolling bumps. Made a mental note to head back and explore them some more. We also stopped and poked around an old mine entrance.



Heading further south, we eventually topped out up on Bald Mountain. Up at 9,100 ft, it was cold and windy! There is an old fire lookout, as well as a cabin, which was a welcome respite from the bitter wind that was blowing. The views were simply amazing.




The cabin made a great place to play some cards out of the wind when the sun went down.


World's most photogenic outhouse? Perhaps!


The clouds sneaking over the crest made for a dramatic sunset.

Day 3: Up into Coyote Flat

This was a big day. We got our cold butts off the top of Bald Mtn first thing in the morning, driving towards Big Spring campground, and then south-east towards Casa Diablo mine. As seems to be the norm in this area, we were afforded expansive vistas along the way.



Then we veered south towards Bishop. As we were dropping down into Bishop, we looked around the volcanic table-lands in wonder at the plethora of dispersed camping opportunities. Many a gps waypoint was dropped.



In bishop we fueled and got a few food/ice items that we needed. Then we found the start of Coyote Valley Rd just outside bishop. We startup the climb up the hill (all told: about 6000ft in ~16mi) and...



Uh oh. My vehicle was running very hot, bubbling into the coolant reservoir. We stopped and ate some lunch, and it cooled down. We figured we'd just limp up the hill and keep an eye on the temp.



Having to stop every 10 minutes or so to cool down wasn't such a bad thing! The views going up Coyote Valley Rd are simply stunning.



The photos, of course, don't do it any justice.



Coyote Valley Rd is steep! The road was in good condition. Some exposed areas but not as narrow as I was expecting. Definitely needed all the gearing we could find in our 4-low / low. Clearance issues weren't too bad, but lots of off-camber turns.



Once you pop up into the valley you feel transported to another world. A very special place.



Our goal was Funnel Lake, so about halfway up the valley we hung a right and headed west.



The road to Funnel Lake didn't look like it had many visitors. The was driving fun, but very bumpy, especially towards the end. Had to cross some snow. At the end, the "road" deteriorated pretty badly and there were no good lines through the rocks. Finally, we were blocked by a very deep snow drift. We were so close! We considered digging it out a bit, but decided to walk the remaining distance to see if the camping at Funnel Lake would be worth the effort / risk.



Funnel Lake was in a beautiful bowl, and I'm glad we went up there, but the camping was pretty exposed. It was very cold and windy, and it looked like there was weather moving in. We decided to backtrack a few hundred feet and camp at a spot we'd crossed in the woods that looked like it offered better protection.



We camped in this spot marked "Sole Meadow". It offered good wind protection, and plenty of firewood. It snowed lightly on us that night. Our original plan was to spend 2 nights up in coyote flat, but the altitude and temps had us all wanting to shed some height and get back to warmer climes.

Looks like a fun trip, CarlG, with lots of nice photos.
I remember driving my Landcrusher up the approach to ski Bloody Mtn., near Mammoth. That was before I got my popup and after I had my Westy. It was fun to drive a lightly loaded rig with good clearance & decent (mine was a six cyl.) power.

Day 4: Back down the hill

We were all feeling quite chilled in the morning, and the some of us were feeling the altitude quite a bit as well (surely nothing to do with the whiskey which had kept us warm the previous night). We decided to head back down out of Coyote Flat and check out some of the spots that looked intriguing the day before. But first, we spent an hour or so exploring Coyote Flat a bit more.




This was looking down into the Owens Valley to the south, the road seemed to be an alternate appoach into Coyote Flat.


Coyote flat continued to amaze us with its ever changing views. Also saw a fair number of mule deer up here.


Steep up means steep down! We worked our way down slowly, wishing we had a gear between 4low/low (too slow) and 4low/2nd (too fast). At least my cruiser didn't overheat going downhill!


We ended up camping right outside Bishop in the volcanic table lands. Up top we'd been wearing all our layers, down here we stripped them all off - it was shorts and flip-flops weather! The campsite here backed up against a rock shelf, and had the most stunning view.


The rocks were fun to climb around on. We saw a number of climbers camped nearby.


We enjoyed the sunset in comfort. Only about 20 miles away from the top of coyote flat, and probably 50 degrees warmer.

Lighthawk said:

I remember driving my Landcrusher up the approach to ski Bloody Mtn., near Mammoth. That was before I got my popup and after I had my Westy. It was fun to drive a lightly loaded rig with good clearance & decent (mine was a six cyl.) power.

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Ours are 80-series ('96 and '97) with the inline-6 as well. The way we have them armored up, I don't think we can say they are lightly loaded, and as a consequence, no more 'decent power' either! They get us where we want to go though, and home to boot!

What year was yours, lighthawk?

Day 5: Benton Hot Springs

We drove north through the volcanic table-lands, stopping for a detour at Casa Diablo mine. We drove a ways up, and then I threw in the towel, not wanting to push my overheating cruiser too far. The other vehicle explored up a bit higher, apparently the road gets pretty hairy up there. Sorry, no pix.

Then we followed our route towards Benton. The driving was fun, but ended up being impassable at 11S 0360112E 4166299N.
I guess my route planning had been a bit optimistic - looking back at the satellite view it's pretty clear that the road peters out right there. Sometimes you just have to get out there and see for yourself!

We arrived at benton and had a great time, although we were feasted upon by the mosquitos. I can't wait to return there!


Not a bad view from a hot tub.

Day 6: Bodie & Masonic

The next day we drove across the east side of Mono Lake on Dobie Meadows Rd. We then took a detour back down to Lee Vining for more tasty grub at Whoa Nellie before heading up into Bodie. It was most of our 1st time there, and we explored for some hours despite the biting wind.


Obligatory car shot.


Looking north-west across Bodie






As a bunch of engineers, we had a great time geeking out on all the old mechanical bits and pieces.

We took the Bodie Masonic Rd out of town. Before long we found our way blocked by snow. Conveniently there was a bypass that wasn't too tough.



We camped our final night in Masonic. As was a bit of a theme for this trip: it was cold and windy!


We kept warm with a fire and made a rock oven for some baked potatoes.



Thanks for reading! We had a great trip exploring this area.

Thanks for the report! It inspired me to take my first time trip into the Coyote Flat area. Just got back a coupla hours ago. Not my usual to travel on a holiday weekend but only saw about 20 other vehicles. Not bad for a holiday. No fish caught, but I did bag a jack rabbit...yum.

Great TR!
Thanks for posting.

The Unshaven said:

Thanks for the report! It inspired me to take my first time trip into the Coyote Flat area. Just got back a coupla hours ago. Not my usual to travel on a holiday weekend but only saw about 20 other vehicles. Not bad for a holiday. No fish caught, but I did bag a jack rabbit...yum.

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Glad you went and checked it out! How was the passing situation with so many other vehicles on the road?