Bishop California – A Small City in the Eastern Sierra Mountains

Posted 3 years ago by Mike

The drive from Carson City, Nevada to Bishop, California on Highway 395 is stunning. It is referred to as the Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway. The eastern gateway to Yosemite, Mammoth Lakes, and our destination Bishop, CA. If you like rugged, snow-capped mountains, this is the route for you. The Sierra Mountain backdrop of the little town of Bishop looks like a movie set — it almost seems fake it is so spectacular.

I was a little nervous with the big elevation gains — Conway Summit being the highest at 8100 ft. However, the little V6 4Runner did not let us down and we made it to the Keough’s Hot Springs Campground. First thing I did was jump in the pool and hot tub at the Hot Springs. The water felt great. 70 degrees and sunny — we finally made it to So Cal 🙂

We did 3 of our favorite things in Bishop
1) bakery
2) brewery
3) hike

The bakery, Erick Schat’s Bakery, was incredible. So many different types of breads, pastries. Mmmm…

Next stop, Mountain Rambler Brewery for a tasty Belgian Wheat Ale.

The next morning we hiked the Sabrina Basin Trail high in the Sierra’s — 10000 ft. A little snow on the trail but we anticipated it and brought our YakTrax. A little chilly when we started but it warmed up and turned into another nice day. The mountain views were just incredible. Loved this hike.

The first night at camp we had a group of tent campers on both sides of us. They were traveling together so not sure why we got the site in between them. They were not extraordinarily noisy, but when you are in a trailer and they are in tents, any noise seems amplified. Luckily, they went to sleep by 10:30 pm so it wasn’t terrible. I guess I just need to reach for the ear plugs quicker. One of the challenges of living in an RV, you have to give up some privacy and put up with some extra noise from other campers.

The next night we pretty much had the campground to ourselves. So nice. We did some stargazing — perfect conditions — and made some S’Mores with our fire ring. Just one of those near perfect days.

We were really impressed with Bishop and the vast amount of hiking and natural wonders in the area. If you are into the outdoors, I feel you could spend quite a bit of time here in the Spring or Fall and not get bored. Sad to leave this quaint, mountain town, but leave we must. We are almost to our home for the next month — Borrego Springs, California.