What is hwy 395 like

If you want something a bit funky, you can rent a night in a covered wagon at the Virginia Creek Settlement motel. Your first stop should be Bodie State Park. It boomed from to and is a well-preserved relic of our gold rush. Visit our Bodie Ghost town guide for all of the details and plan to spend at least 1. The guide also suggests two scenic off road detours as an alternative to the regular road. Your next stop is the scenic June Lake Loop.

Or simply stop into town for a cold one at June Lake Brewing. Mono Lake is worth visiting for its crazy limestone tufa towers, which stagger upright out of the lake like crusty white zombies. Grab dinner at the Whoa Nellie Deli , which is the best food you will ever find at a gas station. Then bunk down in Lee Vining or back in June Lake.

There are a number of servicable but not fancy motels in both Lee Vining and June Lake. Check reviews and book here. If you are keen to have a full service kitchen, then check out our curated list of Airbnbs in June Lake. Your third day starts off with a detour. This is a quiet, pretty road that winds through pine forest. This pile of basalt columns was created , years ago when a flow cooled and cracked into multi-sided columns. These same volcanic forces have also created the many hot springs in along the highway corridor.

If you want some more crazy geology, your next stop should be the Hot Creek Geologic attraction off east of the Mammoth airport. Now, on to Convict Lake. This lovely alpine lake is named after a bruhaha that ensued after a group of escaped prisoners hid out there. There is an easy 2. The southeast side has some nice beaches for fishing and swimming and you can rent kayaks and boats from the local concessionaire. In addition, the tree leaves on this lake really pop in the fall.

Get more info in our full guide to Convict lake , which include info on additional hikes, where to camp and how to rent a boat or kayak. If the lake is too crowded, then we suggest going a little further south and heading up McGee Creek. You can do as much or as little as you want of the 3. This area is particularly nice in the late spring for wildflowers or for leaf peeping in the fall.

Check for deals and book here. We have a whole guide that outlines a lot of fun things to do in Bishop — both in town and nearby.

So check that out if you are going to be hanging around in the area. We also have a detailed guide for Lone Pine , which elaborates upon some of what is listed below.

Before leaving Bishop, you may want to check out either the Laws Railroad museum if you are a train nerd or the Paiute-Shoshone Cultural Center if you are into Native American culture.

These gnarled, tortured pine trees are the oldest in the world and can live up to 4, years old. The longer version is to go 13 miles further up the dirt road to the Patriarch grove. Our xenophobic reflex to the bombing of Pearl Harbor resulted in the imprisonment of 11, Japanese Americans at Manzanar. This National Historic Park remembers that tragedy with guided tours and exhibits.

This will take you an additional 13 miles up to the Mount Whitney trailhead, which is only for experienced mountain hikers, but the drive is lovely. Mammoth Lakes is one of the largest ski resorts in California and is particularly well-known for its extensive snow season. June Lake has fewer slopes but offers a cozier atmosphere. Even if you're visiting outside of ski season, both places have great hiking trails and scenic views of the nearby mountains.

Near Mammoth Lakes, the Devil's Postpile rock formation is one of the world's finest examples of columnar basalt. In this unusual spot, hexagonal rock columns stacked closely together tower over 60 feet high.

Two miles downstream, you'll find Rainbow Falls. In autumn, the scenery ignites with gold as the local aspen trees begin to change color. Mono Lake is one of the strangest bodies of water you'll find anywhere. The lake is located near the town of Lee Vining, which is just a few miles past June Lake. It's so alkaline that the only creatures that can live it are tiny brine shrimp and the alkali flies that hang out on its shores. When the lake level began to fall in the twentieth century, some odd geological features were exposed.

The best-known feature of Mono Lake is its dramatic tufa pronounced two-fuh towers, created when mineral-laden underwater springs met the lake's water. It's about 75 miles from Lee Vining to Yosemite Valley, although the journey will take at least two hours in the summer because of the windy and mountainous roads.

The highway into Yosemite is closed all winter long due to snow. Perhaps the best-preserved of all Western ghost towns, Bodie is chockful of half tumbled-down buildings and remnants of the past. It's 13 miles east of U. Even the most casually interested visitors can end up spending a lot of time in Bodie, entranced by a bygone era of saloon fights, frontier brothels, and Wild West bandits. Over hundred of the original structures remain around Bodie, and park authorities keep the buildings from collapsing but otherwise do no work to reconstruct, modify, or tamper with the original designs.

Children and adults can live out their Old West fantasy in Bodie and it's easily one of the most unique attractions you'll come across on your trip. The scenic stretch of U. From there, you can continue along the highway toward Carson City and Reno or cut off for another detour to South Lake Tahoe , all of which are within an hour from the border.

From there, the rest of your road trip is up to you. Return to Southern California along the same route if you like, stopping at points of interest that you may have missed on the way up.

Or, drive west toward Sacramento and San Francisco to change up the drive. If you've got the time and desire to continue on, U. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. More Details. Now, I head out in a camper van to find deserted campsites, hot springs, and hikes to alpine lakes with my two kids in tow.

Every time the car is pointed south on , I know good times lie ahead. After all, this is the main access point to the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada, where the wall of high-altitude peaks looks as dramatic as the Alps from every vantage point along the way. We start our guide and mile-marked road map from the northern point. This is the best of the West, all on a single highway. For experienced backcountry skiers, the terrain in this zone is world class, with steep couloirs and low-angle trees out of the Virginia Lakes and Bridgeport areas and spicy classics like the Bloody Couloir and Dana Couloir farther south, near Mammoth.

Keep in mind that the roadway can be snowy and icy from November to April, and many of the neighboring mountain passes that access this road from points elsewhere, like Tioga Pass and Sonora Pass, are closed in the winter. Buckeye Hot Springs , alongside the scenic Buckeye Creek, is a few miles down a side road from Bridgeport. Travertine Hot Springs is just south of town.

High Sierra Snowcat and Yurt runs a guided backcountry ski operation out of the Virginia Lakes area in winter, as well as summer backpacking. This former mining boomtown had its heyday between and and was known as one of the wildest and roughest mining camps in the West, until its thousands of former residents fled in a hurry following a fire.

Though the incident damaged much of the town, plenty of structures are still intact, like the old schoolhouse, barbershop, and dozens of other buildings.

The landscape looks like it belongs on Mars. Tall calcium carbonate spires rise from the shores of an ancient, mythical-looking saline lake.

Pro tip: Bring a bucket of fresh water to rinse off with.