Highway 395 Two Day Road Trip with my Dad

highway 395 is one of my favorite drives in all of california and one that my dad has never really spent much time exploring we decided it'd be fun to spend three days on the route and for me to introduce him to some of my favorite outdoor related spots along 395. stay tuned for part two of this drive where we go to death valley in 110 degree weather as well here's what we did on our first few days in early july exploring highway 395. we left early on a monday morning to start the road trip with our end goal being the city of bishop [Music] the one lane drive through the desert can be slow going but after a few hours we made it to our first stop which was fossil falls this is our first hike of our highway 395 trip we're heading out to fossil falls it's about a quarter mile fossil falls is a unique geological area along highway 395 that many people skip over it's incredibly hot in the summer but it's a great quarter mile trail that takes you out past a bunch of lizards to where lava rock looks like it would have formed a waterfall when water was flowing through the area this is the fossil falls area behind me you can imagine what that would have looked like thousands of years ago with the water rushing over it but this area is still really cool even without water there's a ton of lava rock all over it's hard to really understand how unique this area is with pictures and video it really needs to be experienced yourself to truly appreciate [Music] it's crazy that it's so close to highway 395 as well which runs right there saying goodbye to fossil falls and we're on our way to big pine and to barbecue [Music] before heading on to barbecue we decided to stop in the town of olancha and see the sculpture garden you can see the sculptures from the road but they're easy to miss so be sure to note their location if you want to visit me and pops have stopped here a few times this is the statues along 3.95 they're always adding new ones so we figured we'd stop and check it out again in the give and take can you give him oh money someone's giving money can you take your jake dick nobody's word for it there's one uh one sticker that's all that's in there on to the next spot this time actually barbecue we drove past the famous beef jerky stand the yellow house and of course mount whitney in lone pine before making our way to the town of big pine big pine is home to copper top bbq which was voted the best spot in the united states on yelp in 2015. i've been coming here for years to try their barbecue and it never lets me down [Music] this is pop's first experience at copper top bbq start with a rib all right taste of brown sugar yummy after having our fill of barbecue we left big pine and set out for our main destination for the day the ancient bristlecone forest just getting to the forest is a destination in and of itself as it takes about 45 minutes to drive up into the mountains from big pine just to get to the visitor center as you get closer to the top there's a pull out for sierra view and i would definitely recommend that you stop here and take in the views you can see all the way across the eastern sierras and down into bishop but more on that later when we stop here for sunset so we made it to ancient bristol cone that way it takes us to the discovery center and the nature center and the easy trails that way it goes out to patriarch grove but it's a 13 mile tough dirt road so we're going to patriarch grove first the road to the grove takes a long time and it's not recommended without a high clearance vehicle or even four wheel drive during certain times of the year it was pretty bumpy when we went but we didn't have to turn four wheel drive on we're about a mile away from the patriarch grove and we just reached 11 000 feet you can see they're already a bunch of areas where the trees don't grow [Music] we made it to the patriarch grove it took us about an hour and 15 minutes from big pine the last mile and a half was pretty rocky definitely need a high clearance car i probably wouldn't do it in a typical sedan but it's a beautiful day clear skies little wind but we're excited to explore there's two trails in this area this is the patriarch grove trail it's about a quarter of a mile and then the other trail goes to the top of that little hill so we're doing the grove first and heading over there this is the patriarch tree which is the biggest ancient bristlecone in the world the oldest one is on the trails near the visitor center but this is the biggest one patriarch grove sits at a little over 11 000 feet and it's a half mile trail that takes you around to many of the different trees along the way there are information plaques that tell you about the trees how they survive in this location and lots of other information about the area's history i'll have a full video just about this grove in the coming weeks all right so we made it back to the parking lot and we're gonna head out on the second trail which is the cottonwood basin overlook trail the cottonwood basin overlook trail is another great half mile trail that leaves from the same parking lot it's a mild uphill hike with a great viewpoint at the end and lots of ancient bristlecone pines to see along the way made it to the top of the overlook there's the patriarch grove cottonwood basin is over there i think there were no signs that provided any information at the overlook but the views were pretty spectacular looking down into the basin and across towards the road that led to white mountain if you're interested in hiking white mountain i have another video on that that you can watch in the description finished hiking in the patriarch grove it's about a 45 minute drive back to the visitor center area we're gonna do the discovery trail there before heading down to bishop since this was my dad's first time in the area we decided to do another trail to see more ancient bristlecone pines we made it back to the visitor center where all the other trails are unfortunately the visitor center is closed because of covid but we're going to head out on the one mile discovery loop if you're short on time this trail is one of the best ways to experience the grove it's still a good drive from big pine but the one mile trail lets you see a lot of great ancient bristlecone pines me and pops have made it to the most iconic tree it's the one on the other side of that one that tree right there that's the one that all the people take pictures of what do you guys think is it the coolest tree you've seen on this trail so far or no this tree is one of the most photographed in the grove so you'll often see lots of people with tripods set up there me and my dad are just finishing up doing photography but we ran into chris and mike who are fellow youtubers what's your channel uh parade photography parade of photography i'll put it in the description got to shoot a little time lapse got to meet some other photographers and this is a really popular spot for night photography but i'm not prepared for that with my shorts so that's it for us we're gonna head back to bishop get some dinner and then explore more 395 tomorrow the sun was setting as we were coming down the hill so we pulled off at sierra view we're gonna watch the sunset i had planned to end the vlog with the previous clip but the sun was fading over the eastern sierras as we got back to sierra view so we had to stop and watch the sunset yeah this is definitely worth pulling out for there's a short tenth of a mile trail from the viewpoint that takes you over a small ridge to a place with some benches and it's a great spot to watch the sunset we just finished up sunset at some of the best benches i've ever seen anywhere it was an awesome sunset and an awesome view sierra vista point i think it's called definitely check it out if you're up here pretty good first date on highway 3 great first day great first day sunset awesome [Music] leaving bishop we stayed at the vagabond inn last night and we got coffee at loony bean and we're heading out to our first stop which is convict lake [Music] took a quick detour because i love taking pictures of this view on benton crossing road and now we're heading over to convict lake this is the area where all the hot springs are as well if you're looking for a hot spring they're on benton crossing road we're not going to any but i can tell by the amount of cars that there's a lot of people at the hot springs today after soaking in the views and taking a few photos it was only a couple miles of highway 395 to the turn off for convict lake made it to convict lake we're starting the two and a half mile trail that goes all the way around the lake the konvik lick loop trail is a two mile loop that takes you all the way around the lake and gives you amazing views of the lake and the mountains behind it there's also a half mile wheelchair accessible trail here as well i have another video just on the comic lake loop hike if you want to check it out on this side of the lake there's a couple nice beaches that you can fish or hang out at plus this site is also where you access some of the trails that go into the backcountry i've done this hike three or four times over the years and it never gets old to me as the views are just incredible and the hike itself is relatively easy be sure to stop near the boat launch when you get back as you can get some great photos of the mountains reflecting in the lake [Music] i don't know about you but i worked up an appetite mammoth brewing company here we come sounds great our next stop brought us to the town of mammoth lakes and one of my favorite food spots in the town we grabbed some health food and then headed on to our next stop at the mammoth scenic gondola [Music] i've only been on the mammoth scenic gondola once during the winter so we thought it'd be fun to take it up to the top and to see the area from above ride here we go the ride to the top is pretty incredible with changing scenery on both sides you can see towards the mountain ranges to the west and down highway 395 to the east [Music] everybody give pops a shout out because he doesn't like doing this type of thing he doesn't like heights and he is up at 11 000 feet with me couldn't get him to go in a cave on route 66 but i did get him to go in the scenic gondola there we go once you make it to the top there are many different hiking trails that you can take and there was even snow when we went in early july [Music] check it out we made it to 11 000 feet the top of mammoth mountain how do you beat these views it's a little pricey for a whole family to come up here but me and my dad both really enjoyed it and just took our time soaking it in there's also a cafe and an interpretive center that shows you the different mountains and the ranges out in front of you we grabbed a coffee and just hung out for a while before starting the trip back down [Music] that was such a cool experience right just amazing looking out over those mountains with the snow up here in the middle of dawg on june start of july just amazing it's hard to see but that is mono lake way out there [Music] finishing up our time on the gondola we're gonna head over to rock creek next because i've never seen that lake before so we're gonna check it out on the way to rock creek my dad let me know he'd never been to hot creek geological site and that's one of my favorite views on highway 395 so we had to see that first before heading on if you've never been it's only a few miles off highway 395 and it's an awesome geothermal area with great views of the mountains you said it was one of the most beautiful places you'd seen i think so i've seen a lot of places too this is this is definitely one of the most beautiful in its own unique way from there we continued the drive all the way up to rock creek lake [Music] made it to rock creek it's my first time ever being here and it is beautiful plaza's never been here before either rock creek lake looks like a place to be the place to be if you're one of those three fishermen down there since i had never been here before i decided to continue the drive all the way up to where the road ended at little lakes valley mosquito flats trailhead i can't wait to come back here and hike as it was stunning just at the trailhead if you have a favorite trail in this area let me know in the comments [Music] as we left rock creek the sun was starting to go down so we took in the viewpoints on the way down to bishop and then headed to our last stop bishop creek [Music] pops can't stop yawning i'm running him ragged on this trip i'm not as young as i look yeah bishop creek is full of places to explore and it could easily take a few days to see it all we didn't go to the south lake area on this trip we just stayed in the north section with our first stop being lake sabrina [Music] we made it up to our second to last stop of the day this is the bishop creek area win now and that's lake sabrina lake sabrina is especially popular for fishing and boating but we just took a few pictures and then headed on i was really excited about taking in sunset at north lake so we took the windy 1.5 lane road up to the lake me and pops are chasing the last light seeing if we can get a shot before the light goes behind that mountain in like five minutes check out this spot wow we got about a couple minutes left and pops is setting up a time lapse pretty freaking cool expecting big things you have to comment in the comment section about how the epic this yard is oh man look at that trying to get the youtube engagement don't leave my dad hanging comment in the comment section about whether it's epic or not i don't know if you guys noticed but this shot right here or somewhere around this area was actually a background on mac os it was a lot cooler than because it was like fall but it's still pretty beautiful me and pops are officially becoming the mosquitoes dinner i don't know if you can see them but they are all around our face right now sun's down we're gonna head out and that is the end of day two on highway 395. that's it for our two days on highway 395 i hope you enjoy going on this adventure with us if you want to see more of my dad and i's journey i have another video i'll be posting soon on our trip through death valley in 110 degree heat as always thanks for watching these videos and we'll see you on the next one

Channel: California Through My Lens

Views: 334,484

Keywords: highway 395, eastern sierra, hwy 395, road trip, highway 395 road trip, convict lake, highway 395 california, Ancient bristlecone pine forest

Id: 95CpwnpJODY

Length: 16min 48sec (1008 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 08 2020