We quite reluctantly left our awesome boondocking spot overlooking Bishop, CA. We could have easily enjoyed a few more days perched there, but cooler weather was keeping us reminded that we needed to keep pace heading south.
Paul had an Instagram friend waiting to meet up with us all in Lone Pine at the Tuttle Creek Campground – so off went our little nomadic tribe.
Tuttle Creek Campground – Lone Pine, CA
We had heard so much about the awesome boondocking in the Alabama Hills, and had been looking forward to staying there. Given the iffy internet connectivity situation, our group decided to first convene at the nearby BLM campground to meet up with Terri (ASoloJourner on Instagram) and then decide from there what we all wanted to do.
Arriving to Tuttle Creek Campground however was a bit of an adventure. The road is paved leading in, and has a pretty rapid ascent up the slope to Mount Whitney. A road builder at some point thought it would be a good idea to put **six** HUGE speed humps on the road leading into the campground.
And since they were huge already, why not put them at an angle to create the most amount of chaos possible?
We took the first one at what we thought was a slow approach.. and it violently shuck the bus about as each side of the bus went over the hump independently. Things inside went flying about, things that NEVER budge even on twisty roads and quick stops.
We took the remaining five humps at an almost still pace, which is difficult when going uphill. We generally need all the oomph we can get.
Once we got parked and checked things over, we discovered the slide mechanism on our pantry took some damage. We’ll need to locate new heavy duty sliders to replace the ones used during the conversation back in the late 1980s.
But as Chris says .. ‘Things getting broken is just an opportunity for upgrades!’. We have ideas of adding lighting in the pantry which will help a bunch, as well as improving the slide itself.
Until then, all of our dry goods are sitting in a cooler in our living room… oh… fun.
But the campground is beautiful – in the shadows of Mt. Whitney with big expansive views of the area. No hook-ups at the campground, so perfect for our solar…. and plenty of internet signal on AT&T and Verizon. And only $5 a night.
The sun disappears about an hour earlier here due to the proximity to the taller mountains – and the higher elevation made for some really chilly temperatures.
The lure for being here was worth the while – Kerri is a delightful young lady solo traveling in an Aistream and working remotely as a web designer. Our time together was short, but we hope our paths cross again soon!
Our group decided to stick around a couple days. We had some calls to attend to, and some cabinetry damage to minimize. Paul, Nina and Glenn spent a day exploring the area with hilarious stories to share for happy hour in the evening. (WheelingIt’s Account, ToSimplify’s Account)
With the rapidly declining temperatures, our crew wasn’t feeling the urge to stick around much longer. So instead of relocating the rigs to the Alabama Hills, we spent an afternoon hiking and geocaching the area before moving southward.
This is definitely a place we want to return to and spend some serious time at! So gorgeous. We even scouted out an area that seems to get decent AT&T signal, but Verizon seems rather scant throughout.
Trona Pinnacles
For our next stop – Nina was giddy with the idea of visiting the Trona Pinnacles, a place she had read about. Our inboxes were inundated with information she passed along to us.
But she had me at ‘sci-fi film location.’
After heading down 395 to Ridgecrest, we took Trona Highway out 20 miles east of town, and then turned down a heavily washboarded BLM dirt road. After about a 1/2 mile in, I got a text message from Nina ‘Y’all ok back there?’.
Sure.. sure. We can do this.
Then I saw the sign… ‘Trona Pinacles – 5 miles’. What the H*$% has Nina gotten us into??
About 40 minutes later, miraculously with all our dental fillings still intact, we arrived to the burm overlooking the pinnacles. We stopped our two motorhomes there, looked at each other and quickly decided this was good enough. There was no need to descend down into the pinnacles – we’d enjoy the view from here JUST fine and enjoy the hike in.
And we did, along with rocking fast Verizon LTE.
It was an absolutely magical location – so much fun for hiking and geocaching together.
Our caravan +1 Glenn actually scouted out ahead in his little nimble van telling us the road was just fine (maybe we should let him drive the bus for a few miles to learn a thing or two about larger rigs?).
Two nights was definitely not enough for this stop, we could have easily stayed a few more.
But we were ready to get settled into our next location, and wind & rain storms were threatening us.
Our little nomadic pack parted ways as Glenn heads off to LA. But the WheelingIt and Technomadia contingent will be together for a while longer. You’ll find us as noodly blobs boiling away in hot water and warmth of friendship. We’ll be soaking in some much needed downtime, rest, a shipping address and relaxation. There may be margaritas.
And as serendipity would have it, on our way out that 5.5 mile bumpy road – we encountered a road crew. They were re-grating the road for the first time in 8 years. Making our exodus a lot more swift and painless!
WheelingIt’s Trona Pinnacles Post (Seriously, click this link… Nina has some AMAZING photos and storytelling).
Closing Thoughts on Highway 395
Our tour of Highway 395 seems over way too quick. We knew when we were planning this with Nina & Paul that our timing would have us trying to keep ahead of the winter weather.
It’s best to look at the past 3 weeks as just an introduction to the beauty of the Eastern Sierras, and color us absolutely smitten. We definitely want to return to this route and spend more time exploring. We would have loved a more leisurely pace and stops much longer in some of these amazing locations. We’re confident there has to be even more places to discover too.
So much history. So much beauty. We definitely recommend this route – it ranks up there as one of our most scenic adventures to date.
Since we arrived to Washoe Lake State Park in Carson City, we traveled 560 miles over 17 days… nearly 15 miles of that on dirt roads. All nights dry camping, with only about 1 hour of generator time needed to compensate for the short days to supplement the solar. We went through a dozen 1 lb propane bottles in our Mr. Buddy heater to keep warm.
We paid for campsites for 8 of the 17 nights, in total of $100 – the rest was all free boondocking on public lands. All nights were in amazing scenic locations with ample open private space around us. Exactly the travel life we wanted to return to by getting the solar install done.
Fabulous company to share it all with… priceless.
Other posts in this adventure:
Continuing Down Hwy 395 — Mammoth Lakes and Bishop
To the Desert — Washoe Lake State Park
What’s Next?
The four of us just took on a monthly spot in Desert Hot Springs with onsite soaking. We’ll stay here for a few weeks until we’re called to our next adventure. We really have no big plans or destinations. Exploring more of Southern California? Perhaps Quartzite in January? Roaming around Arizona?
Our next firm plan isn’t until March, when we’ll be presenting at the Escapade in Tucson.
Wishing you the Warmth of the Season
The holiday gift giving season is upon us… we’ve decided not to issue a new holiday gift giving guide for RVers this year, mainly because we can’t think of any thing else to add to last years.
If you’re looking for ideas for the RVer in your life, or ideas to pass on to your generous loved ones – here’s our guide:
Gift Giving Guide for Full Time RVers
We also encourage you to consider Shopping Mobile by supporting fellow nomadic creators and vendors:
Shop Mobile — Nomadic RVing Vendors!
Just saying hello and letting you know that I love and read all your blog posts. Thanks for sharing your adventure! Would love to join in some day soon…
Thanks so much for stopping by and sharing the love.
I love 395! I was curious as to what park you decided to monthly at in Desert Hot Springs. We are contemplating going down there in January and are looking for advice….
We’re back at Sam’s Family Spa, where we stopped in for a week last year. Park itself is nothing grand, but the hot springs are awesome.
Loved this entry….(awesome photos)…will add it to my others about traveling 395, something we are planning for the spearing only we will be going south to north then cutting over to the Palouse area of Washington and Idaho….Have a great holiday ….might see you at the escapade…
Hope to see you in the spring!
Stayed a week at Alabama Hills last spring on my way north to Washington and did several posts to my blog while there using my Verizon JetPac so there is a signal there at least in the area I stayed to the west of the access road, maybe because of the higher elevation there?
April 8th post shows shots of specific site, one I enjoyed immensely, I might add.
Good to know! We took some Verizon devices around the area and were only able to get some marginal 1XRT. But, these are the reasons we travel with AT&T and Verizon. 😉
Let me encourage you two to see the Ancient Bristlecone Pine groves in the mountains above Bishop. There are two groves of these beautiful trees, one at 14,000 ft. However, you will have to go in the summer because of the extreme weather. Some of the trees are over 4,000 yrs. old, the growth rings are extremely close together. You also might enjoy exploring the history of this Owens Valley and how L.A. stole their water supply with the aqueducts. Also, if you watch any of the old cowboy westerns we will immediately recognize your Alabama Hills. Also check out old pictures of Manzanar. This area of the West has quite a history. One more, did you check out the ghost town of Bodie?
Definitely lots of adventures and explorations left for future trips 🙂
What a beautiful adventure! Boo to your pantry damage! We use these little lights in our pantry and other dark cupboards. http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60263729/ They’re battery powered and motion sensing. We chose to leave them loose and not mount because then we can move them to the darkest hole that we’re looking for something in. 😉 Hope to see you guys along the road one day!
Thanks for the tip.. lighting up nooks and crannies in RVs is always a challenge. Sometimes, just grabbing a flashlight is the best option 🙂
See ya down the road somewhere.. !
Awesome possum! Taking the rigs out to the Pinnacles absolutely worth the bumps 🙂 And an upgraded pantry is so much easier with the stuff already handily removed! Time and space are key to enjoying that area so I know your appetite is definitely whetted for more 🙂 Soaking at Sam’s is a great place to hide out over the holiday week, enjoy!!
It’s all an adventure… we look forward to returning to 395 in the future, and now we have a great overview to explore more from. Such a lovely lovely area.
I did the Susanville to Lone Pine section of 395 in October — the only camping spot we had in common was Turtle Creek. Lots of movies were filmed in the Alhambra hills.
You might consider the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous http://www.cheaprvliving.com/gatherings/ if you do Quartzsite in January.
Cool.. we’ll keep it in mind.
So cool to see your final roundup. Love the YMCA shadow pic and the usie in Trona (all 3 rigs and all 5 nomads in the pic!). It was so much fun to travel this road with you, even though it was faster than we usually like to go. Great summary!
Nina
Such fun pics… but more importantly, such fun people to share the journey with. Thanks so much again for inviting us to tag along. See you in the hot pool tonight 🙂
You really captured me eye with the “Shadow” photo! That’s awesome. I’ve taken some interesting shadow shots myself, a few to the delight of others as well. All of the other photos you have here are impressive as well, and thanks for sharing them.
Good luck on the repairs. I’ve had to do a few of those myself, after some PNW logging road trips over the years. Lol! Have fun.
I just love shadow pics.. I should take and share more of them. So much fun!
Happy travels (and repairs.. all part of the journey.)
A couple of thoughts for you to ponder. Those probably aren’t speed bumps but are what they call water bars. They are to stop roads from eroding and washing out. That is why they are angled,….to divert the water across the road every now and then. This is to keep the ditches from building up into rivers that will take out the whole road. The next thing is keep in mind that our buses and Paul and Nina’s motorhome are not made to be taken off of the pavement……sure you can do it but you will sooner or later find that you are doing a lot of damage to it. Best to find a spot close by to camp and use your car instead. We did the off road thing with our bus a few times to get to places that we wanted to stay but i won’t do that any more, just not worth it in the long run.
We had the same thought about the speed humps… however, they were specifically marked ‘speed bumps ahead’ on the road. They may serve dual function, of course. But still, doesn’t change the fact they are pretty extreme for a road made and intended for large vehicles coming and going.
As to off roading, there may be truth to that… however in none of the places we stayed where there even options for staying close by. We love waking up to big expasive views and spending our work day with million dollar office views, that’s part of the reason that keeps us on the road. If we had to stay in campgrounds all the time, the lifestyle would lose a lot of the appeal. Not to mention, many campgrounds are down dirt roads too. We all have to pick and choose our tolerances. Besides, our girl spent much of her service life taking miners up steep mountain dirt roads. The couple miles on flat maintained dirt roads we take her now and again? A risk we’re willing to take.
Amazing views! We’ve enjoyed following your three blogs throughout your 395 journey, and look forward to traversing that area in the future, once purging, downsizing, and small-rig buying are accomplished. Enjoy your soaks after such a skin-drying adventure. 🙂
You’ll love the adventure when you guys get out there. One thing you’ll particularly enjoy about this route is that you are traveling in the valley of the mountain ranges, not over them 🙂
Love the photo of you two under the arch!
Nina is so gifted and talented!
I always love reading your blog, and many others as well. It is the first thing I do every morning when I get to work. You give us all great ideas for when we eventually are able to get out there and do it! Keep it up please!
Thank you for making our blog part of your morning.. we appreciate you stopping by. And cheers to your own future adventures!