Bishop CA Round-Up…And A Few More Thoughts On The “Dark Side”
Well hot dang, people really DO want to hear about the dark side! My quick little post yesterday has already tagged my highest all-time views and lots of interesting comments. I guess in a way it’s comforting to hear things aren’t all roses and rainbow-farting unicorns (I have to thank Technomadia for coming up with that most excellent visual). Fulltime RVing, like any endeavor in life, has regular boring old day-to-day chores, difficult challenges and transitions, positives and negatives. For those of us who do it the call is strong, like zombies to the night…and the bonus is we get it all with a backyard view of our chosing. Others prefer the comforts of home and really don’t see the point. And in the end thank goodness for that! If we all wanted the same things in life, it would be a boring world indeed.
I am particularly thankful for that as I sit today in my new, super-secret FREE site surrounded by sweeping views of the Alabama Hills and the soaring Sierra Nevada Mountains. There is no pool here, and I haven’t had a proper shower in 3 days, but the view is outstanding. I’ve actually moved a few blog posts ahead of myself (when there’s so much good stuff to write about I can’t help it, darn it), have introduced Lu & Terry to their very first honest-to-goodness right out in the boonies boondocking experience and have even met the lovely RV Sue (we stumbled onto her campsite yesterday as we were biking around the hills).
But alas I must rewind and get back on track. A quick round-up of our past week in Bishop, a campsite review of the lovely Horton Creek BLM and THEN I’ll be up to date. Honestly Bishop ended up offering far more than I expected. Donna from Travels In Therapy is practically a Bishop native and gave me a bunch of pointers for the area (sorry Donna, we didn’t manage them all).
This little town on the northern end of Owen’s Valley, enclosed on one side by the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the other by the majestic White Mountains really packs alot in. Besides the hiking, and the Ancient Bristlecone Forest there’s a fabulous petroglyph tour along Fish Slough Road (multi-hundreds are strewn across the rocks in the area), eye-dropping photography from one of my favorite nature photographers EVER, Galen Rowell at the downtown Mountain Light Gallery (I went twice) and some reaaaaly, reaaaly decent food. For gluten-eaters Schat’s Bakery gets great reviews. Not much there for us I admit, but we did find outstanding Thai food at Thai Thai out by the airport and some excellent authentic finger-likkin’ Texas-style BBQ at Holy Smoke. Yum, yum, yum…
All-in-all a great week in the area, and we’ve already decided we’ve got to come back to see the many, many things we didn’t get around to. But time to move on to our next adventure….see you in the boonies, my friends…
Oh man, discussing battery capacity out in the middle of nowhere. These are my people! Bishop is going on my list! Thanks AGAIN!!
Haha…yeah, we’ve been discussing alot of “dry-camping” stuff w/ Lu & Terry. It’s their first time doing a long stint without hookups so we’ve been having alot of fun introducing them to the boonies.
Nina
Great blog Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed Bishop. I never get tired of the Owens Valley. Hope you make it back again someday and get up to the Bishop Creek and Lake Sabrina area. So much beauty and history in this area, and some pretty good eatin’ too!!
Thanks so much for sending me all those tips Donna. There is SO MUCH we didn’t see in the area so we’ve definitely gotta come back. So happy we stopped by and explored this town.
Nina
Ya did good for the first time there! Always reasons to go back. Enjoy the Hills!!
Yup, Bishop is now officially on our 395 “must stop” list. Awesome place!
Nina
They used to have movie nights outdoors in the Alabama Hills where they showed some of the classics that were filmed there. Since I first stumbled into those hills 25 years ago I have seen them in many old and even a few newer films and almost always recognize them immediately! Hundreds of movies have been filmed there.
You might want do a climb up Whitney, it’s just a long hike and can be done in a day from the portal if it’s not snowed in yet. Well worth it, in my opinion.
Love your blog, it’s very interesting, detailed, professional and organized as well as esthetically pleasing with the wonderful photos, great job. I think I am on your wavelength and will be following along from now on,
thanks.
Wow…outdoor movies in the Alabama Hills…I would’ve loved to be there for that! We’re definitely enjoying our time here. During the day we get some traffic from movie-lovers coming out to see the old western shoot locations, but overall it’s been pretty peaceful and lovely.
Not going to manage the whole Whitney climb this time around, but DID manage to make it 2.5 miles up the trail to Lone Pine Lake today. Gorgeous! I must say I am tempted to come back and do the whole thing, although I’m worried my fear of heights will get me on the top ridge.
Thanks for the compliments and reading along!
Nina
Nina…I am SO excited to check out all of the areas you and Paul are exploring! Your posts are getting me through my horrendous fall term workload and lack of weekend escapes. Your authenticity, daring spirit,and love of new adventure is SO refreshing right now. Can’t wait to meet up with you both again when Paul, Kasha, and I are able to hit the open road at some point. PS – Had our rig serviced by your friends in Harrisburg, OR. Mark did an awesome job of sealing our rig and adjusting our slide.
Thanks guys…Glad to hear you had a good experience w/ the Elite guys and hope to see ya out in the desert sometime this winter.
Nina
Thanks for writing this. We had no idea it was so wonderful in Bishop. And…. it’s between Tucson and Bend, which is our spring migration route. We’re going to allocate time to 395 in the spring. Unfortunately, I think we have left it a little late this year. Wishing we were there, and not here.
This was our first time stopping in this area and i have to admit I was happy we did. LOTS to see and do in the area. I’d definitely recommend it.
Nina
Thank you so much for your blog today and yesterday. Finally, our time has come and yesterday I was completely overwhelmed – happy and crying. We sold the house Sept 17 but have been in a holding pattern, staying in the same city. Finally, we are heading south on Sunday! it’s funny how just when you need that little something that says you are doing the right thing – there it is. Thank you. Hope to see you in our travels. We will also be boondocking.
P.S. All your blogs are wonderful, have you on my desktop!
Well a huge congrats to you on your upcoming adventures! Wishing you all the best and hope to see ya on the road!
Nina
LOVE your Blog!!!