On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
UncleEbeneezer
One of our goals for the trip this year, was to camp in the aspens!
–Detail on planning you may want to skip—
We knew that after two nights at Convict Lake we were going to try our chances at one of the numerous campgrounds in the Eastern Sierra. So I did a bunch of research on the areas that we were considering based on when the Fall Color typically peaks, each year and then scoured the pictures at CampsitePhotos to figure out the best sites that featured aspens on/in/around the site. We decided that Bishop Creek would be the area we would likely target and narrowed it down to three campgrounds: Four Jeffrey, Intake 2 and Bishop Park. On Monday, on the drive up to Convict Lake we did a detour up into Bishop Creek and checked out all three campgrounds, in person. We decided that Bishop Park would be our first choice, then Four Jeffrey. Intake 2 has some cool spots but the a lot of the color was already on the ground due to the snow and wind a few days earlier. And, it looked like you get a lot of fishing people walking through your campsite, which would annoy us.
Many of the sites at Bishop Park are right on top of each other, but there are a couple that have decent privacy. We really scored by getting #6. It is huge and has lots of aspens and access to the creek. It is also a walk-in but it’s a very short walk. It does have a neighbor #7, nearby that you can see, but all in all we still feel like it had plenty of privacy and was, in our opinion, the best site at Bishop Park.
Even though it was only Mid-October, we were already feeling the Halloween spirit!
Goal: camp IN THE ASPENS
Mission Accomplished!!!
Not a bad place for a hammock!
Bishop Creek is positively STUNNING in the Fall.
String of ghost lights.
Our Camp (g)Host!
Here is the view of our tent/campsite from the road/parking lot.
Another shot of the creek.
Selfie by the creek!
eclare
That looks like a great, relaxing trip. It must have been so nice to camp next to a creek, nature’s soundmachine.
MagdaInBlack
I haven’t camped like that since I was a kid, and it looks glorious. I think I’m kinda envious. Thank you for the lovely pictures.
There go two miscreants
Very pretty campsite. I love the way the low Sun angles of Fall pick up the colors.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
Nice campsite, I had to look up where Bishop Park was(just before Aspendell).
Geo Wilcox
We have a creek like that at the back of our property. It has 445 million year old fossils from the slate across from our side. Every gully washer we get erodes that side more and releases new fossils. It’s pretty cool to go in once the water has receded to see something new/old.
OzarkHillbilly
That creek screams, “Fresh trout for breakfast!”
MelissaM
Even I might to camping if that were the site! Lovely!
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: No it doesn’t! It screams “I know I am making you wish that you could be here!”
UncleEbeneezer
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Part 4 will have pics of Aspendell, which is only a short walk I took from the top of the campground. BP was a really nice campground. We had considered Sabrina but wanted to stay at slightly lower elevation to stay warm at night. Even so, it still got down to 24 degrees the first night. Plus we figured Sabrina would be likely harder to snag a spot since it’s so popular.
UncleEbeneezer
@eclare: That was one of the reasons we picked that site. I love having white noise when I sleep and sometimes campsites can be disturbingly quiet at night, so we def wanted something close to the creek. Fortunately at this campground, of the 20 or so sites only a handful are not by the creek. Some of them though (8-13 iirc) are really close together with nothing separating you from your neighbor. This one, #6, had the best combination of privacy and creek access so it was a real score.
StringOnAStick
@Geo Wilcox: That sounds really cool. I have a couple of geology degrees and I loved Paleontology though I specialized in groundwater. Fossils never fail to invoke a sense of wonder!
StringOnAStick
@UncleEbeneezer: The Oregon ocean park campsites really take advantage of the white noise from the waves. Some places the campsites are very close though separated by prodigious vegetation, and the sound of the waves crashing makes each site feel quite private.
Thank you for the gorgeous fall aspens!
UncleEbeneezer
@StringOnAStick: My wife loves Geology since she took a community course years ago. One of these days we want to find someone who could give us a guided tour of someplace in the Eastern Sierra and tell us all the cool stuff. We had something like that on our Full Moon Snowshoe Tour up in Mammoth. The guide had all kinds of great Geology insights. But so far, we haven’t been able to find anyone in the Sierra who does that sort of thing all year round.
UncleEbeneezer
@StringOnAStick: Yes. There’s a YouTube channel called HowesTheHike who has done some similar areas on the coast of Brittish Columbia. We probably wouldn’t be that into beach camping, but the sound of the waves would be awesome.
kindness
When I camp up in the Sierras, I prefer going down logging roads to areas by streams. Less people. It used to be you could take some of the roads right up to the streams and then car camp from there. About 10 years ago, the Forest Service decreed a set border required between the roads and the streams. Most the places I went (Stanislaus National Forest) they ended up putting massive boulders in the road to stop people from driving right up to the river. I was pissed at first but now appreciate it. Yea I now have to carry my gear 50 yards or more, but it took a whole bunch of people who won’t do that out of the picture and so now there are even less people! I’m all over that.
JPL
Wow! What a wonderful camping site. The pictures are gorgeous and I am envious.
way2blue
Love the first photo of Bishop Creek—so much energy on top of calm. And of course, your host ghost. You all came prepared! (In my neck of northern California, the Big Leaf Maple leaves have turned yellow along Alpine Creek and the poison oak is a glorious shade of red.)
BigJimSlade
Lovely!
UncleEbeneezer
@way2blue: We were talking about Halloween decorations for home and I had the idea of: Oh, we should get some that we can use when camping. Since part of the fun is setting up camp to be not just functional but also aesthetically fun.
JustRuss
Looks like a great spot.
UncleEbeneezer
@kindness: This was our first experience doing a walk-in site and it was great. The extra 50-100 meters can make such a big difference for privacy and seclusion (not to mention, those sites are often much easier to snag since many campers don’t want to do the extra walking). And we don’t bring anything super-heavy, so I don’t mind, at all. There’s something about arriving after a long drive, cracking a beer, eating some edible and then making a bunch of back-and-forths to the car while my wife starts to set up camp, that is a pretty fun ritual. It always feels like the “okay NOW we are finally here/on vacation” moment.
Dmbeaster
@UncleEbeneezer: I can give that tour, as well as very in depth geology tours of the area!
I love the Eastern Sierra, and did a Fall color backpack last year in the drainage just south of Bishop Creek featured here (North Fork Big Pine).
This year did a bucket list trip in the Bishop Creek drainage – North Lake to South Lake via Lamarck Col, Muir Pass and Bishop Pass. I am 67 – it kicked my ass, but I took 7 1/2 days to go 38 miles, lol. Nice slow pace. Still had a lot of snow in late September on trail south from Muir Pass.
kindness
@UncleEbeneezer: Beautiful pics. We are very lucky to live here.
Aj
It must be nice to get to go see Sierras and camp out.
I hope to go to a state park in my state someday.
UncleEbeneezer
@Dmbeaster: Wow! So cool. We’d probably be looking for something more like day hikes/driving etc., than back-country/multi-day hikes. If that’s a possibility let me know and I can get your contact info from WaterGirl :)
Dmbeaster
@UncleEbeneezer: Absolutely. I enjoy day hikes just as much as my infrequent backcountry hikes. I still love them, but they are hard on me. Last year I hiked completely around the Ritter Range – mostly off trail. I enjoy car camping and dispersed camping all through the area. My first geology trip into the area was a freshman geology class in 1974 with UCLA. Have also done fossil trips into the adjacent Whites and Inyos, led by a geology grad student. Most of my knowledge is self taught, matched with countless trips into the Sierra.
Send me a private note after you get contact info.