BLM - Bishop Area

Camp Review

• Cassie and I found Alabama Hills to be completely full, so we drove south and entered land outside of Alabama Hills National Scenic Area and set up camp on a BLM dirt road.

• The spot we found was decently level and was next to a watering trough. We neither saw nor heard any large animals throughout the night, though. It was far enough away from the road where road noise was minimal (I only heard one car driving by the whole night).

• The spot was exposed with no trees, but there wasn’t much wind to be protected from.

What Happened?

 

We arrived tired after searching for a spot at Alabama Hills with no luck. I think we searched for 40+ minutes and eventually gave up as all the spots we found were full. We drove south to the closest BLM spot and found a small spot, which was just perfect for us.

As we had not had dinner yet, we set up camp, then cooked ourselves instant ramen (Shin ramen is the GOAT). After enjoying that, we prepped for the extra cold weather (it would drop below 40 degrees at night) by unfurling the down sleeping bag for Cassie and stacking an extra blanket on top of the comforter for me.

We got into bed and I had another great night of sleep. Unfortunately, the confinement of the sleeping bag led to Cassie waking up a few times in the night. She did go back to sleep quickly enough, though.

In the morning, we woke up in good time and headed into town to enjoy breakfast at Alabama Hills Cafe & Bakery, a spot I had learned about from my heroes, MAK and Owen of Bound for Nowhere fame. Cassie got the Iron Man Scramble, while I got the Sierra Scramble. They were both oh-so-good and warmed us up for another day of adventuring.