Heading to mammoth lakes area, any recommendations or reports?

I’m heading up to mammoth this weekend and through next week, anyone have any recommendations for east / moderate trails preferably ending at lakes and vistas?

I’ll be going solo unless anyone on here wants to meet up and cruise, so looking for things that are pretty vanilla so I don’t get myself in trouble

I know there’s still a good amount of snow at altitude, and excited to check out some of the spots from the California 4x4 guidebook and OnX Offroad app

happy to have others join if anyone wants to go for a spin, I’ll be there Sunday -> Thursday afternoon and pretty flexible in that time

full disclosure is I’m leaving the Tacoma at home and taking the 3rd gen 4runner haha

 

I didn't get a chance to hit the dirt, but I saw a ton of trails off the 395 between June lake and the road to Mammoth. They looked pretty easy. There was no snow on any of the roads of dirt or paved roads up there, maybe if you go even further north than Mammoth you can find snow on the dirt. I was there over the weekend with the family. Stuck to pavement, unfortunately.

 

Stop for some Bbq in lone pine. Mono lake is pretty cool and there are dirt trails that lead to the water. The welcome center also has a ton of info on trails and paper maps

 

Awesome, thank you. I guess I know there’s still snow around, just not how much on the dirt roads and sounds like not too much

 

Will definitely check it out, copper top in bishop and a stop at schatts’ are on the agenda of course too, thank you!

 

Id check out rock creek, pine creek, lake Crowley, grant lake, silver lake, convict lake….

 

https://www.monocounty.org/places-to-go/lakes-rivers-creeks/convict-lake/

 

so much to see, so much to do, thanks for the recs - i know whatever pans out will be beautiful and a good time

 

I visited Rock Creek lake, Convict, June Lake and the June loop last weekend. Beautiful places. Crowley is ok, but if you take the dirt road on the backside you can go see the Columns. Pretty amazing @skusty

 

Grant lake you can off road to and park up on it. Gets real windy with no real wind protection though. Not hard off roading.

 

If you happen to pass tioga pass turn off on the 395, be sure to stop at the chevron station and grab some food, they are amazing! Buffalo meatloaf was my favorite. Even further by 15 min is a turnoff for Lundy lake. Go check it out.

 

Go check out the Reward Mine while you are there:

https://youtu.be/m8EGSbYrXNg

 

Check my trips there.

Laurel Lake with TW people:


The oldest tree:

 

thanks all for the recommendations, we had a great time and hit a couple of trails. mostly played around in shady rest park area and out to the mammoth lakes overlook / trail. down sherwin creek and found a beautiful meadow to hang at. a little sand fun around mono lake but got spooked cause i was solo, and mostly discovered that there is so much space and trails out there that i'll have to go back!

got some good hikes in to, some beautiful alpine lakes that were cold but the pup loved

and yes, i left the taco home and took the 4 runner, no wrong choices!
thanks all!

 

Next time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE-G8BKLzYA