Camping in Yosemite’s Backyard

The two-lane highway through Lee Vining Canyon is one of the more spectacular in the state, switchbacking up 3,300 awe-inspiring feet from the Mono Basin west to the Tioga Pass and the eastern entrance of Yosemite.

The route, California 120, is wild and winding, the canyon dotted with enough streams, lakes and campgrounds to make visitors in this part of the eastern Sierra forget about the national park next door.

So forget about it I did. For four days in June, with my 13-year-old son, Dylan, and 10-year-old daughter, Courtney, I made Lee Vining Canyon more than a thoroughfare to Yosemite. We made it our destination for a long weekend of hiking, fishing and camping in the mountains of Inyo National Forest.

Campsites are first come, first served, and they get snapped up quickly. So we left Los Angeles early on a Saturday for the six-hour drive north on California 14 and U.S. 395. We turned west onto 120 and after about 10 miles arrived at the Junction Campground in time to get the last and, in our opinion, the best site: one near the convergence of three creeks, surrounded by snow-speckled peaks and the fragrance of lodgepole and white-bark pine.

I imagined the landscape hadn’t changed much since Leroy “Lee” Vining arrived in 1852 and built a sawmill on the creek that now bears his name. Lee Vining Creek is one of the main sources of water for Mono Lake.

Bob Rosenquist, a backpacking buddy from Reno, met us at the camp. Our tent went up quickly, and with sleeping bags laid out and clothing stored, Dylan and Courtney were skipping rocks across the nearest creek in minutes.

Here at the higher end of Lee Vining Canyon, about 9,000 feet, campgrounds are supervised by the U.S. Forest Service. (Mono County oversees campgrounds in the lower half of the canyon.) All have clean outhouses and are equipped with bearproof food-storage containers. Many of the campgrounds have running water on site or nearby; in our case it was at the Ellery Lake campground across the road. (We brought a filter and used mostly stream water.)

Each campground has a host who spends the summer managing the site, collecting fees and assisting visitors. Roger Doss, a retired firefighter from Hesperia, has been the Junction Campground host for the past eight years. We talked for a while about the remarkable hiking, the sparkling streams, the wildflowers that bloom into August. “How can you beat it?” he asked. As the sun edged down behind 13,053-foot Mt. Dana, I didn’t think anything could.

The kids and I set up the stove and fixed their favorite camp food: macaroni and cheese with some hot dogs thrown in. A breeze made the evening nippy but also kept mosquitoes at bay--a fair trade. Sleep came early and soundly.

The scent of hot chocolate roused the children the next morning. Once the breakfast dishes had been cleaned, we filled our day packs with light jackets, snacks and water, then hopped in the car for a short drive across the Dana Plateau to Tuolumne Meadows in the northern reaches of Yosemite.

We left the car at a turnout near Pothole Dome and strolled across a flower-filled meadow. The Tuolumne River grew louder, and within a few minutes we spotted its spray glistening in the sun. We followed the current downstream, encountering no one except for a couple of fly fishermen casting for trout.

The Tuolumne carves an ever-deepening canyon as it courses west, but we stayed near the upper reaches to avoid a long trek back. Still adjusting to the altitude, we weren’t up to more than three miles of hiking.

Later, over an evening campfire, Dylan, Courtney and I planned another hike to round out the weekend. We already had hiked partway around Saddlebag Lake, about two miles north by car, and visited lovely Ellery Lake to try our hands at trout fishing.

In the end, we decided on a trail to the abandoned town of Bennettville. Built in the 1880s to support a silver mine, the town quickly faded when the site failed to deliver. Only a couple of weathered buildings remain, but the hiking around here is wonderful.

A path to Bennettville departed from behind our campsite. It meandered along a stream and past a waterfall, skirting clusters of Indian paintbrush, purple penstemon, lupine and other wildflowers along the way.

Within 11/2 miles we reached the remains of Bennettville. The kids raced up for a closer look. After exploring the old barn and office, we strolled along Mine Creek to the first of several small, sparkling lakes framed by the glacier-encrusted summit of Mt. Conness, standing 12,590 feet tall.

We took a break for brie, crackers, dried apricots and water before heading back down the trail. The return trip went slowly, only because we were reluctant to leave such fantastic scenery.

During our four days, we found time to wander outside the wilderness areas too. For lunch one day we stopped at, of all places, the Tioga Gas Mart, a filling station with a small restaurant.

Matt Toomey, former chef at an upscale Mammoth Lakes restaurant called Whiskey Creek, runs the kitchen and chats with guests. He said this unlikely locale lets him serve good food at fair prices. I had to agree. I ordered an ahi salad, the kids split a chicken Caesar wrap and, with drinks included, the meal cost less than my tank of gas.

The station also sells souvenirs and has a gallery featuring the landscapes of California photographer George Lepp. If that isn’t enough, traveling acrobats occasionally perform on the trapeze in front of the station. (A husband-and-wife team from Siberia was booked for the Fourth of July.)

You won’t find that kind of goofiness at the Tioga Pass Resort, but it’s no less appealing. The resort, at the top of Lee Vining Canyon near our campground, is a year-round haven for people up here to enjoy the outdoors.

We stopped there twice so the kids could get a break from Dad’s camp cooking--once for a breakfast of eggs, hash browns, sourdough toast, and biscuits and gravy, the other time for a dinner of salad, garlic bread and spaghetti and meatballs. Both times Dylan and Courtney gleefully pronounced the food delicious.

On the way home, we stopped in Bishop to visit the new Mountain Light Gallery, opened by photographer Galen Rowell and his wife, Barbara. The gallery displays Rowell’s remarkable adventure photos and books on various places high and wild, and he showed us some shots taken just a few days earlier.

Rowell, who has been all over the world, called the eastern Sierra “the most beautiful place on Earth.” As we climbed back into the car, neither the kids nor I felt inclined to challenge that claim.

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Budget for Three

Campground, three nights: $21.00

Food, firewood, other supplies: 87.25

Breakfast, Tioga Pass Resort: 44.32

Dinner, Tioga Pass Resort: 49.17

Other meals out: 72.62

Gas: 109.06

FINAL TAB: $383.14

* Junction Campground, off California Highway 120 about 10 miles west of U.S. 395. Contact Inyo National Forest, P.O. Box 429, Lee Vining, CA 93541; tel. (760) 873-2408 or (760) 647-3044, Internet https://www.r5.fs.fed.us/inyo/index .htm.