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I have meetings in Orange County on Monday and Tuesday next week. This is super short notice as my flight is not even booked yet from the Twin Cities. I plan on arriving at John Wayne sometime Friday evening. I'd love to get up on 395 somewhere near Lone Pine or even a little farther north. Climbing/backpacking is out of the question but short hikes to glacial lakes would be cool. I am looking for killer photo ops of the Eastern Sierra and a place or two places to car camp with views and no people.

Thoughts? I have little experience in CA and certainly not in that area. Any beta would be really appreciated!

46and2.

Camp in the Alabama Hills for free just outside of Lone Pine for free and have beautiful views of Mt. Whitney, awesome stargazing, and no one around and then drive 20 mins north to Independence and hike out of Onion Valley to your heart's content. Eat breakfast or any meal for that matter at the Alabama Hills Cafe, that place kicks ass.

I like Palisade region for glacier lakes.

Rock creek is a short hike to Ruby wall, which has a great lake.

There is a fire going that's sending smoke in different directions each day. If i were you, i'd have at least 2 completely different plans ready, one for Lone Pine and one much further north, so you can adjust depending on where the smoke is. From Mammoth, a great short hike for views and lakes is to head up the Lake Basin, start from Lake George, and take the trail up to Mammoth Crest. Further along you can drop to Deer Lakes if you have time. The other Lake Basin trailhead, Coldwater, has more lakes but fewer views. Both make great starting points though.

Vitaliy M. wrote:I like Palisade region for glacier lakes.

+1 for North Fork of Big Pine Creek

We've been getting smoke every day for awhile now in Lone Pine. I would count on it being smoky this weekend.

. . . and when the bugs and car camping chase you out of the hills, spend a night at the Dow Villa, in Lone Pine, soaking in the hot tub and watching the big rigs roll by . . . nothin' better . . .

and 30-40% of T-storms for the weekend....

+3 for the North Fork of Big Pine Creek (out of Big Pine). Six miles to Third Lake, with both First and Second Lake to enjoy en route. Absolutely beautiful. You can car camp in the A. Hills, but I like to try to crash at the trailhead to acclimate better.

If you hike out of Little Lakes Valley, there's a walk in campground at Mosquito Flats. You can hike to Gem Lakes or Dade Lake. Awesome scenery for relatively little uphill.

Thanks everyone. All that stuff looks cool. My flight now is Saturday morning which sucks but I'll make the best of it. I'll probably not get to Lone Pine until 4:30pm, maybe 5pm.

How about hitting up White Mountain Road? I guess with all the smoke the views might suck out to the west but the sunsets could rock.

For something different, check out some of the volcanic landforms like the Mono obsidian domes and explosion pits. Ever climb a peak made out of obsidian?

Stormy weather is forecast for this weekend; so be careful if you go up high.

Thanks for your help everyone (also to the couple at the Elevation climbing store in Lone Pine). I ended up tooling around and camping out in the Alabama Hills last weekend... my schedule just really did not allow for any more. I literally rolled into Lone Pine at 4pm on Saturday and left the area by noon on Sunday. But I'll be back for sure.

Sunday morning was pretty cool - here are two images I thought that gives you a feeling what it was like: