Mount Inyo and 10,000-foot Peaks in the White Mountains

Mount Inyo is another peak I have been eyeing for a long time. Conditions need to be right for this strenuous hike, there is no water along the way and temperatures in summer get prohibitively high.

Day 1:
As with my recent Olancha Peak trip, I added some easier hikes in the area to make the long drive worthwhile. This time John joined me and we drove up to the start of the main hike, Mount Inyo, in the afternoon. We arrived with plenty of time to set up camp. On the drive up Union Wash to the start of the hike, we had our first exciting experience of the trip: The Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake is just south of the mountains we were in. There is always fighter training going on over and around Owens Valley. So while slowly driving up the dirt road I heard an especially close jet, I looked out to my left just when a jet was going over us only a few hundred feet up. Clearly the pilot was aware of us, since he did a little “wing-wave”, dipping his wings a little right/left.

Day 2:
Early rise, quick breakfast and off we went around 6:15. Temperatures were comfortable and we stayed out of the sun for half of the climb sheltered by the steep mountain ridges we were climbing up. We followed the Union wash to it’s abrupt end at which point we found a use trail with long switchbacks going up a huge scree slope. The trail made all the difference even though it was a bit eroded in places. It took us up to about 7,600 ft, 2,900ft above our starting point. While still steep, the continuation to 9,100 ft had a better footing. Along this stretch I saw a bighorn ram, but did not have a chance to point it out to John. 15 minutes later we had our 2nd excitement of the trip: I heard a noise to my right, looked over, and there, just 50 ft from me another big ram appeared. The brush was less than knee-high and he would have been obvious if standing, so he must have been sitting and resting/sleeping. Startled, he wanted to make a run for it and took off right down behind me where John was coming up. John had his head down, focused on the trail. I called out to him to alert him to the beast running towards him. For a split second, I thought the ram was going for John, but he went past him with just some 20 ft to spare. Probably the coolest bighorn encounter, certainly the most exciting, I’ve had so far.

Eventually we reached the ridge at 10,000 ft from where we had about 1.2 miles with 950 ft elevation gain to go. Doesn’t sound like much, but there were rocks and brush to negotiate and all this after already having some 5,300 ft climbing behind us. John was really feeling the elevation and all that climbing. Views from the peak were great and it felt good to finally see all those Sierra peaks from here after seeing this peak so often from the Sierra. We also had great views of Saline Valley and lots of Death Valley peaks. Including Tin Mountain (hiked in 2017), which appeared quite distinct from this angle. After about an hour of rest we made our way back down. This 11.5-mile (18.5 km) hike had about 6,800 ft (2072 m) elevation gain. So very steep.

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Day 3:
After waking up we evaluated our status. We could feel the previous’ day’s effort, but were good to go on some short hikes. So off we went to the White Mountain road for some more peaks. We drove all the way to the northern end of the road where it’s gated a couple of miles south of the Barcroft research station. Marmots were scouting the parking area which is also the gateway for White Mountain. From here we did a short 6-mile (1,700 ft gain) hike to visit Piute Mtn. and Sheep Mtn. For good measure, we returned over Limestone Peak. Afterwards we drove to Patriarch Bristlecone grove for a lunch picnic. There we met some forest service people who were looking for and removing Geocaches. Apparently they were placed in some fragile areas off-trail. After we were done we drove to Deep Springs Cow Camp, the starting point for a short hike up Station Peak.

Day 4:
The Cow Camp served as a perfect camp spot and we had settled in after returning from the peak. There are a couple of well kept cabins at the site. Apparently this is part of Deep Springs College and the area is used for their cattle ranching. The night was cold and we woke up to 28 F ( – 2 C). After some hot coffee and oatmeal, we drove back up Crooked Creek road to the Crooked Creek research station, parked, and hiked Peaks 10,800 and 10,760. That was it for this trip except for a quick stop at Peak 10,900 along the road, that one was almost a drive-over though.

On the drive home there was an almost unbroken chain of cars/RV’s/trucks heading up 395 for the long weekend (Memorial Day). Lone Pine felt as busy as in pre-pandemic times. Sadly traffic south was also busy and crawled at almost walking speed down Cajon pass, overall the drive took an hour+ longer than necessary.

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