Roadtripping to the Sierra Mountains

The High Sierra Mountains lie mostly in Central California and partly into Nevada. Mount Whitney is one of the largest in the region and the contiguous United States at 14,505 feet. This range runs 400 miles through Central California and is notably home to some of the finest camping areas, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Lake Tahoe and Kings Canyon.

The area is littered with giant Sequoia trees as far as the eye can see. This area is known for its amazing rock climbing, fruitful creek fishing, abundant supply of wildlife and plain out beautiful camping!

We decided to take a family camping trip up to the High Sierras a while ago and were not disappointed!

We packed up our camper full of food and drinks for the weekend, and made sure that we had all of our fishing gear and everything else that we would need in order to have a successful camping trip.

From our home just outside of San Diego, CA, it took us roughly 6 hours to get there. We left at around 7pm so that the kids would sleep on the way.

Once you get onto Highway 395, it is a straight shot to get there. After the long long drive (with 3 kids) we finally were ready to get out of the car.

We ended up stopping at an area just below the mountains called the Alabama Hills.

It is an area that looks a lot like Joshua Tree, CA, with large boulder type rocks forming mountains ready to be climbed by the outdoorsy people who littered the area.

We found our perfect spot at around 2 AM. No time to unpack, just set up our beds and tent for the night. Bedtime!

We woke up bright and early and had a quick breakfast of donuts and bananas (healthy, I know). We packed up and headed down the road to a small town called Bishop. This is a tiny little town nestled just below Mount Whitney!

We made our way up the mountain and stopped by every campground along the way to find the perfect spot. I believe there were about 5 campgrounds going up the mountain. We settled on the very last one up the hill. The Tall Trees Campground, creative name lol.

We wanted something near the water and that had space. We found a great spot walking distance to the water and right next to the bathrooms which is a plus for us having 2 little girls who seem to always have to go!

We set up our camp and got all unpacked. It was about lunch time by the time we set up. We made a couple of turkey sandwiches and grabbed some snacks and we were back on the road.

We traveled further up the mountain to a place named Ron's Fishing Hole. It was located just inside a cute little trailer park and was a man-made fishing hole where the fish were just jumping out of the water.

We let the girls get their little fishing poles and go to town! They got a few bites and then daddy started to fish and caught us 2 big trout! Guess I know what we are having for dinner. We fished a little longer and then headed back to camp.

The guys cleaned the fish up and cooked it right when we got back to camp. I am not a fan of fish, but everyone else absolutely loved it and were begging for more!

We settled in and just watched the sunset over the mountains. We relaxed and put the kids to bed for the night. The boys went and did a little more fishing with no luck that time. I enjoyed a quiet moment by the fire before we were all ready to go to sleep.

We woke up in the morning and had our hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs and pancakes! We packed up our coolers full of food and drinks and got back on the road. We made our way up the hill to catch a glimpse of a beautiful waterfall located on some private property (lucky person had an amazing property).

We jumped onto a random dirt road to try and find the perfect fishing spots. I want to say that we stopped, checked out spots and got back in the car maybe 6-7 times before we found THE spot where the guys were satisfied and ready to settle down to fish.

I would love to say that we were able to get into the water and relax BUT it was frozen ice cold and you couldn't even put your toes in without jumping out of that water with a quickness.

We caught one more fish and again ate that up. It was such a relaxing way to spend the day.

It was beyond beautiful... so picturesque. Its nice to get out of the city and up to the mountains for some fresh clean air. I would recommend this trip to anyone in the area. My kids loved every second of it, my family will definitely be coming back to this area. Maybe next time we will go when the snow has fallen and really enjoy the beauty.

Some helpful hints that I learned while there...

1. Always pack warm clothes even if the weather states it will be warm at night... We learned the hard way with that one. It dropped down so low, we were all freezing! We actually went into Bishop and found the only major retailer, a K Mart and bought some sweatpants and jackets for the kids.

2. Bring Chap-stick! The air up there dried my daughters lips out so bad that she was in tears.

3. There are bears and mountain lions! They have "bear boxes" at each campsite where you can stick all your food and cooking utensils away for the night and lock it up. This makes it less appealing for the big guys to come to your sites.  Use the bear boxes!

And something to always remember when going out into the wilderness like this:

Pack it in, Pack it out! 

If you brought it to your spot, take it home with you! Keep our forests and campgrounds clean!