After leaving Mammoth, we drove about 60 miles north on US-395 to the small town of Bridgeport nestled in a valley in the mountains. Each drive north gets more and more beautiful. We enjoyed this little town and its welcoming townspeople. The town’s description is that it’s a small town with a big backyard. The area welcomes fishermen of all ages to its lakes, creeks, and reservoirs.
This courthouse is California’s second oldest courthouse that’s been in continuous use since 1880.
Mono County Museum showcases the region’s Native Americans and the area’s mining and ranching heritage. Too bad it was still closed for the winter; if we were staying another week past Memorial Day, we could have visited it.
We spent a couple of afternoons in the deli area of the general store since they had great WiFi.
Christy was so welcoming the first time we came to the store. She moved here from Modesto because it was getting too big.
They had my most favorite ice cream treat in the deli. Gotta love an It’s-It!
This parking style was new to us; we had to back into spots on one side of main street so we could pull into traffic when we were ready to leave. Have you ever seen this way of parking?
We had a homemade treat here one morning. Bakery was only open Wednesday through Saturday; bet it’s open every day during the summer.
lovely mural of the Nugents on the wall
doing a good business that morning
As we drove back and forth from the town to our campground, we loved seeing the green valley of grass for the cattle and horses. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen grazing land like this!
beautiful valley vista
many of the fences were made out of sticks of wood held together by barbed wire
fishing camp
Doc and Al’s Campground is a old-time fishing camp that’s been around for at least 40 years.
This 3-generation family were camping next to us (2 of the young boys are out playing); they let me roast marshmallows over their fire the first night; as a family, they come every year at the same time to fish.
This group of men have been coming here for 30 years to fish; they come on the same week each year and stay in the same trailers; the group let me roast marshmallows over their fire on our last night (since the other family had already left); they were a really nice group of men.
fishing camp lodging
the campground had a couple of rows of these old trailers that people can rent
or they can stay in these 1-room cabins along the creek
that sleeps 3
with a frig, a coffee pot, and dishes
and an outside kitchen
larger cabins are available too
living room and eating area with kitchen
bedroom
nice porches overlook Robinson Creek that flows into Bridgeport Reservoir and that’s supposed to be great for trout fishing
Robinson Creek
a Foosball table and the only telephone at the camp (our cell phones did work though and we had good LTE coverage)
camp lodge
local lakes
Up the hill from us a few miles is Twin Lakes that has a great reputation for fishing. Barney had thought we might stay at a campground there, but with a couple of storms coming in during our stay, we elected to stay out of the wind and snow (for the most part). Good decision.
This is one of the Twin Lakes on a really windy day; the white caps were so big that the men camping next to us stayed home and didn’t go fishing that day; we think they were going stir crazy by the end of the day.
We did enjoy the hospitality and WiFi in the Twin Lakes General Store a couple of afternoons.
weather
As I said, storms came through the mountains while we were in Bridgeport. The last morning, which was the mid-point of this 5-month trip, this is what we woke up to:
a dusting . . .
of snow
So glad we were at the elevation we were and not further up the mountain!
As we left Bridgeport toward Topaz Lake just inside Nevada, we drove along the Walker River flowing down through the mountains to the Bridgeport Reservoir and through a beautiful snow storm as we drove over the summit.
What a change from Death Valley!
Winter wonderland in May.
So sad to say good-bye to the Eastern Sierra Scenic Byway. We so loved this drive from Lone Pine on this other side of California. We’ll still be on US-395 until we get to our son Matt’s home in Truckee outside of Reno.
