Highway 395 Trip Along Eastern Slope of the Sierra

Sierra Nevada Mountains

In early May I went on my first RV trip of 2016. My friend Gary and his pup, Benetar, caravan-ed down 395 from Carson City to Lee Vining. We took cameras, drones, and plenty of beer and snacks. We stopped first nite at Lower Twin Lakes campground located outside of Bridgeport. A gorgeous spot. The mountain crags were amazing. And Robinson Creek ran right next to our campsites was teaming with trout. In fact, on the lake, just a week before we got there, a 10.5 lb. trout was taken. Apparently the record for this lake is 26 lbs. The next day we went to Mono Lake. We spent time at the South Tufa section and went off into the desert to fly our drones. We ended up staying at Oh-Ridge campground since we didn’t have a lot of choices, many c/g’s still being closed. The last nite we were back at Lower Twin Lakes where I took the drone video included in this post. The eastern slope is quite different from the view we normally have. Much more dramatic I think. We definitely have to take more time and explore the whole distance.

Author: Geoff

Quick rundown: Grew up in Lombard, Illinois, went to Arizona State University, worked as a CPA with Arthur Andersen & Co, then Laventhal and Horwath, then Rolling Stones, then Heron International, then Goodby Berlin and Silverstein in San Francisco. Moved to the foothills in 1990 and traded futures and designed websites. Married to Kate Stewart, now living in Colfax, CA. We have six grandchildren. I enjoy camping in our RV, hiking, kayaking, fishing, droning and cross country skiing Also conga drumming, photography and dogs.

2 thoughts on “Highway 395 Trip Along Eastern Slope of the Sierra”

  1. Hey Bro Geoff
    Thanks for another great travelogue of your 1st motorhome trip of this season to the high desert eastern slope of the Sierras.
    Your drone video cruising up the lake is very cool & appears to be taken from a boat traveling up the lake. Once you go up the lake as far as you are planning to travel, do you just use the ” return to home ” function on your drone control pad? Was the video of the 2 horses, the burro & the miniature horse (in the large metal building and outside in the fenced enclosure) all taken by the drone? Did you post the video that Gary made?

    From everything I read, apparently you didn’t fish, how come? Amazing the week before you arrived, a 10.5 lb trout was caught, what a monster! How about all of the videos posted on U Tube, are all of these drone videos taken by either you or Gary? The weather looks beautiful, was it very cold? It was very neat you brought the 2 Motorhomes for you 2 guys, plenty of space for just 2 guys. Since it was your 1st outing of the season, did both coaches run without any problems? How about all of the great pictures you included above, what kind of old fashioned, ha ha ha, camera was used for these? I bet a nice, fully automatic, DSLR Nikon?

    Geoff, thanks for all the work you do to create these trip travelogues. I appreciate them because it’s like I’m taking the trip with you guys. I’m rather jealous because I’m not able to take trips like this with the hiking, fishing & camping. I look forward to your next trip.
    Your Bro Geo
    Las Vegas

    1. Glad you liked it Geo. I often do use the return to home feature. it rises up to 100ft, then comes back and drops down to within a couple feet of its original launch spot. Regarding the horses you must be referring to other videos that came up with similar key words because I only have the one video of the lake and Gary didnt have a video, he lost it somehow. Youtube automatically puts up other videos on the right that might be somewhat related to the subject matter, but not mine.

      I should have got my fishing license and brought my gear. I usually prefer to kayak fish but they were getting so many out of the stream and that lake would have been fun to troll in. It got down to 28 the first morning when we shot the sunrise on the mountains over the lake. otherwise it was in the 70s during the days.

      we had RV issues. My refrigerator went out and gary had a leak in his water system so had to keep turning it off. I was leaking propane on the drive up and the drive home. I think they overfilled it here in town. This has happened before. It could be the fridge didnt work because of that also, the pressure might have been too high because it works fine now at home. Go figure. At least the engines ran fine. Gary has a top of the line Nikon, cost over $3k plus all the lenses. Mine is the same as before Lumix and Cannon but no DSLR for me.

      I’ll start taking more movies so you can get more of a feel like you’re there on my trips. I leave again on the 23rd for Jackson Meadows.

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