The U.S. West:
By Back or Axle
By Back or Axle
“How to post”
California’s Most Gatekept Outdoor Spots
Whether you found yourself with a case of wanderlust coming out of the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020 or you have extensive outdoor experience, camping in California has seen a dramatic increase in secrecy over the last 5 years. This can be due to the massive amounts of expansion in the outdoor industry due to those waking up and realizing they want to experience more of what the American West has to offer. Or it can be due to the lack of regulation surrounding sustainable camping. Either way, many of the well or fairly known destinations are becoming more and more difficult to access for the average traveler. I can attest personally that information and availability of the pristine destinations of the American west is becoming very tough to access. Government regulations are increasing and cracking down on these destinations due to the general public’s inability to properly maintain the sanctity of nature.
First and foremost; somebody looking to go camping should first find the necessary information to properly locate a destination of their liking. There are several proven websites and services that can aide someone in preparing for their trip. Websites like onxmaps.com and alltrails.com are the most popular places to find basic information about location, distances of hikes, and trail conditions. However, what these websites are missing is a user-friendly interface and they lack the true amount of spots that are really out there. In other words, they don’t have all the spots on their websites. And the ones they do, well, they are just not thorough enough. Hidden spots like the s208 trail of Big Bear, CA, are not listed on these sites. These trails are only available on hard copy backcountry maps that are almost always exclusively available at ranger stations at the destination. This poses a problem. Even if you find out about these spots, you can’t do the necessary research about these sites. You essentially go in blind until you can pull into the local ranger station and obtain a map while on the trip.
The lack of an “all in one place” service that will include locations, offline maps, trail tips, and photo assistance for campsites poses the main problem for those looking to get into camping or continue their travels. This is where I come in. A nonlocal local. This blog is a brief, yet thorough, report about one popular campsite, and one totally unknown campsite.
Alabama Hills:
Starting off at the northernmost spot we have Alabama Hills Located in Lone Pine, California. Alabama hills became increasingly popular at the advent of the Mercedes Sprinter-van fad of the late 2010s. Social media also popularized this destination and gave knowledge of basic access that contributed to an influx of attendance. Located just west of Lone Pine, 3.5 miles off of highway 395, Alabama hills is a beautiful place at the base of the Mount Whitney. Alabama Hills is maintained by the Bureau of Land Management. The BLM can sometimes be hard to encounter as they maintain places like the Mojave desert. Mojave is a wide stretch of land that is has virtually zero regulations. Shooting, OHVs, and fires are all things that are heavily regulated as one moves closer to metropolitan and suburban areas. But they also maintain smaller areas like Alabama Hills where they have very extensive regulations that limit the places within the park that people are able to camp overnight. There are vegetation rehabilitation sites that are off limits to all foot and vehicular traffic in efforts to replenish and preserve certain species of plants and animals. Within the last 5 years, Alabama Hills has seen a massive increase in popularity. This has caused the grounds to deteriorate and become less natural. The BLM has recently implemented restrictions that shuts off 50% of the park to the public due to trash and trampling. They have also made the previously free to stay campgrounds only accessible to overnight stay by online permit. This in the eyes of an experienced traveler, is a loss of a destination.
With all of that said, lets get into the best way to visit this place like a local. Alabama hills, being a popularized spot, is not hard to find as there is a historical landmark from popular films being filmed within the park. Getting there is not hard. Once you get off of the main road onto Movie Lane, just look around and you should be able to find a dirt road that spits out to either a wide open or secluded spot. There are many spots, you should always be able to find a spot, if not, just keep driving north to find a turnout to set up camp.
Activities:
This place is very similar to Joshua Tree National Park. There are large rock formations that can be used for a wide range of activities. Whether you are a v10 outdoor climber or a leisurely hiker, you will find a great set of trails. If you intend on rock climbing, it would be wise to break out your fall pads and leave your belay rope and harness at home as there are no drilled clips in any of the rocks due to regulation. You can set up a great game of cornhole or spikeball as the cutout campsites are level and large enough to accommodate larger lawn games. Go on, throw a ball around. Take the frisbee for a ride. Heck, even play some cards around the fire.
Stargazing is pretty spectacular here like much of the eastern sierra ridgeline. Be sure to set up a time on one of your nights here to get a good look of the milky way going by overhead. This area also gets a good amount of sunlight year-round so sunbathing is a great way to take in the widest and closest view of Mount Whitney. For those who indulge in the addicting hobby of photography, this place is a goldmine. Apart from the mind-bending rock formations, you have the whole stretch of Mount Whitney. An experienced photographer could spend weeks going through thousands of exposures a day and not even touch the bottom of what this place is capable of. Myself included, I know that if I am driving through Lone Pine, or on my way to Alabama Hills to camp, I am bringing my damn camera.
Camp tips/info:
There is not a dense forest in the park or nearby, so fires are permitted. It’s pretty chill and the fire regulations enforced by the BLM are commonly not followed in desert settings. With or without a metal container, it’s fine, just dig a hole and make sure to put the fire out completely and clean up any ashes or coals for the next traveler.
Keep track of your trash. Again, the main reason why this place is being more and more shut down is because people don’t know how to pick up after themselves. The whole idea behind the “Leave no trace” agenda is so that we can all enjoy these spots for free and to preserve natural beauty.
Some personal notes:
During winter months, nights get below 20 and winds are high in this area of the Inyo valley so plan accordingly for frigid winds. Pack more firewood than needed because at 4 pm the sun sets and temperatures drop 20 degrees in 20 minutes. Make sure everyone has a chair. Bring a stove range if possible. 5 gallons of water was all that was needed for 5 people drinking and various cooking. Bring more than one car if possible so that you have a way of getting around the area to better hikes.
North Rim, Grand Canyon, Arizona:
The next spot I recommend for the avid camper is a remote area of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. There are many facets of the Grand Canyon that are all unspoken for and also very popularized. In other words, the Grand Canyon is the most overplayed yet underrated song on the radio. This is just to say that the Grand Canyon is very widely considered to be one of the 7 wonders of the world, but there are a lot of spots and areas that are not considered in the grand scheme of the canyon. The credit for beauty is often given to the paid campsites around Horseshoe Bend or Lookout Face which are both located on the south rim. The north rim includes facets that the rest of the canyon does not; Pine trees. This may come as shock to most, as it did during my first trip, but there is a straight up forest that goes to the edge of the canyon walls. The tree line literally goes up to the edge of the rocks and meets a 2,000 foot drop or more in some places.
Getting to the specific place that I am talking about takes some savvy and some patient planning. An offline map is required. Speaking to my experience, I was chartered by the mapping company onxmaps.com to spearhead and clear an old logging road to the edge of a spot on the rim that we later were given the privilege of naming. Point Sublime is the spot I am referring to. It has everything. Drives through meadows, rock crawling, and driving through a cathedral forest that lets out to the beautiful outlook. This spot offers an incredible view that is very worth the four wheel drive attack from the mainland. I have here a firsthand recording from my travels during our expedition notes on how to get there.
Location:
From Jacob Lake, drive south on Hwy. 67 about 31 miles to the entrance to Grand Canyon National Park (fee required to enter). Continue about 10 miles to road to Widforss Hiking Trail on right. Then follow offline waypoints to campsites and lookouts. You can turn off the 67 earlier and take other roads to get there. We did a reverse loop from Point Sublime taking back roads to Rainbow Point to camp (outside the park – no permits required), catching back up with the 67 to exit.
Activities:
The activities are very similar to those listed in the Alabama Hills section, just not as much open space. But we managed to play many table games that allowed us to thoroughly enjoy ourselves. This place is more oriented around overlanding. If you are the camper that is more enthused by off-roading with a vehicle and using recovery gear and just plain driving around in the forest, then this one is for you. So, our activities mainly included photography, cards, campfire games, and wordplay games. The stargazing is also insane here, bring your camera and a layback chair. Hiking here is semi-limited other than long walks and historical landmark destinations. For example, on our last day, we made the trek to an abandoned forest fire lookout tower. We were able to climb up into the unit and look at an Osborne Fire finder.
Camp tips/info:
There aren’t many restrictions that I came to encounter during this trip. This is surprising due to the fact that this is a National Park. The trail that we blazed is not currently permit mandated if you plan on a day trip, so pack out your trash. You only need to purchase a park pass that permits you to stay overnight, super simple.
Personal notes:
This trip was a really cool first remote trip for me. This made me think further into how many other spots that are untouched. Using chainsaws and other tools to clear debris from this old logging road was a really intense way to connect with the landscape in a way that I think few campers have ever been able to encounter. If you are a camper that is looking for a bit of a further drive that will take you to a place that is rarely travelled to, then this is a great place to start. It isn’t too far away from a city or a ranger station so it makes the safety factor a bit easier to maintain. I thoroughly enjoyed this camping trip.
