Anyone here ever driven the Silver Canyon road east of Bishop, California?
From down in the valley up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
I was in Bishop yesterday and pulled up a destination to a point of interest of "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest" on the 4Runner stock navigation system, and it gave me a route pretty much straight east out of Bishop into the mountains. I said, "yeah, no way that's right" and pulled up on my phone instead... which took me south on 395 to Big Pine, then east on 168, then up the White Mountain road... which is as it should be.
Once up at the (nice, newish) visitor center at the Schulman Grove, I talked with a ranger about alternative ways back down. The straight east out of Bishop route is the Silver Canyon road--marked at the top of the road "DIFFICULT. Experienced drivers with high clearance 4WD vehicle." The ranger said that the top three miles is very steep with single lane switchbacks, and the lower part less extreme. He was encouraging in terms of trying it.
We drove out to the top of the route, where me met a cute young thing from Tennessee with a great accent, who had done exactly what I did... pulled up "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest" on her GPS while in Bishop... and just followed the route. She was in some kind of dinky-looking Kia with four wheel drive. She was in great humor, but said that she'd been terrified and that there really wasn't anyplace to turn around once she realized that she'd made a mistake. At one point, she had one wheel off the side of the cliff. Her Kia overheated by the time she got to the top, and when we came across her somebody had just finished looking at her car, giving her some water for her radiator, and given her a thumbs up on driving out of there.
We talked with her, looked out over the valley, and decided against giving the road a try. I'm still learning where the hell the wheels on my new 4Runner are... and I had my girls with me. I'd like to get some more information, maybe hook up with someone who has done the road before, and give it a try on one of my next trips up there.
So...
(a) Damn, that girl could have ended up as a poster child for things going wrong when you follow the GPS, and
(b) Anyone know that road? Any info to share on what it's like?
From down in the valley up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
I was in Bishop yesterday and pulled up a destination to a point of interest of "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest" on the 4Runner stock navigation system, and it gave me a route pretty much straight east out of Bishop into the mountains. I said, "yeah, no way that's right" and pulled up on my phone instead... which took me south on 395 to Big Pine, then east on 168, then up the White Mountain road... which is as it should be.
Once up at the (nice, newish) visitor center at the Schulman Grove, I talked with a ranger about alternative ways back down. The straight east out of Bishop route is the Silver Canyon road--marked at the top of the road "DIFFICULT. Experienced drivers with high clearance 4WD vehicle." The ranger said that the top three miles is very steep with single lane switchbacks, and the lower part less extreme. He was encouraging in terms of trying it.
We drove out to the top of the route, where me met a cute young thing from Tennessee with a great accent, who had done exactly what I did... pulled up "Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest" on her GPS while in Bishop... and just followed the route. She was in some kind of dinky-looking Kia with four wheel drive. She was in great humor, but said that she'd been terrified and that there really wasn't anyplace to turn around once she realized that she'd made a mistake. At one point, she had one wheel off the side of the cliff. Her Kia overheated by the time she got to the top, and when we came across her somebody had just finished looking at her car, giving her some water for her radiator, and given her a thumbs up on driving out of there.
We talked with her, looked out over the valley, and decided against giving the road a try. I'm still learning where the hell the wheels on my new 4Runner are... and I had my girls with me. I'd like to get some more information, maybe hook up with someone who has done the road before, and give it a try on one of my next trips up there.
So...
(a) Damn, that girl could have ended up as a poster child for things going wrong when you follow the GPS, and
(b) Anyone know that road? Any info to share on what it's like?
