Mammoth Lakes/Mammoth Mountain is a popular ski area for many Californians to head to, particularly due to its proximity to Los Angeles, but we were lured to this area by other things such as the hot springs and winter hikes. With us for another whirlwind weekend was our good friend and fellow PT traveler Maggie!
Mammoth Lakes!
Travertine Hot Springs
If you’re taking Highway 395 south to get to Mammoth Lakes, you will at some point drive through the very small town of Bridgeport. We stayed here on Friday night so we could check out some of the hot springs in this area early Saturday morning. We found a convenient motel, Ruby Inn. It’s an older place but was inexpensive and clean and only one hour away from Mammoth Lakes. They claim to offer free breakfast, but the food options were very minimal (maybe some muffins and fruit). The best part about the Ruby Inn is that the Travertine Hot Springs are to the east only seven minutes away and the Buckeye Hot Springs are to the west about 21 minutes away. We drove to the Travertine Hot Springs around 5:00 a.m. in order to be soaking in the hot spring during the sunrise. It was well worth it. You can type Travertine Hot Springs into a GPS to find the best spot to park, but then you will need to walk west a bit to find the hot spring pools. There are about four pools to choose from, with the furthest one to the right-hand side being the hottest. It can be tricky to find in the dark, so make sure to bring a flashlight and use steam as your clue!
Travertine Hot Spring before the sunrise!
Travertine Hot Spring near Bridgeport, CA
Travertine Hot Spring during the sunrise!
View of the town of Bridgeport from Travertine Hot Spring
Travertine Hot Spring before the sunrise!
Travertine Hot Spring near Bridgeport, CA
Travertine Hot Spring during the sunrise!
View of the town of Bridgeport from Travertine Hot Spring
Buckeye Hot Springs
After enjoying the sunrise and view of the town of Bridgeport from the warmth, we climbed out of the pools and endured the chilly air until we made it to our next stop, the Buckeye Hot Springs. These are located in a more remote area surrounded by campsites. If we had known this before, we would have camped right by the hot springs at Buckeye Campground which is first come, first serve. The Buckeye Hot Springs were our favorite hot springs we visited this weekend because they have a hot waterfall that spills into several pools naturally placed alongside a cold-water creek. It was quite refreshing to do some contrast bathing alternating between the creek lined with snow and the steaming hot spring pools. There is a place to park at the top of the hill from the hot spring, but you need to hike down a somewhat slippery slope to get down to the natural bath.
Buckeye Hot Spring with a very cold creek running next to it – perfect for contrast baths!
Beautiful morning for some hot springing!
Buckeye Hot Spring
Just hanging out in a hot spring cave!
Some local beers really top off the experience!
Hot springing life
Buckeye Hot Spring with a very cold creek running next to it – perfect for contrast baths!
Beautiful morning for some hot springing!
Buckeye Hot Spring
Just hanging out in a hot spring cave!
Some local beers really top off the experience!
Hot springing life
Inyo Crater
Having thoroughly enjoyed these two amazing hot springs in Bridgeport on Saturday morning, we then drove south on Highway 395 for about 45 minutes just before Mammoth Lakes to get some activity in. Our first stop was the Inyo Craters Trail. About 600 years ago, there was a huge explosion in this area that created three deep craters that are now partially filled with water. The Inyo Craters Trail is an easy 1-mile loop that takes you to the craters while you get a great view of Mammoth Mountain and the rest of the eastern Sierras. Once we reached the largest crater, we found a less maintained trail that encircled the entirety of the crater. We took this to check out all angles of the crater, have an early lunch, and then headed back to the parking lot.
One of the Inyo Craters formed via steam blasts about 600 years ago.
Mammoth Lakes Hikes
Another 15-20 minutes’ drive south through the Mammoth ski village, we reached the southeast side of Mammoth Mountain where hikes abound. There’s a 7-mile trail meandering around the town of Mammoth Lakes called the Town Loop. From this loop, there are several other trails you can venture off to. We chose to check out the Panoramic Dome and a portion of the Lakes Basin Path. The Panoramic Dome peak is as advertised- some spectacular views of the mountain range and the flatter landscape out to the east. The Lakes Basin offered some great lake views (shocking we know), but we didn’t wander too far as it was getting dark out. There are hundreds of miles of trails around Mammoth Lakes, including a trail to the Devil’s Postpile National Monument, so go through a little research and do some exploring!
A quick stop for a picture on one of the paved trails that runs through the town of Mammoth Lakes.
Mammoth Mountain
The views of mountains are endless near Mammoth!
A quick stop for a picture on one of the paved trails that runs through the town of Mammoth Lakes.
Mammoth Mountain
The views of mountains are endless near Mammoth!
Mammoth Brewing Company
After exploring Mammoth Lakes on foot, we were thirsty for some beer. We found the two-story Mammoth Brewing Company right in downtown Mammoth Lakes on the corner of Lake Mary Rd and Minaret Rd as we were coming back from our Lakes Basin hike. We were impressed with this location offering nice views of the surrounding area inside and out in addition to the tasty food and beer.
Black Doubt Brewing
About a mile and a half southeast from Mammoth Brewing, we found a smaller brewery with a totally different vibe, but great in its own way. Black Doubt (a play on words: “blacked out”) provides a cozy space with live reggae music. It’s located in the corner of a strip-mall area, so the place is somewhat hard to find, but don’t give up hope! They focus only on their beer, not offering food options, but they do beer well and it was fun to watch them can crowlers right in front of us. One of our favorite beers here was the Smoke Doubt Porter.
High Sierra Hotel with a great included breakfast
Successfully checking out a couple of the local breweries, we walked back to our hotel for Saturday night, the Best Western Plus High Sierra Hotel. We highly recommend this hotel for its central location and spectacular included breakfast. They have a large buffet filled with tasty food, but we especially enjoyed the made-to-order eggs and pancakes!
Shepherd Hot Spring
We attempted to watch another sunrise from a hot spring on Sunday morning, but the hot springs right around the flattened fields of Mammoth Lakes are much more difficult to find compared to Bridgeport. Many of them are unmarked which is nice for the rustic feel once you find them, but it does make them very difficult to locate in the darkness. Once the sun rose, we were able to find Whitmore, The Rock Tub, and the Crab Cooker, but all of these were full by the time we got to them at 6:30 a.m. We didn’t feel like waiting in line, so we ventured off and were lucky to find people stepping out of Shepherd Hot Springs just as we arrived. The three of us then had this hot spring to ourselves enjoying the 360-degree views of the Sierra mountains before another group showed up. We sat in this human-made cement tub constantly filling up with natural hot water for about an hour. There’s a stop on the water source in this tub, so you can adjust the water temperature if needed.
Shepherd Hot Spring near Mammoth Lakes, CA
Shepherd Hot Spring
Can’t beat beautiful 360 degree views while soaking!
Shepherd Hot Spring near Mammoth Lakes, CA
Shepherd Hot Spring
Can’t beat beautiful 360 degree views while soaking!
Convict Lake
Only about a 10-minute drive back toward the main highway from the Shepherd hot spring area, you will find Convict Lake. We hiked this easy 2.5-mile loop trail around this lake which was quite nice albeit windy, providing views of the deep blue colored lake and surrounding mountains. In the summertime this spot looks to be the place to be.
Convict Lake
Convict Lake Loop Trail: 2.5 miles 213 ft
Convict Lake
Convict Lake Loop Trail: 2.5 miles 213 ft
June Lake Brewing
On our way back to northern California Sunday afternoon we stopped in June Lake, about half an hour north of Mammoth Lakes. We checked out June Lake Brewing which had a nice outdoor patio and a Hawaiian food truck serving up mouth-watering dishes. Both the food truck and brewery are popular places, as there was a line for both before, they even opened at noon.
The most common thing to do in Mammoth Lakes during the winter is ski, but there are plenty of other activities to enjoy in this community in the Eastern Sierras as well! Just remember if you do check out the hot springs the normal thing to do is going in without a swimsuit, and if someone is waiting behind your group to get in then enjoy the pool for 10-15 more minutes and then politely move on.