Bishop & Buttermilk Country
Owens Valley · near Bishop · Eastern Sierra
Gravel & Bikepacking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- advanced
- Best season
- Spring & fall (hot valley summers, cold winters)
What is here
- Terrain
- mountain
- Amenities
- Beneath the Sierra escarpment · Boulder-strewn Buttermilk Country · Bishop base (shops, food, bakery) · Abundant BLM camping
- Best for
- Dramatic escarpment gravel from a great base
- Features
- Ride beneath 14,000-ft peaks · Iconic Buttermilk boulder country · Bishop hub (Schat's Bakery!) · Endless BLM camping
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Big exposure (sun, wind, heat) · Rough, rocky roads · Fast elevation gain, thin air · Scarce water
- Good for a first timer
- No
Gravel & Bikepacking detail
- Ride types
- day-gravel · adventure
- Surface
- rough
- Remoteness
- 3
- Riding
- Rugged high-desert riding beneath the towering Sierra escarpment — rough roads through the boulder-strewn Buttermilks and up creek canyons, with 14,000-ft peaks overhead
- Terrain note
- 4,000–8,000+ ft; rough desert-to-alpine roads; dramatic escarpment; dry, exposed
- Camping
- Yes
- Intl tip
- Bishop (the Eastern Sierra's main town) sits beneath a staggering 10,000-ft mountain wall in the Owens Valley — rugged high-desert gravel fans out into the boulder-strewn Buttermilk Country and up creek canyons toward 14,000-ft peaks. Demanding: big exposure (sun/wind/heat), rough roads, fast elevation gain, scarce water. Endless BLM camping; great town base (bike shops, Schat's Bakery). Best spring/fall. Spectacular escarpment drama.
- Trip lengths
- day
The guide
Bishop, the largest town in the Eastern Sierra, sits in the Owens Valley beneath one of the most dramatic mountain walls on Ear…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to Bishop & Buttermilk Country — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.36, -118.45