The White Mountains & Bristlecones
White Mountains (east of Bishop) · near Big Pine / Bishop · Eastern Sierra
Gravel & Bikepacking
At a glance
- Difficulty
- expert
- Best season
- Summer–early fall (high, snowbound otherwise)
What is here
- Terrain
- mountain
- Amenities
- World's oldest living trees · Schulman & Patriarch groves · Staggering Sierra-crest panoramas · High, remote solitude
- Best for
- A monumental, remote high-altitude adventure
- Features
- Ride to the oldest trees on Earth · Massive 6,000-ft climbs · 10,000+ ft ancient bristlecone groves · Unrivaled Sierra-crest views
Worth knowing
- Hazards
- Enormous climbing, thin air · Extremely remote, no water/services · Rough, high-altitude roads · Sudden cold, exposure, storms
- Good for a first timer
- No
Gravel & Bikepacking detail
- Ride types
- adventure · bikepacking
- Surface
- rough
- Remoteness
- 5
- Riding
- A brutal, spectacular climb into the oldest forest on Earth — thousands of feet up remote dirt to 10,000+ ft groves of ancient bristlecone pines, with the whole Sierra crest laid out across the valley
- Terrain note
- 4,000–11,000+ ft; enormous climbing; rough remote roads; thin air; no water
- Camping
- Yes
- Intl tip
- A brutal, spectacular climb east of Bishop into the White Mountains — thousands of feet up to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to the OLDEST living trees on Earth (Methuselah, nearly 4,900 years), in groves from about 9,850 to 11,000 ft. Rough dirt up high, with the entire Sierra crest across the valley. MONUMENTAL and remote: enormous climbing, thin air, NO water/services, sudden cold. Come self-sufficient and acclimatized. A genuine high-altitude epic — awe-inspiring.
- Trip lengths
- day · overnight · multi-day
The guide
The White Mountains, rising east of Bishop across the Owens Valley from the Sierra, hold one of the most extraordinary rides in…
In the Guidebook
Everything above is yours for free. The written guide to The White Mountains & Bristlecones — what it is actually like, and what we would tell a friend before they went — comes with the Guidebook.
Getting there
- Coordinates
- 37.45, -118.18