ANDYROO
Adventurer
This 4th we decided to celebrate this amazing country by going into the Sierra Mountains. We'd just spent 2 days primitive camping and exploring east of Independence, at hot and dusty high plains Badger and Papoose Flats and needed some different terrain and water. Breaking camp and driving the windy way back to the I-395 took a long 2 hrs and we were happy to eventually be on the freeway and heading north. The journey up from Independence was certainly more scenic than the previous trip up from Ridgecrest and we were looking forward to some high altitude exploration. When we arrived in Mammoth the town was preparing for their parade and the roads would soon be closed down. We lucked out and managed to easily find Old Mammoth road (0.8 miles south of town) and head out before we'd be locked down for a few hours. As much as it would have been fun to see the parade, we also knew that the trials would be somewhat empty. Taking Sherwin Creek Road we headed to the trail head at the intersection of 4S08 and 4S86 a few miles up the road.
The trail itself is only 4.5 miles in length and has an elevation range of 7,300-10,000ft. It is an incredibly scenic trail with long sections of loose shelf road, ending at stunning Laurel Lakes. It is rated as a difficulty rating 4 and as you can see the sign says High Clearance Vehicles Only. However we were in 4 high the whole way and in our experience the trail is rough, loose and rocky and slow going and took us 1.5 hrs to drive the short distance. We did not air down (but it would have been less bumpy if we had) and certainly we never felt we needed 4 low. The trail is certainly within the capability of stock SUV's, but inexperienced drivers may be intimidated by the rough and loose terrain.
To read more go to http://www.theadventureportal.com/blog/4th-july-celebration-at-laurel-lakes-mammoth-ca
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