Inyo Craters Mountain Bike Ride

About The Ride...

The Inyo Craters ride begins at the junction of the Scenic Loop and Inyo Craters Road. A small sign board with maps of the area is at the start. Take the gravel road north a few hundred yards along the aspen lined Dry Creek. Take a right onto single track and follow this quarter mile of pleasure across meadows and forest. This Ieads to the parking area Inyo Craters.

Riders will go to the edge of one of the Inyo Craters. A guide will talk about the geology of the Inyo Craters, the most recent volcanic event in Mono County. These gaseous explosions happened about 600 years ago. Then return to the parking area.

Next the ride exits the parking area and then takes the first road to the right. The ride from here is marred with short brown carsonite signs. At first, this is through the forest. Soon on the other side of a mild rise you enter the vast, sparse meadows of Pumice Flat. At first sight it looks like barren cinders. But it is a fragile land of grasses and flowers. A long, gradual descent brings you back to forest and down to the first creek crossing.

The jeep road leads through thc forest over a mild rise, then down to a second, wider creek crossing. A footbridge is just upstream. There is a campground on the far side. Go right and right again on good dirt roads. Follow this road parallel to Deadman Creek. You pass through a gorge with walls of black obsidian (volcanic glass). The road continues downhill. You pass a couple of campgrounds.

Turn off the wide gravel road to the right on 2S29. There is a sign at this junction. The roads cross through a vast Jeffrey pine forest generally south towards a line of hills. The road meanders past several junctions following the carsonite signs. This leads to the parking area for Inyo Craters. Return on the gravel road back to the start at the Scenic Loop.