Campground is less than a mile off 395 on a good gravel road. It's free and the campsites are quite spacious.
At 9,300', so a short season. A dusty, cramped, low-amenity national park campground that's in a REALLY cool place.
just a parking lot, but they left me alone. Turns out where I parked was the employee parking area, so about 7AM I was surrounded by groggy 20-somethings on all three sides, going to work at the lodge.
There is an actual Forest Service campground right down the road, but it's closed half the year, and these dispersed spots are so nice I usually stay here anyway. Coming from 395 on Buckeye Road, you first encounter the pull-off for the hot springs. 300 yards later at the bend in the road is the real campground, then another 300 yards up the hill on the left is the dispersed area. It's really nice. you can see out over the wide valley through the pine trees. It is sometimes crowded.
A nice free campground on the side of the glacial slope about ten miles north of Bishop. Pretty rough gravel spots running for some distance along lovely Horton Creek
Real good find! I thought these county parks were spendy, but $10 seems like a pretty good deal to me right now! On one of those little "creeks" LADWP sculpted out to constrain "their" water. Wide open sagebrush on one side, a column of willows and cottonwoods following the creek on the other. Very quiet and pretty today.
Right next to the movie museum at the south end of Lone Pine. Can walk to the pizza place.
A very nice price point for staying in Mammoth. Interior is very stylish and well laid out - plenty of electrical outlets in convenient places, nice table and shelves. On the negative side, no refrigerator and microwave, as I have come to expect in my cheap motels.
Another Inyo County campground along one of those "Creeks" controlled by LA Water Authority. Dusty and low tech, but very pretty. If you come on a summer weekend you run the risk of real asshole neighbors.
The second campground after leaving Yosemite at Tioga Pass, a little bit down from the Tioga Lodge. Unlike the first campground, there is no spectacular view. You're tucked in a little alcove created by a huge rock. There is a lovely stream however.
at the end of beautiful Silver Lake. Probably has great lake swimming/kayaking in the summer. Sites 16-27-ish have best lake access. Spectacular fall color spot. All the June Loop campgrounds no longer allow checking yourself in at the kiosk. A stressed-out concession employee must come and personally check you in. A step backwards, IMO.
The third campground after leaving Tioga Pass. It is a few miles and a few thousand feet elevation down, more properly thought of as up from Mono Lake than down from Yosemite. As you're angling down the canyon wall you see a road hundreds of feet down in the valley below. This campground and Big Bend Campground are here. Eventually you get to the turnoff and drive up the road almost two miles and there you are. For some reason the signage is for Bid Bend, but Aspen is the first option you get to. Shady, near the same stream as Ellery Lake, lots of happy trout fishermen, a lovely meadow at the east edge of the campground. Nice enough place, but it ain't no Tioga Lake.
In the style of Inyo Forest campgrounds(*), this one is hard to find(**) and kind of shabby and rough, but it's in a really beautiful location. This one is on Lee Vining Creek, in the aspen/pine forest on top of the glacial till. It's the first campground on CA 120 west of Mono Lake heading up to spectacular Tioga Pass. It's pretty cool. It's very popular with fishermen. (*) Except the Inyo campgrounds around June Lake/Mammoth. They are run by a concessionare. They are a little nicer, cost twice as much, and have three times as many rules. (**) There is an arrow for "camping", but you must turn off the road to see the "Lower Lee Vining" sign.
It's actually free, but there's a suggested donation of $5. Climb >4,000' of narrow curvy road out of Bishop to get to the Bristlecone Pine Forest, and your bonus is this sweet little campground. There are no numbered sites, it's all kind of freeform in a nice way. Short walks get you spectacular views west to the Sierras across the Owens valley, and east into the interior of Nevada.
Large campground at the foot of Convict Lake. Really cool place, mountains on three sides, nice little bite-sized hike around the perimeter of the lake (2.6 miles). Quite popular, but it's a big campground so there are usually open sites. Downtown Mammoth is fifteen minutes away.
The campground itself is pretty shabby, but the location right on the lake right at the edge of town is quite nice.
In the good part of downtown Bishop. The funky little Bishop AAA office is right across the street, restaurants and coffee shops a block away.
Hot water pops out of the ground at numerous places around here. Get the Cal/Nev Hot Springs book for details. Today I went to the first one off Whitmore Tubs Road, called "Hot Tub" in the book, "Rock Tub" on the PDF. It was just excellent for one or two people. This is BLM land so I think you can camp. I did not this time.
When Silver Lake Campground is full, this parking area a few miles down the road is open for camping. It's just parking and a few [picnic tables, but it's quite scenic.
Tub 1 seems to always be booked. Tubs 2 and 3 are the lower priced tubs most likely to be open. I did T2 because it looked cozier in the picture. I like it better I think, but in T3 you can kick back and look at the hills which is cool.