INYO NATIONAL FOREST
Some days, you just need to fall asleep under the stars, in a tent, smelling like firewood and a little drunk on whiskey. You welcome the escape from that hustling energy of the city, the all-to-well-known biting addiction to social media, and oh the irritability of the sound of cars.
To Do:
Phone a friend.
Pack up.
Leash the pups.
Grab a Butter Coffee.
Gas up.
Drive North.
Roadtrip! Hop a few freeways out of LA, feel your shoulders drop as you pass through the Mojave Desert, press play on Lord Huron, and breathe deeper as you slow the car way down through small town after small town. Notice the odd connected feeling as the WiFi disconnects and the top left corner of your iPhone reads ‘No Service’.
Enter into Bishop, a picturesque California town with Fall foliage, firewood for sale along the road, and a smoked meat shop with really delicious jerky of all varieties (and yes, they have a Starbucks, damn). Go old school and actually ask someone for directions to the Bitterbrush Campground right outside of town in the dog-friendly Inyo National Forest. That is right California dog lovers, we said dog-friendly! Pets are allowed in all U.S. National Forests. Take a hike out of town and get your camp life on with your favorite furry friends and human friends.
Once camp is set up, take a quick trip on a dirt road into the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada into The Buttermilks, a popular bouldering area for climbers. Go there for the sunset. Purple and pink cotton candy skies, giant rocks and Coor’s Light is a great combination. You forget what city lights even look like.
Numerous hiking trails surround the area, a great day hike is Bishop’s Pass Trail to Long Lake. Do know, the elevation is real when you live at sea level. The scenery is too beautiful to rush anyways, snow along the switchbacks, big trees looming above, and glacial melt on the lakes. Hello bliss.
Leave the city. Go sleep in a sleeping bag covered by a tarp and some sticks. A true connection in nature happens. Like magic, the phones are nestled in backpacks, you are forced to converse over the firepit, and the silence, the sweet silence of the wilderness, will bring you home to a part of yourself that we so often disregard behind a computer screen.
Adventure on, connect deeper.
Note: Always check for permit info. Know when and where with fire bans. Be bear aware. Drink (clean) water.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jacki Carr loves to unplug, disconnect to reconnect and roadtrip to sleep in a tent with her man, 2 pups and close friends. She has a life goal to visit every National Park in the USA.
A Venice based Brand Consultant and Conscious Coach by trade; Jacki is a writer, public speaker, brainstormer, yogi, hiker and 1/2 marathon runner. She hosts impromptu pop-up goal sessions in the Santa Monica Mountains, exploring a theme and creating a space for people to meet up, explore self development and talk goals outdoors.
Photography by Christopher New.