Crystal Crag and the 10,000-foot Mammoth Crest rise above Twin Lakes in the Mammoth Lakes Basin in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Mammoth Lakes Summer

California’s Mammoth Mountain is one of America’s top ski areas, but plenty of other outdoor adventure blooms here in summer in what was once Hollywood’s hidden Sierra playground — the town of Mammoth Lakes.

by April Orcutt

The Mammoth Lakes area is stunning. The jagged five-mile-long, 10,000-foot-high Mammoth Crest of California’s Sierra Nevada range towers above a basin of nearly two-dozen crystal-clear lakes: five you can drive to and another five only a mile’s hike from the road. The isolated gray, granite monolith of Crystal Crag juts into the sky above the lakes while both the Lake Basin’s and town’s skylines are dominated by rounded, red-brown, volcanic Mammoth Mountain, shaped like a mini-version of Washington State’s massive Mt. Rainier — although at 11,053 feet, the appropriately named mountain is not a “mini” anything.

Lake Mary, the Mammoth Lakes Basin, the Minarets, Mt. Ritter, Banner Peak and Mammoth Mountain as seen from the trail to Heart Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Hollywood’s in-crowd adored the area in the 1920s. Tamarack Lodge on Twin Lakes was built in 1924 by the Foy family, part of Tinsel Town’s vaudeville-crowd and the subject of the 1955 Bob Hope film The Seven Little Foys. The lodge’s pine lobby with overstuffed couches and a pair of wooden cross-country skis over a substantial stone fireplace still retains the feeling of snug opulence from the Roaring ’20s when the film industry’s elite hung out there.

If you can pull your eyes away from the rugged mountain scenery here — 260 miles east of San Francisco, 300 miles north of Los Angeles and 32 miles south of Yosemite National Park — you’ll find places to hike, mountain bike, horseback ride, kayak, canoe, swim, fish, golf, real-rock climb on real rocks, fake-rock climb on a climbing wall or do almost any outdoor activity. If you’re under 14, you could ride a zipline. Here are a few tips for getting started.

Hiking, Backpacking & Horseback Riding

A hiker pauses before a different Heart Lake along the trail through Little Lakes Valley near Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Hundreds of miles of trails cover these mountains, and many begin in the 9,000-foot elevation Lakes Basin. Visitors take gentle strolls around the lakes or head uphill on the Duck Pass Trail from Lake Mary to Arrowhead and Skelton Lakes and on to 10,800-foot Duck Pass for views north and south over the Sierra Nevada. The short McLeod Lake Trail starts at Horseshoe Lake, where seeping volcanic gasses have created a bizarre ghost forest. The steep trail from Lake George to Crystal Lake at the base of Crystal Crag rewards hikers with views — and a feeling of accomplishment. Wild flowers like scarlet penstemon, orange paintbrush, yellow Lemmon’s draba, blue flax, lavender pennyroyal, and tall white corn lilies line many trails.

The Reds Meadows area is one of the few places where the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (which Wild-author Cheryl Strayed hiked along) and overlapping 215-mile John Muir Trail come out of the woods. Here hikers and backpackers can trek on some of the prettiest parts of the famous trails.

Nothing says stereotypical American West like horseback riding, and Mammoth Lakes and Red Meadows pack stations take visitors on day trips or set-up overnight camping trips.

Rainbow Falls drops 101 feet into the San Joaquin River. Around noon hikers often see rainbows in its mist.
(© Michael Vanderhurst. All Rights Reserved.)

Devils Postpile & Rainbow Falls

Also in the Reds Meadows area you’ll find Devils Postpile National Monument, a bizarre formation of 60-foot-tall basalt columns. A gentle three-kilometer hike leads through drier vegetation to the San Joaquin River and Rainbow Falls, a 101-foot-tall, 30-foot-wide waterfall that, as its name suggests, creates rainbows in the mist around noon.

Mountain Views & Gondola

Hikers enjoy beautiful Sierra Nevada views, but you can also drive to one of the most dramatic viewpoints in the Sierra: Minaret Vista, just a mile west of the main ski lodge. At the 9,265-foot-elevation viewpoint, visitors gaze out across the canyon of the San Joaquin River and up toward distinctive gray granite, pyramid-shaped Banner Peak and Mount Ritter, and the saw-tooth Minarets, one of the most picturesque sub-ranges within the Sierra.

Looking across the canyon of the San Joaquin River to the Minarets, Mount Ritter, and Banner Peak from Minaret Summit at Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

The gondola carries mountain bikers to the top of Mammoth Mountain. At the gondola’s base is the Adventure Center, where children can ride a zipline, bungee-trampoline, and climb on a climbing wall.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

For another perspective and more 360-degree views, ride the Mammoth Mountain Gondola to 11,053 feet in elevation. The Eleven53 Interpretive Center (named for the summit elevation) has displays about animals, volcanoes, weather, geology, culture and wild flowers. (Tip: If you want to walk around — which, of course, you will — bring a jacket because the wind gets chilly up there.)

Adventure Center

While the big “kids” mountain bike, little kids can play at the Adventure Center at the base of the gondola, where a life-size statue of a mammoth with massive tusks stands guard. Children can go bungee-trampolining or climb a 30-foot climbing wall or, if they’re under 14 years old, scoot down a 100-yard-long zip line.

A child plays under the statue of a wooly mammoth by the Adventure Center in front of Mammoth Mountain in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Via Ferrata

“Via ferrata” means “iron path” and refers to a climbing route with permanent pegs, iron rungs, and steel cables drilled into a rock face. Mammoth Mountain has six routes on its Via Ferrata, and they’re labeled like ski runs: green for easy, blue for moderate, and black for difficult. The two intermediate-level routes are connected by a suspension bridge. Participants can only go on guided climbing tours, where they wear helmets and climbing harnesses and attach to the cables for safety.

Mountain bikers ride above the Lakes Basin in the Mammoth Bike Park in Mammoth Lakes, California.
(© Mammoth Mountain — all rights reserved)

Road Cycling & Mountain Biking

The Mammoth Mountain Gondola also serves as an elevator to wild mountain biking in Mammoth Bike Park with more than 80 miles of single-track and trails dropping 3,000 feet from the summit. Beginners might want to skip routes named Pipeline, Kamikaze and Skid Marks and instead take lessons, including “Intro to Mountain Biking.”

Road cyclists (and walkers and parents pushing baby carriages) can travel on more than 17 miles of designated pathways through town, including up to and around the Lakes Basin. Bicyclists load their bikes on a rack on the back of the free Lakes Basin Trolley, take the trolley up the hill and ride their bikes around the lakes and file miles back downhill to town. You can also rent pedal-assist electric bikes.

A kayaker drifts across Convict Lake and below Laurel Peak near Mammoth Lakes in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Fishing & Water Sports

Fishing remains one of the biggest draws for the area with rainbow, brook and brown trout and the occasional native golden trout. Visitors can fly fish, troll from a boat, cast from the sides of a rushing stream or just drop some bait into a quiet lake

Nearby Convict Lake and the calm lakes in the Lakes Basin are good (although chilly) places for learning stand-up paddle boarding. The hardy might voluntarily go for a swim.

Kayaking & Canoeing

While you can row a boat, kayak or canoe on many of the lakes, the weirdest is oddball and alkaline Mono Lake, an avian haven for one-to-two million birds and a former inland sea with strange “tufa towers.” Thirty miles north of Mammoth Lakes, the 10-mile-diameter lake used to be much wider and deeper, and calcium-carbonate spires formed under the surface. Caldera Kayaks offers guided tours from the South Tufa area so kayakers can glide near the bizarre gray pillars jutting up to 20 feet out of the water. The Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Reserve gives free guided walks along the shore three times a day.

Kayakers on a day trip with Caldera Kayaks tour the tufa towers of Mono Lake near Mammoth Lakes, California.
(© Stuart Wilkinson/Caldera Kayaks — all rights reserved)

The former gold-mining boom town of Bodie looks as though all the population of 10,000 people left on one day.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Gold-mining Ghost Town

One of the best preserved ghost towns in the American West lies another 30 miles northeast of Mono Lake. Bodie, a former gold-mining boomtown that looks as though the entire citizenry of 10,000 people up and left one day, exists in “arrested decay” so visitors can look in windows and still see goods on store shelves. You can poke around or take an informative guided tour — or a ghost walk. Photographers love the place.

Photographers find much to keep them busy while exploring the Sierra Nevada ghost town of Bodie near Mammoth Lakes, California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Yosemite National Park

Tioga Pass (elevation 9,943 feet) and the dramatic eastern entrance to Yosemite National Park — one of the United States’ greatest natural wonders — lies 12 miles west of Mono Lake. Some visitors make Mammoth Lakes their base for exploring Yosemite’s spectacular granite-domed high country, including the Tuolumne Meadows area and the dazzling Olmstead Point viewpoint, 30 miles west of Tioga Pass. From Olmstead Point you can look out at a side view of the park’s iconic Half Dome as well as back at Tenaya Lake framed by other granite domes. (Be aware that the line can be long at the entrance to Yosemite, especially on summer weekends.)

Half Dome seen from Yosemite’s Olmsted Point, which is 57 miles northwest of Mammoth Lakes, California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)

Hot Springs

Those wishing to soothe aching muscles after all that hiking, kayaking and mountain biking could choose from three natural hot springs around Mammoth Lakes: Benton (42 miles east), Keough (51 miles southeast) or Travertine (55 miles north).

Skate-boarding Parks

Helmets, pads and other safety equipment are mandatory at both of the Mammoth Lake’s skate-boarding parks: Volcom Brothers, a full-sized skate park, and Shady Rest, which is smaller and more for beginners.

Golf

For those whose ideal Great-Outdoors trip means hitting a little white ball with a club, Mammoth Lakes has two options. The Sierra Star Golf Course, at 8,000 feet above sea level, claims to be the highest golf course in California — which, because of thinner air — might mean your ball goes the farther. Nearby Snowcreek Golf Course is known for its streams and water hazards. Both rent clubs.

Bowling & Indoor Golf

If all that intense Sierra sunshine has finally gotten to you, there’s Mammoth Rock ’n’ Bowl. This bright modern 12-lane bowling alley also has three indoor golf simulators as well as ping pong, foosball and darts. Both its French-style Brasserie restaurant and its casual outdoor patio have panoramic mountain views. You just can’t get away for long from those stunning alpine vistas in Mammoth Lakes.

Summer or winter, spring or fall — the whole focus of Mammoth Lakes is the outdoors. Forty bears live peacefully within the wide-ranging town limits (sorry, but you’re unlikely to see any of them), and adorable little chipmunks and ground squirrels scamper through campsites. Mammoth Lakes is a place to play and a place to learn — and a great place to experience California’s wild natural environment.

If You Go:

When to Go
Mammoth Lakes has a long ski season so a long winter. June through September are the summer travel months.

Where to Stay
• Tamarack Lodge, tamaracklodge.com
• Sierra Nevada Resort, thesierranevadaresort.com
• Crystal Crag Lodge, crystalcrag.com
• Westin Monache Resort, westinmammoth.com
• Campgrounds: visitmammoth.com/mammoth-lakes-campground-report

What to Do
• Hiking & Backpacking: visitmammoth.com/hiking
• Mammoth Mountain Gondola, Bike Park and Adventure Center: mammothmountain.com/summer, Tel. 800–626–6684
• Devils Postpile National Monument, nps.gov/depo
• Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve, parks.ca.gov/?page_id=514, Tel. 760–647–6331
• Bodie State Historic Park, parks.ca.gov/?page_id=509
• Caldera Kayaks, calderakayak.com, Tel. 760–934–1691
• Yosemite National Park, nps.gov/yose, Tel. 209–372–0200
• Hot Springs, visitcalifornia.com/in/attraction/natural-hot-springs-mammoth
• Mammoth Lakes Pack Station, mammothpack.wix.com/mammothpack, Tel. 760–934–2434
• Reds Meadows Pack Station, redsmeadow.com
• Via Ferrata, mammothmountain.com/summer-activities/adventure-center/via-ferrata, Tel. 800–626–6684
• Skate Parks, visitmammoth.com/trip-ideas/mammoth-lakes-skate-parks/
• Golf, visitmammoth.com/trip-ideas/golfing-mammoth-lakes-sierra-star-snowcreek
• Bowling, mammothrocknbowl.com, Tel. 760–934–4200

What to Know
Mammoth Lakes lies at high elevation (7,700 to 9,000 feet) so it takes a few days to acclimatize to the altitude. Take it easy your first few days. Drink lots of water, and go easy on alcohol. High elevation also means more intense sun so use plenty of high-level sun screen and wear hats and sunglasses. Much of the Sierra is wilderness so be aware of hiking and fishing rules and restrictions, which can be found at the visitors center and online.

Further Information
• Mammoth Lakes Tourism: visitmammoth.com, 760–934–2712
• Mammoth Lakes Welcome Center: visitmammoth.com/adventure/mammoth-lakes-welcome-center-designated-california-welcome-center/, Tel. 760–924–5500
• Mammoth Mountain: mammothmountain.com/summer, Tel. 760–934–0745
• Mammoth Lakes Trolley: estransit.com/routes-schedule/mammoth-lakes/mammoth-town-trolley/, Tel. 760–924–3184

An earlier version of April Orcutt’s “Mammoth Lakes” story was published in a glossy Australian travel magazine. Another of her stories about Mammoth Lakes ran in National Geographic Traveler.

Find more of April Orcutt’s stories at Medium.com/BATW-Travel-Stories, Medium.com/Travel-Insights-And-Outtakes, AprilOrcutt.Medium.com, and AprilOrcutt.com.

The Lakes Basin Trolley carries bicycles and their riders from the town of Mammoth Lakes to the end of the road at Horseshoe Lake in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California.
(© April Orcutt. All Rights Reserved.)