After road biking the day before up to Horseshoe Meadow and Whitney Portal from Lone Pine (my legs are still aching just thinking about it), it was nice to go for a hike in a new area with my wife, Fitty, and Moofer.  I had heard that the Rock Creek area was beautiful and was a popular destination for Mammoth Lakes road bikers.  I had thought about riding to the end of the road, but my legs disagreed after yesterday’s ride.  The upper portion of Rock Creek Road starts at Tom’s Place, about midway between Bishop and Mammoth, and ends at the highest paved trailhead parking lot in California (10,250 feet) at Mosquito Flat.

The hike throughout the valley beyond Mosquito Flat is fairly flat and the trail takes you by at least 6 lakes.  There are more lakes, but they require relatively tame cross country travel to visit them.  In fact, the last lake along the trail before climbing to Morgan Pass is at an elevation under 10,800 feet.  The trail through the valley leads up to Morgan Pass (11,100 feet) and down to Pine Creek.  We turned around at the top of the pass.  The view from the pass was nothing spectacular since the surrounding mountains were over 2,000 feet higher, but the approaching storm made things a little interesting.  We happened to visit the East Side during a “cold spell” and things were pretty frigid above 10,000 feet.  Needless to say, when the storm rolled in, it started to gently snow on us - quite the nice June surprise at such a low elevation.

I may say this a lot, but this area would be a great place for a beginner backpacking trip.  The trip in has minimal elevation gain, and plenty of gorgeous cross country exploring awaits in the valley.  Another observation: there were many car camping grounds along Rock Creek Road if you want to just day hike around the valley.  This is one area I want to visit again!  And, of course, I want to ride up Rock Creek Road someday too!