Silver Canyon Road, Bishop, CA

Drive down Silver Canyon Road from Ancient Bristlecone NF.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• toyota sequoia
• off road
• tour
• silver canyon road

[cbetts]

One of my all time favorite trails. I grew up in the area and try to take Silver Canyon every time I head up there. It is now an annual trip by my off-road club from SoCal.

[tbrooks123]

@cbetts what's your off road club?  I live in SoCal too.

[tbrooks123]

@cbetts thanks for the info. very cool. what club are you with?

[jmastron]

This is awesome; thanks for posting it! We love the White Mtns, and have been intrigued by Silver Canyon Rd ever since we went to the Laws Museum nearby. Drove up as far as the first water crossing in our 4wd Highlander Hybrid (not "real" 4wd, but enough traction boost on dirt roads to help), but didn't know how deep the rest were (and it was going to snow, so we turned back). Looks like that first one (nearest Bishop) is the deepest, right?

[tbrooks123]

@jmastron yep! great road. The crossing closest to Bishop is definitely the deepest. There are few narrow steep sections where I was very glad to have 4wd Lo creeper gear coming down. Not sure how it would be going up for you.

[jmastron]

@tbrooks123 We did it; took this road up in the hybrid this weekend. Definitely at the limits of the vehicle's capabilities. The 4wd had to kick in a lot via traction control on those steep uphill sections, and we had to stop for lunch when the "inverter coolant" started boiling and flashing dire warnings on the dash.

Definitely not the proper vehicle for this road, but we made it, so it can be done! Decided not to go down though; was unsure about the brakes without a true low gear :-)

[tbrooks123]

@jmastron congrats! sounds like fun!

[cbetts]

@tbrooks123 - Hummer 4x4 Off Road.

[retiredranger1999]

continued from below. as we did not know what was ahead. As it turned out the road was very mild above that stretch. We then continued on to Schulman Grove and spent several hours hiking the trails through the Bristlecone pine trees.

Sometime in the 90's Forest Service road crews rebuilt the road, making it much safer. Now I would call the road fairly mild as far as steep mountain roads are concerned. I'm pretty sure that a passenger car can make it up the road.

[retiredranger1999]

I moved to the eastern Sierra in 1981 and saw this road on the Inyo National Forest map so naturally I wanted to drive it. My first trip on this road was in 1982. The road was in poor condition then. There is a switchback shown at about 2:42 that used to be very interesting. This switchback and the stretch above it were very rocky with large slabs of slick rock. My trusty Land Cruiser, which I purchased new in 1977 bounced and slipped through that section scaring my passengers (continued)

[cbetts]

@tbrooks123 @tbrooks123 Club Hummer Offroad