On its eastern slope, the Sierra Nevada seems to end all at once. The dramatic bare cliffs plummet thousands of feet to meet Highway 395, a quiet, twisting ribbon of asphalt that feels like a secret route to backstage California. Here, on the far side of the state’s largest natural wonder, the vistas blow wide open and a string of beautiful, uncrowded attractions await.
In the ghost town of Bodie, the abandoned buildings remain remarkably intact.
To Explore: Bodie State Historic Park
One of the largest ghost towns in the country, Bodie still has more than 200 buildings from when it was a gold rush town of 10,000. See tins of coffee and spices on shop walls, cars slowly decaying on the side of the street, and interiors frozen in time.
To Learn: Mono Lake
Three times as saline as the ocean, Mono Lake is so heavy with carbonates and sulfates—baking soda, basically—that it’s dubbed a “soda” lake and gives rise to ghostly limestone towers called tufa wherever underwater hot springs bubble up. Visitors who join a one-hour Mono Lake Committee canoe tour on summer weekend mornings can paddle right over new ones as they form.
The 60-foot towers of columnar basalt give Devil’s Postpile its name.
To See: Devils Postpile National Monument
In a high mountain valley west of Mammoth Mountain, this park’s main attraction is its namesake, a wall of 60-foot hexagonal towers of columnar basalt that formed from a cooling lake of superhot lava. But don’t skip the easy walk through nearby Agnew Meadows, the perfect place to spot the purple-and-yellow petals of the Sierra shooting star and other wildflowers as the annual bloom peaks late June through mid-July. Expect to spend half a day here.
At Bishop’s new Mountain Rambler Brewery, try the Peaklet Porter on draft.
To Eat: Mountain Rambler Brewery
Try to pick out the eight named Sierra mountaintops visible through the windows of this Bishop brewpub, where the smooth, easy-drinking Peaklet Porter pairs perfectly with summer evenings and the completo burger, which comes loaded with avocado, arugula, chimichurri, and a fried egg.
A guard tower rises above Manzanar, where 11,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned.
To Remember: Manzanar National Historic Site
For three and a half years during World War II, some 11,000 Japanese people, most of them U.S. citizens, were imprisoned behind barbed wire at this site 10 miles north of Lone Pine. During a one- to three-hour visit, the most moving experience might be standing in two spare, reconstructed barracks. There you can see how prisoners lived eight to a room with dust storms blowing through the floorboards, and hear their voices, telling their stories in their own words.