Distance: 46-mile out and back
Elevation gain: 6700 ft

(A Best of the Best ride)
(A Best of the Best descent)

As with all the rides in Bestrides situated along Hwy 395, I encourage you to read the “Eastern Sierra” section of our By Regions page, to put this ride in context.

This is a huge ride, bigger than anything I could do in one go. It’s easy to break into two rides, either one of which is a major effort by itself. If you do it all, I’m willing to bet it will be the hardest 46-mile ride you ever do in your life. It has a ton of climbing, made much harder by the elevation, which tops out at 10,000 ft. I think it’s the best ride in the Eastern Sierra, for a number of reasons:

1) It has the most interesting road contour. The other big climbs around Hwy 395 are typically straight roads with monotonously unvaried pitch—this one climbs and drops and serpentines back and forth.

2) It has the most varied landscape—not necessarily prettier than, say South Lake Road, but at least 4 distinct ecosystems, including the world-famous bristlecone pine forest;

3) It has the best vistas. Like the other big climbing rides in the area, it has jaw-dropping vistas of the Owens Valley below, but the other rides climb the east side of the Sierra, so they look east and have as a backdrop the White Mountains to the east, which are unprepossessing heaps of brown, while this one climbs into the White Mountains and looks west, so it has as a backdrop the incomparable Eastern Sierra ridges to the west;

4) The thrill factor is very high. The last 3 miles of the ride out plus the first 3 of the return are some of the most electrifying (or terrifying) riding I’ve ever done—fast, serpentining curves with enormous vistas and a drop-off on your right.

5) It has a spectacular descent with good road surface (on the Hwy 168 leg)—a rarity in these parts.

Its only flaws are 1) the road surface on the White Mountain Rd. leg is often so marred with expansion cracks that descending is unpleasantly jarring, and 2) the pitch on the White Mountain Road leg is often so steep that you’re forced to do a lot of braking.

Before doing this ride, make sure that the roads are all passable and the Visitor Center at Shulman Grove is open. (Typically the Visitor Center closes some time in October. The road is “open”—i.e. ungated—all year, because there are things at the top of the road people have to get to, but it’s “unmaintained,” that is, heavily snowed in.) Also, ask yourself about your threshold for acrophobia and fear of falling, because you’re going to be doing some steep descending on narrow, twisting roads with world-class drop-offs and no guardrails.

To see the good bristlecone pines (and you want to), bring walking shoes, because there are no visually striking pines right by the Visitor Center—see below for an explanation.

This is the only ride of any interest in the 395 corridor that is on the east side of the highway. Start at the intersection of Hwy 395 and Hwy 168E (Hwy 168W goes west from downtown). There’s a parking lot there, by the little kiosk with information about the bristlecone pines and other features of interest in the area. I encourage you to read the literature to get your bearings. You’ll be guided by signage to the bristlecone pine forest all along your route.

The ride divides into two parts, Hwy 168E and White Mountain Road, and the two couldn’t be more different. Both rides are of substantial difficulty (10 miles of 7-9% pitch, with the second leg obviously at higher elevation).

Highway 168 (13 miles, 3400 ft. gain) is a major artery running east from 395, so you’d expect it to be a large, busy, straight, characterless shoulder ride. I don’t know how busy it is in high season—I was there in October and November and saw almost no cars. But for a couple of miles it is flat, wide, and straight—then it turns into something really sweet. It begins to climb up through rolling, brush-covered hills, completely unlike the steady vertical rocky terrain on the west side of the valley. The road rolls and curves back and forth without interruption. There’s nothing like it anywhere else in the 395 corridor. The further you go, the better it gets: 4 miles of relatively tame, then the canyon steepens and you start to get some rock formations, then 9 miles in it gets really good. At about 11 miles in you hit a dramatic little slot canyon and the road turns momentarily to one lane. Terrific.

Beyond the canyon you get a couple of miles of very pretty climbing. Then Just before the White Mountain Road turn-off you pop out onto a kind of mesa and the road goes flat. At mile 13, turn L onto White Mountain Road—there’s a prominent Bristlecone Pine Forest sign there.

The one thing you don’t get on Hwy 168 is expansive vistas. Instead you get glimpses of the Owens Valley between rolling hills on either side of the road. It’s different from the other rides in the area, and very nice in its own way.

There is much confusion among sources about how much of White Mountain Road is paved. The answer is: for 10 miles, to the Shulman Grove Visitor Center. The road continues past the Center for miles and miles, but a few feet past the Center it turns to dirt.

White Mountain Road is completely different from what you’ve just ridden. It’s a straighter climb, first through pinyon/juniper woodlands (there’s an informative board in a turn-off on your L a stone’s throw from the intersection explaining what that means), then above the timberline on a harrowingly exposed sidehill with matchless views of the Owens Valley to the west. The ride is slightly shorter and slightly steeper than Hwy 168 (10 miles one way, 3250 ft of gain), but it tops out at just over 10,000 ft. so the air is thinner and adds considerably to the effort.

The climbing begins moderately, then steepens, until the last few miles before the Vista Point (at about 7 miles in) are tough. The vista point, called Sierra View Vista Point (clever name), has one of those boards identifying the individual peaks on the horizon (Mt. Whitney can’t be seen from this ride). Beyond the vista point the climbing is continuous but noticeably less fierce.

These last 3 miles, from here to the end of the road, are truly extraordinary. The road clings to the open sidehill, serpentining back and forth, with a huge drop-off on your L side and no thought of a guard rail. This is a good time to ask yourself, Do I really want to come down this thing? If not, turn around. I wouldn’t do it without disc brakes, at a minimum. Remember, on the ride up you’re on the inside lane, on the descent you’re on the outside—much scarier.

Ride to the Shulman Visitor Center. It’s a classic Visitor Center, full of all the information you could possibly want about bristlecone pines, the oldest living things on earth. It’s spanking clean, because the old Visitor Center burned to the ground not long ago and was rebuilt. There are three loop hiking trails, and you will need to walk at least 1/4 mile on one of them to see any good pines—ironically the bristlecone pines around the Visitor Center are too healthy to take on the famous gnarly look we all think of when we think “Bristlecone pine,” because they’re in too protected a spot. Bristlecone pines need abuse to get gnarly. So come prepared to do a bit of walking.

The Forest’s mascot is Meth- uselah, the oldest known bristlecone pine, checking in at 4700 years old and constantly referred to by the Center staff as the “oldest living thing on earth.” If you google “oldest living thing” you’ll see there’s some controversy about that, but anyway, if you want to see it you’ll have to walk 4.5 miles from the Visitor Center (with significant elevation gain, at 10,000 ft elevation). I contented myself with looking at photographs.

The return ride is 46 miles of almost uninterrupted descending, some lousy, some great. Most of the White Mountain Rd. descent has the two curses of Hwy 395 riding: expansion cracks and a pitch so steep it forces you (at least, me) to brake, a lot. The expansion cracks are worse the higher you go (because it’s colder up there), so the first few miles coming down from the Visitor Center are especially rough, even on my 40mm tires. I actually hated it, though the views are unparalleled. Then the expansion cracks get smaller and it gets better.

The Hwy 168 descent is another matter. I guess the elevation is low enough to keep the expansion cracks to ignorable little pings—for whatever reason, the road surface is consistently fine. The pitch is milder and the road contour is mostly sweeping curves, so you brake much less. This is a high-speed descent you can really rip. Combine this with the rock formations around you, the occasional high-speed whoop-de-dos, and the glimpses of the Owens Valley ahead of and impossibly far beneath you, and it’s 10 miles of unique, bucket-list ride. When you finally bail out onto the valley flats, if you’ve timed it right and it’s later in the afternoon, the sun will be getting low behind the Sierra and the views around you will make your heart swell.

Shortening the ride: Do one road or the other. If you want serpentining contour and grand descending through rolling hills, do Hwy 168; if you want bristlecone pines and enormous vistas and can put up with expansion cracks, do White Mountain Road.

Adding miles: I can’t even discuss it.