Caldera 500

• The route is best in the fall. In the spring, the mountains will still have snow. The summer is a little too hot to ride through Fish Slough (unless you get a weather window). The fall features lovely colors, cooler temps (but can be very cold at night!), and still plenty of water.
• If you want to ride in the summer and it’s hot, the shorter northern routes would keep you out of the worst of the heat (Big Pine and Bishop).
• The Sierras are black bear territory. Prepare accordingly
• I left my car at Sherwin Lakes and it was fine (37.6288855, -118.9632450)
• Be prepared for sun exposure during the day and cold nights.
• The fall is hunting season, so keep an eye out for hunters in trucks. Most will just stop you to ask if you’ve seen any bucks along the way. Don’t ride in camouflage.
• This route is best ridden on a mountain bike, preferably 29+, but a hardtail with a suspension fork would also suffice. There are some sections with deep, soft sand, many rough-riding cow trails, and plenty of sharp scree to puncture your sidewalls. A big-volume, heavy-casing tire will make your ride easier.
• The Manzanar Museum is worth a stop on the drive up to learn about the history of the Owens Valley.
• Bring a fly fishing rod if you have some extra time. A light rod would add some dimension to those mountain streams, and the lakes on the latter half are renowned for their trout fishing.
• Bodie State Historic Park is worth a poke around, but the gates are only open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. They won’t let you in after hours. Some guards will let you ride the perimeter road without paying entry, but if you do decide to enter the park and look around, you should pay the $8.
• There is some pavement riding, including a very short but busy blast on the 395. The climb out of Big Pine is all paved, but is a relatively quiet road. That being said, do be sure to have lights.
• There are many places along the route with no cell service. Consider bringing a satellite tracker with an SOS function in case of injury or catastrophic failure.
• Please keep this land beautiful for future generations and follow Leave No Trace principles.
• The full route and the shorter versions are all meant to be ridden counter-clockwise.

• There is plenty of wild camping on BLM and National Forest lands. Most of the time, you can camp just next to the trail. I marked several spots on the map that I thought would be really nice places to stay, but in general, once you’re out of a town, camping is easy.
• Several campgrounds exist along the route as well, but may be shut down if you’re riding late in the fall or early in the spring. Check with the USFS before counting on one.
• If you want to enjoy the Travertine Hot Springs just outside of Bridgeport, there’s BLM land just 100 meters down the road from the main parking area. You can pitch a tent just down the road and ride up for a morning soak before setting off down the highway.
• Mammoth Lakes, Bishop, Big Pine, Bridgeport, Walker, and Lee Vining all have hotels/motels. Expect to pay a premium in Mammoth, and depending on the season/traffic, along the 395 as well. You could wild camp pretty easily just outside of any of those towns.

• The western half features so much water in creeks, streams, lakes. Bring a filter and enjoy. The eastern section is a bit drier. The stretch out of Big Pine is the longest without water, (48 miles and 4,800 feet of climbing through the arid Whites.) After that, water is much more frequent. I carried 8L and wished I had a bit more.
• Generally speaking, there is plenty of resupply on the full route, but be aware of the 50-mile stretch with no food or water that climbs through the Inyo and White Mountains. This stretch and the long stretch with no food following it will push your cargo ability. Make sure you can carry enough water for at least two days and food for three or four, depending on your pace.
• The latter half of the route is full of nice glacial melt streams, but I would still filter water due to all the cows grazing high in the fields.
• Burger Barn in Bridgeport, Walker Burger in Walker, Burgers in Mammoth. Plenty of good hamburgers if that’s your thing. All offer vegan options too. It’s small-town America, though, so don’t expect gourmet foie-gras.
• Schat’s Bakery is famous in the area for its deli and fresh, delicious bakery. Grab a pecan pull-apart straight from the oven for delicious sugary calories along the trail!
• After Bishop, resupply isn’t that great. Walker, Bridgeport, Lee Vining, and Big Pine all have small general stores with the necessities but not much more. Expect canned foods and the occasional fresh fruit.
• Virginia Lakes Resort is cash only.
• The brewery in June Lake is nicely timed before the final push, and the food truck there, Ohanas 395, is delicious.

Mammoth Lakes to Bishop

The route leaves the growing mountain community of Mammoth Lakes and goes straight into the singletrack network just outside of town. From there, it rolls through gentle doubletrack to Lake Crowley, a small fishing reservoir with an accompanying small town. Along the way, expect strong packs of deer in the fields and the trucks of hunters stalking them along the foothills. The route then sends you through the flowing singletrack paradise of Lower Rock Creek, up and over the arduous Lookout Mountain pass at 11,200 feet, and then descends off the roof of the Sierra and into the valley. You then climb a quiet highway into the Inyo Mountains before a stark traverse of the White Mountains—a long stretch with no water on roads, jeep trails, and singletrack. Here, you get a first-hand look at the ancient bristlecone pines, some of the oldest trees in the world and remarkably resilient to the aridity that plagues the White Mountain range. There’s beautiful camping here, watching the glow of the sunrise on the Sierra peaks up above the Owens Valley. Then, hang on tight for a rowdy singletrack descent through Redding Canyon and back to Bishop for the only real city of the route.

Bishop to Bridgeport

The route then heads north through the volcanic tablelands, part of the Mojave Desert, a desert section lined with volcanic flow boulders and Indigenous petroglyphs. Camel up for more exposed and hot riding with no water, and climb into the sagebrush-lined Glass Mountains to the ghost town of Bodie, an old mining town abandoned and left untouched for 150 years. The route then rides through the Bodie Hills, a beautiful, empty pass with grand views of the Sierra again, before another long ride leaving Bridgeport (make sure to stop at the Burger Barn!).

Bridgeport to Mammoth Lake

You enter Nevada and the Sweetwater Range, a different world of high-alpine fellfields, “Mars with flowers,” as the USFS calls it, before the 6,000-foot hike-a-bike up to the summit of Mt. Patterson. Then, it’s a beautiful but hard ride at elevation to Mammoth back in the Sierra, linking high-elevation lakes with several amazing passes. This route features three natural hot springs, two breweries, and one incredible way to immerse yourself into the very unique biosphere that is the Eastern Sierra. Be prepared to ride at elevation for essentially all of it. The base of the valley is around 4,000 feet, and you only spend a few hours there. The rest of the riding is mainly between 6,000 and 8,000 feet. This makes for a lot of sun exposure in the day and cold temps at night. If sleeping high, be prepared for freezing temperatures most of the year, and bring plenty of sun protection for the day.

The Caldera 250 and 150

There are also four smaller routes, all incorporating various features of the entire 500 mile route, including the Caldera 250 N and Caldera 250 S mapped below. You can also find the other two Caldera 150 options and all GPX files here.

Caldera 250 N

Caldera 250 S

Additional Resources

• Facebook Group
• FKT List

Amanda “Panda” Nauman attempts to be first female finisher

In 2020, Amanda Nauman attempted to be the first female finisher of the Caldera 500 route: