Silver Lake Campground June Lake

June Lake has single tracks and dirt roads, offering something for bikers of all levels. Good mountain biking is available on multi-use trails and fire roads, while road biking is common on the scenic June Lake Road for experienced cyclists comfortable sharing the road with vehicles. The easy trails include a 1.2-mile loop around Horseshoe Lake, and the 5-mile Shady Rest trail, while the harder ones are tough climbs up to the Mammoth Ski Area so you can fly downhill.

You can boat, kayak, and canoe right on Silver Lake. The nearby Grant Lake, Gull Lake, and June Lake also have boat launches, while Sabrina Lake has a boat launch, rentals, marina, and tackle shop. Sabrina is the only one that allows motorized boating.

With 400 lakes and 1,000 miles of rivers and streams, this area is prime for fishing trout—rainbow, cutthroats, brook, brown, and golden trout. Silver Lake is stocked with trout and makes for a great beginner fishing spot.

Moderate nearby day hikes include the Gull Lake Loop, the June Lake Loop, and the Reversed Peak Trail. Directly across the road from Silver Lake Campground is the Rush Creek Trailhead, where steep trails lead up to the Ansel Adams Wilderness. Plan for a challenging day hike to reach this area's incredible alpine lakes, or budget multiple days for a backcountry camping trip (permits required for overnight backcountry trips).

There are a good number of horse campgrounds to stay at, as well as pack stations that will give you all of the info you need, such as Rainbow Pack Outfitters, and Rock Creek Pack Station.

Many of the lakes allow non-motorized boating, which means kayakers, canoers, and other small paddling boats are welcome out in the water! South Lake is the best place for for kayakers who also want to fish. Other great paddling locations are Twin Lakes, June Lake, and Mono Lake; check out the full list here. The lakes are small, so you can see many, if not all of them in one day! Read this rave review on these incredible lakes from our friends at PaddlingCalifornia.

There’s an expansive network of routes for off-road vehicles to explore: spanning 2,000 miles, you can drive up into the mountains for incredible views, see the historic mines, and stop at lakes for water play. Most of the routes are double track and there are 50 miles of single track and ATV trails. We recommend Poleta Canyon! Make sure you have a Forest Service spark arrestor.

Mountain climbers and boulderers will find enough ground to play on. Mammoth Lakes has some moderate climbs, with great names like Ugly, Fat, Mean, Come to Mammoth, Be a Queen (5.7), and Pie in the Sky (5.11b). See the list of mountain climbing areas here. Boulderers can explore the Mammoth Lakes and the Bishop Areas for climbs like Jedi Mind Tricks (V4), and Seven Spanish Angels (V6).

Thanks to the abundant snowfall, cross country skiers have plenty to explore, especially in the Mammoth Lakes area. Gorp offers descriptions of trails that you should look through to get a feel for the forest. You can also ski in the White Mountain Ranger District, home to the incredible Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest as well as Bishop and Rock Creek Canyons. You can also mush/skijor, ski/snowboard, sled/tube, snowmobile, and snowshoe. June Mountain and Mammoth Mountain have ski areas with lifts and gondolas, and you can also go out into the backcountry!

Swimming is permitted in Silver Lake—just be prepared for cold water unless it's the middle of summer. June Lake also has a swimming beach, and a number of additional campgrounds offer swimming access as well: Convict Lake, Diaz Lake, Lake Mary, and South Lake.

The Inyo forest is home to black bears, mountain lions, mule deer, pine marten, pika, coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, martens, foxes, skunks and weasels; rodents and other small mammals; and reptiles that are common in the Central and Southern Sierra. Fish species include the Rainbow, German Brown, Little Kern Golden and Golden Trout (California’s state fish), the western sucker and squawfish. You’ll probably see great horned owls, bald eagles (winter), water dippers, the abundant cliff swallows, the California condor, and various waterfowl by the creeks. There are also endemic species such as the California bighorn sheep and the rare black toad.