Things to Do
Everything here is within an hour.
Hot springs, two mountain passes, aspen gold, and the quietest county in California. Thirteen things you can do, ordered by how far you drive to do them — and five of them you can do without moving the car. Every time below was measured from this address, not estimated.
Raft nineteen miles to Nevada
2 minutes · Hangman's BridgeThe put-in is two minutes down the highway, and from it the East Fork runs to the Nevada line with no dam on it and no paved road touching the canyon. A six-week snowmelt season, and some years it does not run at all.
Rafting the East CarsonEat lunch and see the museum
5 minutes · MarkleevilleA courthouse, a museum and a bar, for a county of about 1,200 people. The museum keeps the 1882 Webster School and the old log jail, open Memorial Day weekend to the end of October, Thursday to Sunday.
The museumWalk in, or sleep out there
9 minutes · Fourteen trailheads within an hourThe nearest trailhead is nine minutes away and the furthest inside an hour is Corral Valley, over Monitor Pass. No quota, no lottery, nothing to reserve — the overnight permit is free and you fill it in yourself at the trailhead.
Hiking & BackpackingA pool heated by a fault
12 minutes · Grover Hot SpringsNot by magma — rain and snowmelt sink along a fracture, warm at depth and rise again mineral-rich. The hot spring runs between 128 and 146 degrees, so the pool blends it down to something you can sit in.
Grover Hot SpringsFish for Lahontan cutthroat
13 minutes · Heenan LakeThe state's broodstock lake for the threatened Lahontan cutthroat, open to catch-and-release only, barbless, September 1 to November 30 — every day of the season since the 2021 overhaul.
Heenan LakeDrive up for the aspen
16 minutes · Monitor PassGold from late September into October, and each grove turns as one thing because each grove IS one thing — a single organism sharing one root system underground. It is why the colour arrives in blocks.
Monitor PassDrive a National Scenic Byway
29 minutes · Ebbetts PassHighway 4 climbs to 8,730 feet through a stretch so narrow it carries no centre line for twenty-three miles. Summer only — the gate closes it from roughly December to May.
The bywaySki
40 minutes · KirkwoodKirkwood is forty minutes — longer when it is snowing — and open year-round. Bear Valley is about an hour away, spring through late fall only: Ebbetts Pass closes for the winter and takes the short way with it. The owner's own clock, September 2026.
SnowCook the day's catch
At the resort · Open every day, next to the storeThe pavilion is open ground under the pines with long tables and string lights; its covered patio has a fish-cleaning station, a Blackstone and a Traeger. Open to anyone staying or visiting — nobody has to ask.
The pavilionLook for the Sasquatch
At the resort · Across the water from Site №4Alpine County has a long-running question about what walks the ridge across the river, and the resort has the videos people keep pointing at. Site №4 looks straight at the slope in them.
The SasquatchRide the passes
At the resort · Four passes from the doorThe Death Ride's opening climb starts a few miles down this highway, and on ride morning the road outside is closed to cars. Empty roads, one honest shoulder on Monitor's east climb, and no bike shop this side of the mountains.
CyclingWatch for bears
At the resort · Year-roundA black bear works this bank of the East Fork; bald eagles fish it; and a mule deer herd crosses this country twice a year on a route older than the state line.
Wildlife on the BankRead the ground
At the resort · UnderfootThe flat the cabins stand on is a river terrace of rounded boulders, left by ice. The skyline is the eroded stumps of volcanoes. And the silver here failed because of a crystal structure.
Geology