Instead of sitting in the car for hours upon hours, you’ll now have the opportunity to fly into Bishop Airport, also known as the Bishop/Mammoth or Eastern Sierra Regional Airport via San Francisco, and Denver. Each of these routes will operate daily through winter giving you access to world class climbing, skiing, and even golf at the Bishop Country Club and fishing on the Owens River.
Updated 12-06-2023 As the amount of daylight fades as we head towards winter solstice the daytime temperatures have dropped. Middle of the day in the Owens Valley is pleasant as long as you’re are in the sun. When the sun goes behind the mountains the temperatures plumet. There are sporadic hatches of blue wing olives and good hatches of midges. Brown trout spawning in upper elevations is quickly coming to an end. In the Owens Valley brown trout are still spawning. December through mid-January is the toughest time to be fly fishing in the Eastern Sierra. There are trout to be caught for the diligent fly fisher.
Just six miles northwest of town, this 120-acre park has a bit of everything for anyone just looking for some outdoor fun in a tranquil setting. Millpond Recreation Area is known by many for one thing – the Millpond Music Festival. Check it out this September!
Even with such high volume of fish flowing through the Owens river, this body of water is known for providing a challenge without the proper knowledge. We recommend checking out our Bishop Fishing Report which is updated weekly.
This is an angler’s dream event where fishing comes first!
We’re driving home. The hills roll out before me, Mono Lake glistens in the distance, a light dusting of snow splatters the tops of the mountains that define the landscape. This drive, this view, is always a little different, but today it feels like something entirely new. I’ve just learned more about the landscape and begun to understand the science behind it. What I used to look at and think of as hills, are now the lateral and terminal moraines of massive glaciers that stretched from Yosemite into Mono Lake. The sudden rise of the Sierra comes from faulting, the erratic boulders are from ancient massive glaciers, the Bishop Tuft is from one of the most immense recorded volcanic explosions. All the little pieces of a view I see so often, come into focus with entire histories behind them.
The best things to do in Bishop CA in January translates to ALL season fun. Or as we like to call it, “Juneuary” is your chance to have your cake and eat it too in a mountain getaway. Be it snow-free or an all-weather variety vacation, Bishop’s big backyard is THE place to visit in winter.
While everyone up the hill is buried in snow, here are some alternatives to enjoy beautiful exhibits, galleries, bowling, arcades, hot springs, and snow free walks and auto tours.
With so much to discover in the lower 48, we rarely go back time after time to the same destination. But when an area has as much to discover as Bishop, California, it’s easy to book a return trip. This small town with a regional population of 10,000 is nestled in between the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains on the eastern side of the Golden State. Not to be confused with a road-side pitstop on the way to Yosemite National Park, Bishop is a year-round outdoor mecca that knows how to keep its locals and tourists busy.