Turn up the dirt road, and continue until you see the sign below directing you left to the trail head parking lot.
The trail head is clearly signposted.
The parking lot offered plenty of room, but we are in a quiet week for the area - the mountain bikers and fishermen are gone, and the snow has not arrived yet.
The trail is the usual extremely well-maintained High Sierra path. It meanders slowly up through the woods, crossing Sherwin Creek on a small bridge. It appears that horses use a small path a few feet upstream of the bridge to cross.
After a short walk through the woods, the trail begins a series of switchbacks that rapidly cover the main part of the ascent on this walk.
After negotiating most of the switchbacks, you're rewarded with spectacular views of the town of Mammoth Lakes and Highway 395.
After a short, more or less level walk through a recently burnt section of forest, the largest of the Sherwin Lakes reels you in. In the distance across the lake, you can see a mountain stream splashing down the rocks.
This path to the right is inevitably where you will go on your first visit here...the views of the lake are too tantalizing to resist.
However, if you backtrack a short distance and take this left fork up the hill through the burnt trees, you come to a path that follows the lake shore and passes through three beautiful campsites.
The nearest site is a short walk from the fork in the trail mentioned above.
The next is on the far side of the lake and sits on a bluff offering beautiful views.
The third campsite sits just above the splashing creek, and offers plenty of room and well-spaced trees if you're sleeping in a hammock.
We saw fish jumping everywhere in Sherwin Lake. During a picnic by the falls where the creek tumbled into the lake, we watched dozens of trout leaping in the rapids for fun or food. We will definitely be returning to camp here in the future! The round trip is about 4 1/2 miles, and we passed a number of people walking their dogs (all wet from a dip in the lake) both coming and going.
Of course, with the usual morning exercise and this hike, we felt a happy hour would be appropriate, so we stopped in at John's Pizza Works and Outlaw Saloon for the first time. I enjoyed the Mammoth Brewery ale on tap, my wife liked the double gin and tonic, and our son was all over the pizza, wings, and the Taco Wedgie!
Of course, with the usual morning exercise and this hike, we felt a happy hour would be appropriate, so we stopped in at John's Pizza Works and Outlaw Saloon for the first time. I enjoyed the Mammoth Brewery ale on tap, my wife liked the double gin and tonic, and our son was all over the pizza, wings, and the Taco Wedgie!
What's a Taco Wedgie, you ask? Descibed as "taco meets calzone", it sounded like a gut-busting, doughy carb-fest. We were amazed when it arrived with an incredibly crisp thin crust wrapped around a nice taco filling. It turned out to be the hit of the happy hour! If it had been served with a nice, fresh salsa instead of the taco sauce, I would have had to order two! I can imagine one of these stuffed with any number of ethnic dishes - Chicken Curry Wedgie, Fajita Wedgie, Chili Wedgie, the list is endless!
The happy hour menu at John's Pizza Works offers great value, but the food is good enough that you'll still spend more than you think as you work your way through multiple rounds of pub grub and big ales! I'm sure that makes John, and me, happy!
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