Camp/Off Road on the East Shore of Mono Lake

To get there: Take highway 167 (Pole Line Rd) from 395 eastbound. Drive about 14 miles on 167 until the right hand turn onto a dirt/sandy 4wd road. The turn off is extremely difficult to see (we had to turn around twice to find the right one). There is another 4wd sandy road only 11 miles from 395 but this road runs into lots of gates/animal pastures and is not at exciting. 

The 14-mile-away road actually goes all the way around the lake. Most of the road is sand, bumpy, and hard to maneuver. 4wd vehicle necessary and experience driving through sand. 

We stayed on the road until it started to curve closer (not actually that close to the water) to the water and took a right through a barbed wire fence. From there, we stayed on sand/gravel and found a good place to camp. 

In the peak season of summer, the only other living things we encountered were coyotes and wild horses. 

There were lots of hidden potholes covered by grass once we got off the main road so watch out! Make sure you have the google map of the area downloaded for offline because it is really, really easy to take a wrong turn without seeing the satellite image.

Give yourself enough time to get out there - it is slow going in the sand but so worth the desolation and quiet. We ended up finding a camp spot right at sunset (beautiful) but had to set up in the dark. 

No permits required - but it would be so hard to find someone out there anyways.