State Scenic Highway 395 395
State Scenic Highway 395 is a State Scenic Byway in California. Within California it covers roughly 380 miles. The map below shows its route. Use “Plan a drive” to open it in the Road Sorties route planner — already routing along State Scenic Highway 395 with scenic roads turned on, ready to add your own stops.
US 395 runs the length of California's Eastern Sierra, officially designated as scenic from Fort Independence north through Walker. California first designated a stretch through Inyo County, from Independence to Fish Springs, a State Scenic Highway in 1970, and added several Mono County segments in 2000, covering the corridor from the Inyo county line through Crowley Lake, Mammoth Lakes, Mono Lake, Bridgeport, and on to Walker. Along the way, the highway threads between the sagebrush desert floor and Sierra peaks rising more than 10,000 feet directly above it, passing the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, whose boulder-strewn badlands have starred in hundreds of Hollywood westerns and are still known locally as Movie Road. Mammoth Lakes offers access to June Lake, Convict Lake, and the eastern approach to Tioga Pass, while Mono Lake's tufa towers, exposed mineral formations built up over centuries by underwater springs, mark the highway's approach to Yosemite's eastern gateway. Few American highways compress this much elevation change and geologic drama into one nearly continuous scenic designation.
- Fort Independence to Walker
- designated 1970 (Inyo), expanded 2000 (Mono)
- Alabama Hills / Movie Road
- Mammoth Lakes
- Mono Lake tufa towers
- Eastern Sierra corridor
Plan a drive on State Scenic Highway 395 →
What is a State Scenic Byway?
State Scenic Byways are roads a state has formally recognized for their scenic, natural, historic or cultural value — each state's own curated collection of drives worth taking slowly.
Where to Stay along State Scenic Highway 395
31 campgrounds and RV parks sit within about 5 miles of State Scenic Highway 395.
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