Rock-Hounding in the House of the Devil
Mammoth Lakes Travelog #14
Casa Diablo Mountain · Tue, 7 Jul 2026. 4:30pm.
After finishing our hike to Long Lake this afternoon we considered what to do next. We had another hike on our list that we could do but we were too tired to embark on another hike. Yet it felt too early in the day to call it quits and go back to the hotel. Hawk had another idea on her list: let's go rock-hounding at the House of the Devil. I said okay because I don't mind doing stuff for her, and maybe I'd have a little fun driving the 4x4 trails up the mountain.
The seemingly best route to Casa Diablo Mountain (House of the Devil Mountain) looped around on paved roads from US-395 to Benton Crossing. Heading east across the high desert of the Long Valley Caldera gave us views of a few mountain ranges east of us, including the imposing White Mountain range, home to a 14er. "We're not driving up that," I thought. Indeed, Casa Diablo is a small mountain.
After driving 15ish miles on paved county roads we drove 5.5 miles on good dirt roads before we hit the fun stuff, climbing up the side of Casa Diablo. "Fun" in this case is a two-track with scrub in the middle and shrubs on the sides scraping against the paint of our 4x4. We stopped initially below a hill that had some deep ruts and off-camber bits (pic above). But then after Hawk walked up and over that hill on foot while exploring I decided to try following her in the truck.
The hill had one spot where I had a front wheel way up in the air and needed to engage the rear locker to push through it. Possibly I could have backed down a bit and tried a different line without needing the locker, but hey— I have the gear— let's do this! The next hill also had another spot where I switched the locker on briefly.
Probably we should have explored further up the road, seeing if we could drive all the way (or even most of the way) to the peak. But we're both tired and hungry. Dinner and the hot tub back in Mammoth Lakes are calling our names!
Casa Diablo Mountain · Tue, 7 Jul 2026. 4:30pm.
After finishing our hike to Long Lake this afternoon we considered what to do next. We had another hike on our list that we could do but we were too tired to embark on another hike. Yet it felt too early in the day to call it quits and go back to the hotel. Hawk had another idea on her list: let's go rock-hounding at the House of the Devil. I said okay because I don't mind doing stuff for her, and maybe I'd have a little fun driving the 4x4 trails up the mountain.
The seemingly best route to Casa Diablo Mountain (House of the Devil Mountain) looped around on paved roads from US-395 to Benton Crossing. Heading east across the high desert of the Long Valley Caldera gave us views of a few mountain ranges east of us, including the imposing White Mountain range, home to a 14er. "We're not driving up that," I thought. Indeed, Casa Diablo is a small mountain.
After driving 15ish miles on paved county roads we drove 5.5 miles on good dirt roads before we hit the fun stuff, climbing up the side of Casa Diablo. "Fun" in this case is a two-track with scrub in the middle and shrubs on the sides scraping against the paint of our 4x4. We stopped initially below a hill that had some deep ruts and off-camber bits (pic above). But then after Hawk walked up and over that hill on foot while exploring I decided to try following her in the truck.
The hill had one spot where I had a front wheel way up in the air and needed to engage the rear locker to push through it. Possibly I could have backed down a bit and tried a different line without needing the locker, but hey— I have the gear— let's do this! The next hill also had another spot where I switched the locker on briefly.
Probably we should have explored further up the road, seeing if we could drive all the way (or even most of the way) to the peak. But we're both tired and hungry. Dinner and the hot tub back in Mammoth Lakes are calling our names!
