8500 ft. I spent one night at Grandview Campground. I used my sleep mask quite successfully until some jerk on the southern side started his diesel engine. It was around 6:30 am. As the campground is bowl-shaped sounds travel really well. I'm not totally sure WHY the owner of the truck had to run his diesel engine constantly, but it didn't stop until around 8 am when he pulled out of the campsite.
By the time I headed to the restroom at around 8 AM, it looked like around 1/4 of the campers had left. I packed up slowly and I was ready to depart around 10 AM.
I drove to the eastern side of the campgrounds to have a look and took this meaningless panorama. You can see why site 18 is so important. If you get a large group of Yahoos at that site, then game over. (Click to enlarge the pic.)
If you continue up past Grandview Campground, you will eventually end up at the Ancient Bristlecone Forest park. I've been there before and it's definitely worth checking out if you've never visited.
Right after the Ancient Bristlecone turn-off, the pavement ends.
Overall, the dirt road to Barcroft is reasonable and any careful driver can navigate it. You do need to drive slowly and carefully. I occasionally stopped to remove particularly sharp and nasty rocks in the road.
There were times I felt I was driving on the set of Bonanza.
The Road to Nowhere?
Well above 10,000 ft.
After about an hour and a half of dusty road, I can barely spot Barcroft in the distance. The iPhone shot doesn't quite have the resolution to make out the buildings in the left side of the picture.
Eventually, you will hit this parking area right before the final gate up to Barcroft.
This is where climbers to White Mountain (one of California's 14'ers) start their trek.
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