So yes, we did decide to drive 265 miles, to crawl up 10,000 FT to camp by a Mountain Lake!

I never thought Coyote Flats and Funnel Lake would be this amazing!

"Explore this 35.5-mile out-and-back trail near Bishop, California. Generally considered a moderately challenging route, it takes an average of 18 h 58 min to complete. This trail is great for camping and off-road driving, and it's unlikely you'll encounter many other people while exploring."

Funnel Lake Camp Site View

"This well-maintained OHV trail takes you out to Funnel Lake and back. This small and peaceful lake has some dispersed camping options with designated fire pits. The trail has a lot of easy stretches mixed in with some technical crawling sections, particularly on the last stretch to get down to the lake."

(Direct From All Trails Website)

For Months I watched on YouTube all the trucks, Jeeps and even a few all-wheel drive SUVs make the trip up to the lake, and even a few extremely popular YouTubers made the trek. So, I figured how hard it could be it's only 10,256 feet to the lake and I had to see it for myself. As I began to research on All Trails “See Above”, On X Off-Road, and the web it did not seem that difficult I mean All Trails rates it a moderate trail Some that tried did not make the climb the altitude gain of over 6500 ft in such a short distance can wreak havoc on a transmission.

Three of us made the 265 miles drive out from Las Vegas to Bishop CA and what a fantastic drive it was, this had to be one of the most scenic squiggly roads I have ever been on, it was amazing.

I am sure we crossed three separate mountain passes and crossed thru Lida, NV down to Big Pine in CA, and let me say you better get gas before turning 95 to head across highway 266 because there is nothing in Lida or anything on this beautiful stretch of road.

We need to go back out that way and explore the bristle cone forest which is in that area. I have never been on a highway down to one lane in both directions.

As we descended to Big Pine the views just kept getting more breathtaking, which slowed our progress since we had to stop and take pictures, the views were breathtaking.

Me and Sergio Stopped on the Roadside.

It was a little Hazy that day not sure if it was from the Fires in CA.

Heading down from the last Mountain Pass

A quick stop in Big Pine, we could not help ourselves.

Heading north we met up with Rami in Bishop, CA a wonderful small town with not much to see they do have a bowling alley and a few restaurants, and from what I read a great spot to do some fly fishing up in Mammoth, but you can gear up here in Bishop, but that may be a whole different adventure since I have no idea how to Fly Fish.

Courtesy of Mammoth Fly-Fishing Adventures.

We got in late, and Rami had already set up at the campground with his trailer, so it was time to set up the tents and check out the town. We grabbed a quick late bite to eat at a great little pizza place, The Upper Crust Pizza, I thought I was hungry. The boys and I destroyed that pizza, and the staff was great letting us enjoy our food well past closing time. We ate and discussed the plan for the next day and decided we would head to the flats and camp out and push the other trails off to the next day. With our bellies full, the bill paid, and with an early morning trip to get supplies, we headed back to camp and got some rest.

The goal for the Day was to get to Funnel Lake.

Funnel Lake

The trailhead to coyote flats is only a few miles outside the town, just a short drive, so with the temperature starting to rise and

coolers full of ice we headed to the trail as we drove through town towards the trailhead, I thought holy crap we are going, I had been dreaming of seeing this for months. Since first seeing it on YouTube, I never really thought I would go, and I started to feel the nerves kick in, this would be my longest trail ride, and did the videos show how difficult or not the trail is?

As we make the last turn to start the trail, I see this and think to myself. "Shit, are we going up there?"

We stopped to air down check out the rigs and fire up On X to track and map the route after Sergio took some drive-by videos that I have yet to see and with Rami leading the way off we went.

The beginning of the trail is just a dusty road nothing to write home about.

That did not last for long and soon we started up through the switchbacks, winding our way up slowly, now my bro Sergio pushed himself on this first his jeep although a Rubicon is mostly stock running 33's and not lifted at all and to add to it he has a fear of heights and cliffs, and cliffs just came as we rounded this tight turn, as we rounded the corner we had oncoming traffic and head to back down to a safe spot in the turn to let the trucks pass by us. So, if you have never done it going up a narrow trail is easy and not incredibly stressful but backing down is a whole different story. Rami got out and helped spot us, which was needed since Sergio could not use his backup camera due to his Trasharoo hanging off his spare tire.

Rami spotting so we can make room for the traffic coming down and going up the switchbacks.

This is the spot we took a minute after letting the trucks go by, so we could let the adrenalin die down.

With that stress out of the way we continued to climb, one of the big issues everyone talks about while running this trail is the climb and heat and that you climb for an extended period and some rigs have transmission overheating problems, so we closely monitored our temperatures to avoid breakdowns or damage to the jeeps. "Yes, I jinxed myself when I thought of that"

About an hour or so into the run my jeep started acting very weird and I started seeing voltage dropping, the jeep had low power and seemed to stutter at times, and then it stalled, I was able to restart the jeep and keep on going for a bit but repeatedly the voltage would drop and then finally on a hill George just Stopped.

I was blocking the trail. These types of breakdowns scare me the most and are the main reason I do not go out on my own. Rami was in the lead, so he broke out the recovery gear and pulled me off the trail, so we did not hold anyone up. We checked out the wires and connections and the only thing we could think of Bad Battery. We discussed options and decided that Rami would run back down and get a new battery, and Sergio and I would sit under a tree and bull shit, surprisingly we still had cell service. So, he was able to chat with his girl while we waited.

If a new battery did not fix the issues, we determined the best bet would be to tow George back down to town and see about repairs. We did get to chat with a few people, and they offered encouragement and offered to help, but with Rami on his way for parts, we had done all we could do till he got back. It was about an hour or so Sergio and I sat in the shade and watch the vehicles go by, the puzzling group was a few guys on Dirt Bikes, which had fishing poles in their backpacks, which I thought hmm why didn't I think of that, but I never did find out where they want fishing because we never saw them again.

Soon we had the battery replaced and we were off once more climbing up the trail. For about the next hour or so it was about the same dusty, bumpy, switchback trail, we stopped so Rami could put up the drone, and he got some splendid video of the group.

Then we came across some cows just spending time together near the cattle fence just out in the middle of nowhere. I tell you what, if I were a cow this is where I would want to be the fresh air, the beautiful blue skies, open range, and plenty to eat.

Yes, they looked like happy California cows for sure.

Cows just a chillin

After we moooved past the cows I finally saw the Coyote Flats, I had to stop. I do not think in all my years I have ever seen such an amazing view; it was spectacular. Now I thought of the pictures on YouTube and what I saw on the screen did not even come close to doing it justice.

What bunch of freaking lucky ass cows to call this home.

I never really thought that places like this still existed in our world, I thought sure up in Alaska probably but only 265 miles from my home, never but here it was in all its glory. It looked like it went on forever, I just wished the trails went out to allow us to see it all and explore the entire area to camp right there in the middle of this beautiful landscape. But we had a lake to get to and time was slipping, and we did not know what the trail would be like the rest of the way.

With the excitement of getting to Funnel Lake, we did not stop much except when I had issues with the jeep, we headed down the trail. I read that the last part of the trail is the rockiest and slowest part of the trail. It was hard to pay attention to the trail with all the scenery unfolding around us. As we headed down towards the lake, we came across one of my favorite parts, swerving in and out of the turns in the soft sand, and even had to do some small water crossings which are always fun. If I were a real Youtuber I would have broken out the tripod and done some artsy water crossing shots, but I am not yet that good.

Even if I did not capture it in all its glory it was still fun and having fun while on an adventure is what it is kinda about. On X gets a little confused at this part going forward since we saw two separate ways down to the lake on the map so which one should we take not sure but they both lead to the same place so how could we go wrong I thought.

After the small water crossings, we continued down the trails winding our way through nice smooth trails with a few rocks but nothing crazy. We lost the On-X maps and I had to switch over to Gai GPS for the rest of the way. The map made it appear that it was a straight shot to the lake, and if the trail was like this the rest of the way was going to be a smooth ride. Well, I was wrong again.

We came across a small grove of Trees. Little did I know the hard stuff was just on the other side.

It got a little tricky going between and around the fallen trees, Rami had to back out at one point since the trail was hard to navigate since it was not clearly defined.

I have ridden some rock gardens on other trails, but I was not prepared for this in the slightest, I watched a bunch of videos of way less capable rigs making this run but I do not remember seeing anything like this in any of them.

This next part as you can see in the pic below was just awful, not a lot of large boulders yet but the constant up one rock and down the next slowed our progress, of course, we took it slow, and with Sergio running not lifted and no armor we had to make sure the route we took was safe for his rig. I was just hoping none of us would pop a tire we already spent enough time under a tree when we had to replace my battery. Besides, after all this trail had thrown at us, I was dam tired and ready to relax.

I mean it was not that bad but after a long day, I was hoping for a nice smooth relaxing ride, NOPE. Little did I know that soon I would hear Sergio say, "That is the craziest thing I have ever done in my Jeep". But for the now the views do not disappoint me, and I could not even imagine it would be this beautiful.

Around the turn, Rami makes a slight detour, but we all meet up in the same spot and Sergio gets to flex his Jeep muscles. I have to say I am proud of the way he took on this part coming up. See the quote from Sergio above.

I know you all may think this is a silly video, but we liked it.

Once the adrenalin subsided, we continued toward our goal we were close at this point and ready for the trail ride to be over, there was still camp to set up and food to cook, Hell I don't think we even stopped for lunch, good thing we killed that pizza the night before.

What I did not realize was that was it that hill Sergio conquered was the last obstacle to reaching our destination the last thing between us and getting out of the dam jeep and relaxing just beyond that turn in the pic below (which I did not know at the time) was Funnel Lake.

This was the end of the trail, the last bend, the last turn of the trail, and we finally made it. Now those that don't do this kind of stuff will think you knutz do all this just to see a lake? Hell yes, how many have seen this? How many have no idea that this even exists in our world today? How many people have even made the trip or tried to make the trip? I can now say we did, and I was immensely proud of that fact.

Except for Rami, I know that a year ago I would have never even given it a thought that one day I would do this and see something so incredible not on a screen but with my own eyes.

Not sure how Sergio feels about it, he may have known. But I for sure did not, I did not think places like this still existed, this is the kind of stuff I now dream about.

Welcome to the Lake.

So, we made it, we looked around for a bit and settled on setting up camp on the right side of the lake, there were a few other rigs at the other end of the lake. Now keep in mind Funnel Lake is small and since it has no water running in or out of the lake it is defiantly not a lake I would swim in for sure no Rami had another idea, but we talked him out of it in the end.

I had witnessed on a few other videos that the bugs could be bad, even Brad from Trail Recon looked like he was under attack in his video of his trip. But it was too late to worry about that now.

Not a Bad Camp Site View

Some shots from the camp and campsite views.

As you can see camp is all set up and it was finally time to relax, now the bugs and I should have remembered always to zip up the tent, but they were small bugs at least and they did not bite or sting. With fire bans in place across California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah, we could not burn wood, but I had brought along a propane fire pit which worked out great. We cooked some tasty burgers and sat around the fire for a bit and just enjoyed the company. Funny Rami was in his tent and said to Sergio, "I think I will lay down for a minute". He was out in ten seconds.

We chilled around the fire and watched the sun go down and the sky light up. I wish I could have gotten some shots of the night sky, but I'm still working on my camera skills.

I think I have only seen the Milky one other time when I was a kid in Amish Country in Indiana, and I have always wanted to see it again and I have only one word for when I saw it again DAM. it was utterly amazing, and I thought to myself God, you did outdo yourself, on this one.

It was getting late, Rami was still asleep, and Sergio was watching something on his phone up in his RTT, dam youngens and their confounded screens and I was wiped out from a very blessed day, it was finally time for some sleep. Good night and God Bless. Holy crap what an amazing day.