I use the all trails app to find this location. The road there can be bumpy but if a Tesla can get in there you shouldn't have a problem. There is a reasonable size parking lot. 15-20 or so cars. There are bathrooms located at the parking lot. The hike from the parking lot to the actual craters is less than a mile and it's mainly flat, very little incline. The craters are awesome. One was easily seen than the other. The second one was surrounded with trees and plants. So it was hard to see. Worth a visit if your in mammoth! read more

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Really neat place to hike to, if/when you can find it. No signs for the trail head besides a tiny hand written sign you can only see from a few feet away. The protective fence around parts of the craters is torn down and some of the cement columns for the last metal fence along the cliff are fully exposed and literally floating/hanging in the air, posing a danger to anyone leaning on that fence. There's a fair amount of mosquitos, though not as bad as the Minaret Falls hike where you get swarmed and eaten alive. Great views of the craters on this hike though. read more

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Nice little hike that the whole family can enjoy. It's a fairly easy one with minimal incline and the views from the top is amazing.

Most amazing scenery. Beautiful country, three incredible craters filled with aqua blue water. Fairly short hike, uphill. About 1/2 mile from parking to 1st crater and another 1/2 to 3/4 to the 3rd. Came across two bears near the 2nd crater which was exciting and a little concerning. One of which was over 5 ft tall. I could tell since he stood on his hind legs to get a look at me before fleeing. Incredible experience, great fairly short hike. Highly recommend, couldn't be happier. Life time memory without the bears, they just added to the unforgettable experience. If you're in the area, near or in Mammoth, this is an absolute must. read more

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Came by on a Sunday evening around five and had the entire place to ourselves! It was a easy and short nature hike. A great trail to stretch your legs, but don't really want to break a sweat when you're on a road trip. When we got to the crater, it was very peaceful and quiet, albeit windy. Dog friendly, which is something we always look for! Our dog enjoy sniffing around for chipmunks, didn't really care for the crater. Be careful about the Ticks though! This was the most tick infested area we travelled to on our trip, and our dog had a few crawling around on her. We think the view was beautiful, but it was honestly hard to get good pictures during this time. Maybe earlier in the morning or afternoon would've captured the craters a bit better. read more

Inyo Craters - The only place that I have cell service - Hiking Near Me

FIRST OFF I drove in from San Jose Bay Area and this was the first stop coming to Mammoth Lakes. This was on the way to the Airbnb. It was a nice stop to stretch your legs and do an easy 15 minute walk until you get to the first crater, which is hard to see because it is deep down and looks like a regular lake. Once you keep walking you can see the green water crater, which to me is the main attraction of this area. HIKE Follow the blue diamonds on the trees as you hike to make sure you are going in the right direction and on the way back to the parking lot. It can be a little scary walking around here because you can get close to the edge and feel like you were going to fall over. The railing looks like it could use a revamp as it looks like part of the cliff is eroding closer and closer in land. DOG Dog friendly. I brought my dog. I did not end up hiking more, but from what I know there are three craters in total. MAP I recommend following Google maps because the Waze app took a different route to the middle of nowhere. GENERAL I wouldn't say this is the most exciting attraction, but I think it is worth stopping by either on your way in to Mammoth Lakes or on your way out. You can see that there are some good photo opportunities here. read more

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Ok you don't have to walk the long trail, drive in but your car will get dusty At the end of the road there will be parking, from that point on you will have to walk the trail. It is a dirt trail just stay on it. So here is the trick there are two trails, we went up the one farthest from the outhouse. Oh boy that trail has many loops, and it is more like 1.5 miles. It seemed we were never going to get there. Start on the trail closes to the outhouse where there is some info ... that trail will take you directly without any major hills or loops. That trail one way was only .35. Once you there it is breathtaking read more

Inyo Craters - Breathtaking view of big and small craters - Hiking Near Me

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This is a great trail to take if you're not an advanced hiker, have bad knees or hips or are on a family trip with small kids. I wish there was better signage to find this place. It came highly recommended by the guide at the visitors center but she basically just pointed to it on a map with no context to where we were on a map. I finally came across a local who gave better directions. If you are staying in Mammoth Lakes in town, you will need to get back on the 203 and go outside of town until you hit the 395 going North. You will see various side roads with not much signs fe but eventually come across a road you can turn left on called Mammoth Lakes Loop, take that and keep going. You are not going to see any signs for a while and when you do, you will almost be to the parking lot. From there follow blue diamonds all the way to the top. The views are worth it and we also saw some deer. read more

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The trail to simply reach the inyo craters is 0.5 miles (sign at the parking lot says 0.25 mi). The way to the craters isn't too scenic - lots and lots of downed / cut trees. The crater lakes themselves are worth to see. The southern one seems much more scenic than the north but maybe that's just due to the time of day I did the hike (late afternoon). Dog friendly! The drive in is a bit bumpy and I wouldn't recommend for low clearance vehicles. read more

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Great hike! Easy flat hike through wooded area with lots of shade. When you take the trail to the end go left and you will see picnic tables and a fence that overlooks the Inyo Cater that is blue green. If you have children don't let them go under the fence or too close to the edge, it drops off and is dangerous. Dogs are allowed on this hike. If you walk around past the fenced area be very careful there is nothing to prevent you from falling. Majestic views and a very nice stroll through the woods. read more

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The craters themselves are weird little green lake at the bottom of big pits. The hike up here is really nice through the big national forest. read more

Cool craters to view. There is a long dirt road to get to the trail head approximately a mile to get there from main road. 2 wheel drive is fine. It's a half mile in and a half mile out. The crater has cool color water at the bottom from the minerals in the rock. Give yourself and hour time to hike and view and take photos. Worth the trek. There were also some people who road there bikes up the trail n back. read more

**DEC. SNOW HIKE + KIDS** so my husband and I like to hike. Do our kids like to hike and will they last in the snow is the million dollar question. Thanks Yelpers for the reviews on how easy this hike is. It gave us the courage to try it out in December snow. With... our 13 year old, 8 year old, 5 year old twins, 12 year old nephew, and 11 year old niece. (Yeah on top of our own 4 kids, somehow we got 2 more added to our crew.) I guess we're a glutton for pain, yeah? Maps on our trusty iPhone led us straight to the trail. There's a small bathroom that you'll see to your right. Beware, try to go before you leave your house for the hike. One of my twins had to go so I had no choice, but to go in with her. I think death exploded in there. I was holding my breathe, but you can only hold your breathe for so long so I was gagging with full on watery eyes. For the hike. So we totally overlooked the small trail sign to the left and just jumped the gun and started walking the first trail (middle) we saw. In my brain, when I had read the reviews about the blue triangle markers on the trees, I just remembered blue. The wrong trail has blue spray paint marked on the trees, so we blindly chugged along. What I did remember was someone mentioning a slow incline, we weren't on a slow incline. So we turned around and decided to try and start over. I thought only we were careless enough to start on the wrong trail, but later we saw someone on the wrong trail and than on the right trail asking if he was heading the right way. So don't make the same mistake as us and other fellow hiker. Blue diamonds everyone. Blue diamond. The trail was nice and totally do able, even in snow. Okay, so each and every one of the kids did fall maybe once or twice on the patches of slippery ice, but me and my husband managed to stay on our feet. I may have done the woaaaah woahhhh a couple times and cracked my back trying to regain my balance, but I didn't fall. You know when you're close to the top, it just kind of opens up and you know you're close. So the anti climatic crater is the one you kind of walk right up to. The more interesting one is to your left. From what we saw you veer off to the right and loop around both craters to make full circle. I'm assuming this is where everyone mentioned it's a little sketchy and scary close to the edge. We opted to cheat and just cut to the left crater. No loop. Left crater is where the picnic bench is. It was a nice little spot to peer down into the crater. With the December snow it looked like an ice skating rink. We saw someone made it down there and wrote initials in the ice. It was a fun quirky thing to see. Overall, like other yelpers said it's a nice quick easy way to stretch your legs and enjoy some nice fresh mountain air. read more

This is a fairly easy hike and has a nice rest area at the top. It was a interesting, different then other craters we've been too. We had dogs and it was a little unnerving getting close to the edge with them...but that's because my dogs were excited and not behaving properly. We will probably do this hike again in the future and recommend it for a quick easy hike. We also found a huge caterpillar on the way in, almost stepped on it! It was in process of turning into a moth. Picked it up with a stick and set it in a tree. On our way down it was a beautiful big colorful moth. read more

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Short (easy) hike from the parking lot to the first 2 craters. This is located off mammoth scenic loop and has good signage and easy to find. There are bathrooms in the parking lot. We stopped at the first 2 craters because I was wearing vans and seemed like a steep hike up to the third one. It was cool to see once. read more

Inyo Craters - Hiking Near Me

Hiked to the top of Inyo Craters in March 2018...in our rented snow shoes. Very tiring but also thrilling. 6 miles round trip with toddler and dog in tow. Wow, kudos to being parents! Haha Views were great on top and snow was fluffy and pristine white. read more

Created by steam explosions from volcanic activity, these gigantic craters are like inside-out domes, very beautiful and definitely worth seeing at least once in your life. Off the Mammoth Canyon Scenic Loop, you'll take the Dry Creek Road Spur and follow the signs to Inyo Craters. It's pretty well-marked. The road out to the Inyo Craters trailhead is a bit bumpy. We took our 12 passenger van out there, and when we pulled into the parking lot we were surrounded by trucks. So, a non-outdoorsy car can make it, but we certainly weren't the norm. There is plenty of parking by the trailhead and there are also bathrooms (not port-a-potties!). The trail is marked by bluish-green triangles nailed to the trees, so it's hard to miss. The hike has a bit of a gradual incline, and it took our lungs a little while to adjust, especially because of the altitude. It was a short hike to the craters. On the way, make sure you stop and smell the tree bark. Some of the trees smell like vanilla. Also you can take a picture of your friend sniffing the trees, because why not have a little fun? :) When you get to the craters, be sure to have your camera out! You'll want to take photos of the small greenish-blue crater and then the other crater that has trees surrounding it. I don't think you can hike down to the little ponds in the center. The water doesn't have an appealing, swim-in-me look, and it would be quite the scramble to get out of the crater. As a heads-up, you might want a jacket if you run a little cold; it gets very windy!! If you have kids, spit into the wind and watch how far your spit travels. If you don't have kids, you should still spit into the wind. :) We took a blaze-your-own-trail hike around the larger crater. It was fun to scramble among the rocks and bushes and trees. It is doable even though there's no discernible path. Plus, because of the higher elevation, you get a unique view of the crater. Our youngest hiker was 12 and he enjoyed foraging ahead. If you prefer a more relaxing experience, there are some picnic tables (but only a few), and there's a guardrail along the small, bluish-green crater. It's interesting how only a portion of the crater is guarded. Watch your little ones! All in all, very beautiful. Very easy hike. Totally worth seeing at least once. read more

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Interesting place to visit once. We hiked to the first two craters on a hot dry August day, and we were glad we made the effort. The craters look just like the pics. Pretty cool. My old 2005 Prius made it over the dirt road just fine at low speeds :-) No punctures! A Jeep or similar might be better, but the road (although bumpy and dusty) was drivable. read more

We found this place by going Through the mammoth scenic loop. It is to your left and limited parking. This has been one of the best experience walking on the snow. It is truly satisfying, we played and walk on the snow the entire way. We followed the clean trail and the signs posted. We didn't realize that the hike was about 4 miles in total. We were not able to get to the Craters but we go close to where the restroom was at and we had only 1/2 a mile to go. We were all tired by then, so bring water and maybe a snack. It looked amazing. There was a lot of people on skies but we just moved to the side. Dogs are allowed. read more

Inyo Craters - First sign - Hiking Near Me

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Directions: From the town of Mammoth Lakes take hwy 203/Minaret road west towards Mammoth Ski Mountain. Make a right onto the Mammoth scenic loop. Inyo craters are a few miles up on the left. If you continue on the scenit loop road for 6 miles you will conect with Hwy 395. Enjoy an easy walk through the woods to check out volcanic craters! My hubby and I took an opportunity to get out of the car with our two mutts and explore on foot. Bring a camera, drinking water and a picnic basket so you can soak up the ambiance of this unique geologic feature. There are three craters to hike to, all that limits you is time and how long you choose to hike. If there is snow, you can also play in the snow and explore via snowshoe! xoxo read more

These craters are part of a chain of volcanic features leading all the way from Mammoth Mountain to Mono Lake! It is an easy hike to the first two craters and they are quite pretty. Lots of pumice on the trail so expect to get dusty! The third crater is actually at the top of Deer Mountain. There is no specifically marked trail to the top. Which is surprising as the other craters have railings for safety, and clearly marked trails. It is a strenuous and steep hike to the third one, and I do not recommend children nor dogs for this one. In fact best to wear hiking boots not running shoes. It is a "knife edge" top of the crater, with unstable soil. Not for the faint of heart, and somewhat dangerous, that's why no kids nor dogs. The actual crater is filled with trees. Nice views from up there though! read more

In all honesty, I am glad that I went and I thought it was pretty neat. But it was pretty anticlimactic. There's a couple of big holes in the ground with some water in them. There are three in total. The first was rather open, with a single tree on the crater wall, and a bluish green colored water. The second was difficult to see, as the crater wall was lined with trees. The water in this crater was more of a brownish green color. We opted not to hike up to the third crater, as we had been hiking ALL day! I would not go back, but I might recommend it as a 20 minute stop if you're in the area. read more