Owens River Gorge - where to get water and showers when camping at the Pit.

Will be camping at the Pit in early March for 10 days. Where can I get water (besides buying bottled water) and showers in the Bishop area?

Keough's.

Showers at the Laundromat, but good luck having them be open when you need them to be. No regular hours at all when I was there last year.

That town seriously needs a little climbing hostel.

Phill T wrote:Showers at the Laundromat, but good luck having them be open when you need them to be. No regular hours at all when I was there last year. That town seriously needs a little climbing hostel.

For sure. Bishop is generally pretty well equipped, from an in-town amenities perspective, for the traveling climber...except for the shower situation. That laundromat offers showers in theory, but trying to find a time when they are open is not easy. Keough's is nice, but a bit pricey and a bit of a drive to get there. There just isn't an ideal shower option.

A nice, in-town shower option (something like the Lazy Lizard Hostel in Moab) would be a really great amenity. For that matter, an enterprising climber/businessperson would likely be very successful if they opened a reasonably priced climber hostel in town. Even though there is plenty of free/cheap camping, the best bouldering occurs during the part of the year when camping is kind of brutal (long cold nights); I'm sure that there are plenty of climbers who would happily pay $10-$25 a night for a bunk to sleep in, an shower, and the ability to hang out inside during the evening.

+1 Keough's

There's also a right turn just before you enter Keough with several hot springs for free. It's runoff from Keough

Just wash up in the creek.

Water from the creek also..

better yet .... go 10 days with no shower.

and Keough's run off has Bloodsuckers in it, yuck.

creek??????? that's the mighty owen's river, well, once mighty before the L.A.liens took the water. L.A.lien Landing.

The Millpond Campground (closer than going into town) supposedly has coin-op showers, but I don't know the winter water situation. inyocountycamping.com/millp…

The giggle springs gas station has a water pump too.

kmart.com/coleman-5-gallon-…

You can get water anywhere! Agreed completely on the hostel idea and have definitely looked into that as an opportunity. Hang out in the Kmart parking lot long enough and you are bound to hear how to get by in Bishop for next to nothing. United Methodist Church on Fowler and church downtown has free showers M-W-F from 9-11am as well as free lunch on the same days starting at noon. Very friendly folks with 0 pressure from staff. You dont even see anyone most of the time you visit. Just go into the smaller building on the right, next to the high school. 1 shower in the mens room and a small line can cause a wait up to 15-20 min. 5 min max but always hot water.