Lake Isabella

Launch from anywhere near the top of the radio tower, the road may work but could be a bit windy. I launched a bit further down and found better conditions. Launch is South facing is into the predominant wind direction. Apparently the wind is like clock work here. I would avoid middle of the day flying until you have more experience because it can get very blown out. Stick to morning and late afternoon. It's about a 30 minute hike up to the top if you just park out front and hike straight up. There is a fenced off road further along the road that you can drive up but not sure about private property issues. The walk up along the road may be easier for those that prefer an easy stroll.

I'm not a hang glider but I'm pretty sure that they could fly here, nice steep cliff to launch from and plenty of wind.

This is a pretty sweet ridge soaring site and with so much other stuff to do in the area you've got lots of options if it's not on. You can cruise pretty far West down the ridge, even jumping over the road. You can also jump back to the ridge behind but it gets somewhat technical back there. I'm guessing I was able to get about 500' over and I saw some hawks out there as well.

If you link the ridges further back, you may not be able to get out front again. I tried to just make it out front by cutting through the bowl and aiming low on the ridge but there was a bit of a venturi as all the extra wind pushed around the corner thus forcing me to land on the beach.

I think it may be possible to keep linking ridges further back so that you could eventually connect with the big mountains way back there and maybe go XC! I'll save that for my next attempt. You're probably looking at an hour plus hike out if you sink out though although you might be able to re-launch to save some time. I'd love to hear reports back if anyone tries this out.

Takeoff altitude: 1031m