Andruss Motel

About Andruss Motel

The Andruss Motel opened in 1958 on US Highway 395 in Walker, California, at 5,400 feet in the Eastern Sierra high desert. It has had three owners in nearly 70 years. Steve Wright, a former Deputy Sheriff, is the current owner-operator. He runs the motel with the same attentiveness he brought to law enforcement: he knows the West Walker River's fishing conditions every day of the season and reports them directly to guests who call ahead. A short film was made about the motel and his story, and it brought in guests who became regulars. The aesthetic is original rather than revived: knotty pine walls, antique accents, and the bones of a 1958 motor court maintained and developed rather than redesigned.

What Andruss Motel Is Known For

The real Eastern Sierra. Since 1958 is the motel's tagline, and it requires no improvement because it is accurate. The knotty pine has not been replaced with shiplap. The fish cleaning station is operational. Steve Wright gives fishing conditions to guests who call. The West Walker River is a ten-minute walk away. The pool is the only one in Walker. A pellet smoker is free to use. Live music plays poolside in the summer. None of this is borrowed from somewhere else; it is the specific accumulation of decisions made by three owners over nearly seventy years about what a Highway 395 motor court in the Walker Valley should be. The Andruss earns the designation because it is the genuine article, and the genuine article is exactly what 395 travelers are looking for.

Amenities

• Pets Welcome
• WiFi
• Seasonal outdoor pool
• On-site fish cleaning station with freezer
• Gas grills, Blackstone griddle, outdoor oven, and pellet smoker (all free)
• Multiple fire pit seating areas
• Horseshoe pits and cornhole
• Kitchenette room with full stovetop
• Free fiber optic WiFi
• Summer poolside live music (seasonal)
• Full-size truck and trailer parking

The Room

King rooms, queen rooms, a two-bed room, a family room, and a kitchenette. ADA-accessible rooms are available. Every room has a mini-fridge, microwave, coffeemaker, and complimentary fiber optic WiFi. The king rooms have the feel of a mountain cabin: knotty pine, antique accents, and the original character of a 1958 Eastern Sierra motor court that has been kept up rather than renovated into something else. Direct parking at every door. The kitchenette is built for extended fishing trips: full stovetop setup, plus access to the outdoor grills and the on-site fish cleaning station. The rooms are Eastern Sierra motor court proportions, solid, clean, and sized for the traveler who will spend daylight hours on the river or on the road.

The Grounds

Single-story, front-of-room parking on Highway 395 at 5,400 feet. The outdoor setup is what separates the Andruss from every other motel on this stretch of the highway: a seasonal pool (the only one in Walker), multiple fire pit seating areas, gas grills, a Blackstone griddle, an outdoor oven, and a pellet smoker, all available at no charge. The fish cleaning station, with a freezer for storing your catch, sits on the property, a ten-minute walk from the West Walker River. Horseshoe pits and cornhole in the yard. Summer poolside live music events. Full-size truck and trailer parking, which matters on a road trip corridor where guests arrive with boats, rigs, and gear that needs real space. The Walker Valley surrounds the property at high desert elevation: big sky, sage, the Sweetwater Mountains to the east, and the Sierra Nevada crest to the west.

The Experience

Call Steve before you arrive and he will tell you exactly what the river is doing. That is the Andruss Motel in a single sentence: an owner who knows what he has and runs it with genuine hospitality. Across more than 75 guest reviews, guests use language that sounds like they are describing a friend's property: went above and beyond, made us feel at home, knows everything about where to fish. Multiple reviewers describe it as the best motel stay they have had anywhere. The outdoor communal setup becomes an actual social event when the pool is running and the grills are going: fire pits, shared cooking, conversations about where the fish were biting. Highway 395 is one of the American West's great road trip corridors, and the Andruss is the kind of place that makes a 395 trip memorable rather than just longer.

Details

Frequently Asked Questions

Things to Do Near Walker, California

West Walker River

0.25 miles, about a 5 minute drive, or you can walk.

One of California's most productive wild trout fisheries, running alongside Highway 395 through the Walker Valley at 5,400 feet. The river holds wild brown and rainbow trout and is accessible via multiple pullouts along the highway. Steve Wright at the Andruss provides real-time fishing conditions to arriving guests, and the motel has an on-site fish cleaning station with a freezer for your catch.

Bodie State Historic Park

30 miles, about a 60 minute drive.

One of the best-preserved ghost towns in the American West, at 8,375 feet on the high desert plateau east of Bridgeport. Nearly 200 abandoned buildings remain in a state of arrested decay -- the California State Parks system maintains them as they stood when the last residents left in the 1940s and 50s. Access is via 13 miles of unpaved road east off Highway 395 at Bridgeport. Plan two to three hours on-site.

Mono Lake

40 miles, about a 80 minute drive.

An ancient saline lake on the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada, older than the Sierra Nevada itself, with otherworldly calcium carbonate tufa towers rising from the water. The South Tufa interpretive trail, bird watching for up to 80 species, and summer kayaking make it one of the most distinctive natural sites on the entire 395 corridor. Lee Vining, at the lake's edge, is the eastern gateway to Yosemite via the Tioga Road.