Pick up a current copy of "California Road & Recreation Atlas" by Benchmark Maps. Good detailed road and trail maps, including type of road. It's very easy to get stuck once you leave the pavement. It also describes camping spots and what facilities are available.
A good "overview" is the Auto Club's Explore map series, which have area maps for the eastern Sierra, Death Valley, etc.
A few non-landscape/non-nature/non-hiking suggestions.
In Lone Pine there is a movie museum:
http://www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org/museum.htmA map of Movie Road in the Alabama Hills:
http://www.lonepinefilmhistorymuseum.org/m...ur_brochure.pdfThere's also a visitor center just south of Lone Pine. I always stop there to talk with the ranger staff about current conditions when I come up from L.A.
There is a small museum in Independence (about 15 miles north of Lone Pine) which gives a good historical overview of the Owens Valley:
http://www.inyocounty.us/ecmuseum/CalTech has a radio telescope array outside of Big Pine (off the road east to the White Mountains):
http://www.ovro.caltech.edu/As mentioned earlier, Galen and Barbara Rowell's Mountain Light Gallery in Bishop:
http://www.mountainlight.com/Just north of Lee Vining there is a visitor center overlooking Mono Lake
Paul