Lone Pine, Mount Whitney and The Alabama Hills

This will be the final post from our June trip; we are now back home safe and sound in Palm Springs. Thanks to those of you who took the time to make a comment or two and to all of you who followed along. For me, travel is so much more fun when I can share it with you.

We will be heading out again in early August so expect to receive an email when I begin posting again. We’ll mostly be revisiting the Monterey/Pacific Grove/Carmel area, so I’ll have to do some digging to find some new and interesting attractions I’ve not already shared. I welcome the challenge!

From Mammoth Lakes, we headed south on Hwy 395 to Lone Pine, about 90 minutes away. Lone Pine is in the high desert, between two tall mountain ranges, so it is typically much warmer this time of the year than our previous destinations. This definitely proved to be the case during our visit.

For a very small town in a rather remote area, Lone Pine is actually pretty well known. During the golden age of the Hollywood Western, the Alabama Hills area of Lone Pine was the preferred shooting location for cowboy B movies that were the mainstay of Saturday matinees throughout the United States. Today, some films set in the Western US are still shot here, as are quite a few commercials.

Lone Pine is also one of the few places where Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous US, is visible. It can be seen from the parking lot of the Eastern Sierra Visitor Center, and from various spots along the Mt. Whitney Portal Rd, which passes by the Alabama Hills before ascending 3500 feet to the Mt. Whitney trailhead and base camp.

Finally, Lone Pine is also known for being the location of The Alabama Hills, which are a rather unique collection of brown hills and rock formations that run parallel to the Sierra Nevada Mountains in this area.

On the last full day of our trip, we stopped first at the Visitor Center in Lone Pine to pick up some maps and brochures and get our first glimpse of Mt. Whitney from the parking lot. Then we moved on to the Museum of Western Film History, just a short drive down the road.

The Museum, while small, was packed with artifacts and memorabilia from the movies made in the area, dating all the way back to the silent film era of the 1920s. It was much more interesting and well done that we expected, and the entry donation was only $8.00. In addition to movie posters and stills from the films made here, there were also hats, boots and chaps worn by the movie cowboys; saddles worn by the horses, one or two “get away” cars, and I think I remember seeing a wagon or stagecoach, but I may be mistaken.

The Museum encourages guests to begin their visit with a 15 minute introductory film that explores the history of film-making in the Alabama Hills. I found much of the scenery in this short film to be oddly familiar. Maybe I watched more cowboy movies in my youth than I remember! Or perhaps I saw one of the dozens of car commercials filmed here.

Of course, movies continue to be filmed in Lone Pine. Two well known recent examples are Django Unchained and the Iron Man series. A signed, handwritten, final draft of the script of Django Unchained, donated by the author, Quentin Tarantino, is on display in the Museum.

From the Museum, our next destination was the Alabama Hills, which are accessed from a turnoff along Mt Whitney Portal Rd. From the location of the turnoff, the view of Mt. Whitney is excellent. I referred in a prior post to Mt Whitney being a shy mountain because, even though it is the highest peak in the contiguous US, it is often impossible to see. It seems to hide behind other nearby peaks, and only occasionally to peek out from its hiding place.

The Alabama Hills

---

Early the same evening, we returned to Mt. Whitney Portal Road with two goals in mind. First, we would take the road until we reached the end, at the base camp and trailhead for Mt. Whitney. I hoped to get a few more pictures of the peak as we made our ascent. Second, we hoped to catch a bit of the sunset over the Alabama Hills, which we had heard was often glorious.

The drive up the mountain is a little unnerving. There are no guardrails, and the elevation changes pretty quickly from about 5000 feet above sea level to almost 8400 feet. At the end of the road, there is a parking lot, restrooms, and a bar and grill, and of course the trailhead. The elevation at the peak is 14, 500 feet.

By the time we returned to the Alabama Hills, the sun was already behind the mountains and it was clear we had missed the prime time for seeing the sunset. However, the day had been virtually cloudless, so it was unlikely that we would have seen a spectacular display that evening anyway. We will definitely try again next time we are in the area.

So that’s it for this trip. Thanks for joining us on the journey.