It's About the (RV) Journey....: Alabama Hills-hunting for more arches..............

We set out again Friday morning to hike around the Alabama Hills and find some of the arches in the Alabama Arches kindle book we have on our phones. It was much easier to have pictures of the arches and directions to their locations. We still had trouble finding them, but it was fun...almost like a treasure hunt of some sort. And we enjoyed the hiking! The conditions were perfect....60' s and breezy....actually pretty windy! 15-25 mph, with gust up to 40 mph. Mostly it felt good though. I'll take it, compared to the unrelenting heat of the desert the other day!

heading into new territory....further along on the Movie Rd

the views look fake

look at how that giant rock just split and fell over

The views all around are just fantastic, and believe it or not, the rocks are really cool. Especially when some of them have fallen and broken apart. The size of some of these rocks are amazing. The first area we explored to find "Bikini Arch" and "Stevenson Arch" was hard to find, but we managed. As we hiked along the area, trying to stay on somewhat of a trail, we spotted the "Bikini Top Arch". You really have to be at the correct angle, and have a picture so you know what you are looking for. We just could not find Stevenson Arch, and as we headed back to the car...there it was. Again, you need to be at the correct angle. No matter though-we like the hiking! The views are really great and its fun checking out these huge boulders.

Bikini Top Arch

a random rock.....they all have special features, its seems

looking for the Stevenson Arch

could that be it?

nope...

there it is

way high up -need to see it from a certain angle (we are off the trail right now)

hiking back - look at the view!

pop of pink...always a pleasure

Next we headed towards the Eye of Alabama area we didn't finish (due to my heat issues....its always something, isn't it?). We came in from the other side, hiking up a jeep road to find the Charred Arch, the Pass Arch and oddities such as Exfoliated Granite. We managed to find all three, and enjoyed the flowers and scenery along the way. It was quite windy!! We both had some hat issues. I think we really did experience 40 mph gusts on this hike...hahaha. The sand hurt as it hit the back of our legs at times.

okay... is that an arch?

doesn't that rock look like some sort of skull?

nice pic of Tom!

wedged

OMG-its a 40 mph gust for sure

not Charred Arch

there it is ....Charred Arch

Charred Arch

looking across at the Inyo/White Mountains on one side of the trail....

We had the ~~trail~~ jeep road to ourselves, and had a wonderfully peaceful morning enjoying the views and taking it all in. We saw just one other guy hiking, that was it!

this is an unbelievable place....this side of the trail you see the Sierra Nevadas and the Alabama Hills

nature's art

still hiking along the jeep trail

beautiful Inyo Mts

Securing the hat! Its soooo windy :)

The views over Owens Valley looked a little hazy. It was actually sand blowing like crazy. Sometimes we could see little swirls, but at other times, it was a full-blown dust storm. Major cause of the small particle pollution here in God's country.

dust devil

view of Owens Lake with water

Pass Arch (close to the ground)

finding the Exfoliated Granite example along the trail

Exfoliated Granite

check the dust blowing in the Owen's Valley!

there's so much dust blowing down there

Despite the wind, we really had an enjoyable time. Thankfully, I don't have issues with wind. (Though apparently a lot of people must, because we only saw one other hiker). I was happy that I didn't have to foil our hiking plans today for one issue or another. I know...I'm a package. Ugh! I'm working on it!

sweet

tough day to wear a hat

look at those views-there's the Whitney Portal Rd

a flower field on the Inyo Mt. side of the trail

another arch?

surreal

so sweet

great views across the Alabama Hills

amazing

towards the Inyo/White Mts.

another trail

just beautiful

there's our little car!

Getting back in the car and heading out to try to find another few arches right off of Movie Rd, we succeeded in our mission! It wasn't easy, but we did manage to find the "Big Daddy Arch" and the "East of Big Daddy Arch". The pictures were hard to match up to what we were actually seeing. There were a lot of other cool things to observe in the area....the rocks. Wow! The size of some of the boulders are incredible.

cool features in a lot of the rocks

giant "bowling balls"

so tiny and sweet

East of Big Daddy Arch

I think this little "cave" is cool.....just hoping a mountain lion doesn't stroll out of it...ahhaha

close up

that's the East of Big Daddy Arch....but where is the Big Daddy Arch?

Tom walking across that boulder field to find the arch

its that way....to the left of the arch we easily see

checking the kindle book again on the phone

is that it?? no, its too far away...

still searching

there it is.....close to the ground and we wouldn't call that an arch! Hahah

see it?

giant boulders spewed across the landscape

We had one more arch to find before calling it a day, and that was the Whitney Portal Arch. It can be seen along the Whitney Portal Road, but try as we might, we just could not see it. Eventually, there it was....right in front of us.

heading back down Movie Rd

the views are amazing...I can't stop saying that

oh, some more sweet little flowers as we searched for the Whitney Portal Arch

there it is...we finally saw it from the road

As we drove the 5 minutes back home, the wind and dust storm was really kicking up. We lost power for about an hour, and later watched as the Sierra Nevada mountains that we can see from our front window became hidden in storm clouds. Not a good day to be hiking at the Whitney Portal....