It's About the (RV) Journey....: Alabama Hills................

The Alabama Hills, located just west of Lone Pine along Hwy 395 in California, add to the beauty of the drive along 395. They are brown, rounded rocks, in all kinds of cool formations-famous for being the setting for so many westerns filmed in this country. There are over 300 arches among them, some even visible from the road. Behind the Alabama Hills are the glorious Sierra Nevada Mountains, with Mt. Whitney being the highest peak in the continental U.S. at 14, 505 feet.

Why are they called the Alabama Hills? Early prospectors named their mining claims after the Confederate warship C.S.S. Alabama (during the Civil War). The name stuck! The town of Lone Pine has one traffic light, located at Mt. Whitney Portal Rd, which will take you right into the Alabama Hills on the way to the Mt. Whitney Portal. There are several roads off this from which you can explore. One of note is Movie Road!

The Alabama Hills were the set location for many westerns, starting way back with silent films. There have been other films shot there too, such as Ironman, Tremors, and Gunga Din. Maps are available to show the location of these filming sites. So, between gawking at the natural beauty of the landscape, hiking and looking for arches, hiking and trying to find movie set locations.....the Alabama Hills can keep you pretty busy! Oh, and its high desert...so the beauty of the desert enhances the rock formations. Its a really cool place.

L.P. (Lone Pine)

heading up Mt. Whitney Portal Rd. gives you a great view of Mt. Whitney (towards the center of the pic)

first trip in we headed to Movie Rd.

The views are just fantastic. The landscape is other-worldly in some places, and in others....we feel like we are in a western and are waiting for horses to come flying through. Hahhaha. So, we started our exploration on Movie Rd. to check out the Mobius Arch. There is a short trail that leads to several arches, if you can find them. Hiking in the desert is just beautiful, and with the backdrop of the Sierra Nevadas, well.....WOW!

Arch Loop trailhead

isn't that amazing...

the Mobius Arch

looking east

looking west .... with Mt. Whitney on the very far right (It looks smaller because its farther away)

such a cool landscape

We were looking for arches on this trail, but we didn't have a map of the arches, so we were just looking. Later, I bought a kindle book "Arches of the Alabama Hills" to read on my phone, and it not only has maps, but pictures of the arches to help us find them. We are having fun with that! Regardless, this short hike was very pretty with all the wildflowers blooming in the desert.

trail is so pretty and well marked

the rocks are just so cool

The high desert is in bloom right now! How lucky are we? The flowers are everywhere. And the rocks...just beautiful. So many different shapes and configurations. There are "clumps" of rock everywhere....just perfect for the movie sets!

so sweet

we just love the wildflowers! so unexpected and so pretty

very cool shapes

and colors too!

pops of color everywhere

the Sierra Nevadas tower above the Alabama Hills

I think this is the location for a famous scene from a western...I'll get back to you on that

beautiful

no matter where you look, its really awesome

another arch...

check that out!

Its hard to tell the magnitude of these hills, especially with the Sierra Nevadas in the background. Can you see the cars, which I tried to use for scale?

As we hiked we kept looking around, because different arches are visible at different angles. We enjoyed checking out the rock formations anyway and the hike was really scenic, but we are on a mission to find some of the more pronounced arches here. In the meantime, we are so thoroughly enjoying just gawking at all the different rock formations, and the natural beauty of this special place.

so much erosion

Do you see the arch? Looks like a sideways heart, doesn't it?

close up

magnificent!

these rocks had their own special character

nature's art

The trail meanders through this beautiful natural landscape. The views were spectacular, no matter where we looked. As we came around a bend, we caught sight of the back side of the Heart Arch.

so many colors too

another view of the landscape and the Heart Arch from the back

there's another one

such cool rocks

isn't that gorgeous...Mt. Whitney is in the center of the picture, and looks a little smaller because its back farther

ahh, shade in the desert!

The rocks were all so different....shapes, colors, configurations, and groupings. Very cool. And most were surrounded by wildflowers, which added to the beauty. Check out some of these....

Just incredible scenery all around. Some of the rocks looked like they were peeling. Some had holes that made them look "scary". It looked like small caves were beginning to form in some rocks. All different. All very cool.

the views take your breath away

"scary"

these rocks are peeling

close up

little caves forming?

the flowers were gorgeous-bright pops of color throughout the desert

more caves forming?

a beautiful little hike

another view of Mt. Whitney...which is towards the right of the pic

As we turned the bend, we saw we just had the wash to cross to get to our car. Looking back, we could clearly see the Heart Arch! This was a great short hike, with lots of incredible scenery. Like walking through a postcard!

heading steeply down the wash

checking it out

heading back up the other side

aahh...stairs!

a great view of the Heart Arch

Close up

Next we headed out to see if we could find the Eye of Alabama Arch. We took the car to the parking lot for that section. We passed this guy chilling out on a Sunday morning. The view he had was priceless. We stopped at the trailhead and headed up, quite steeply, for a short amount of time. We stopped to catch our breath and take in the beauty, and we could see the scale of things a little better once we spotted a car driving through the hills.

Sunday morning chill out

heading up

cool

can you see the little spot (that is a car)

Heading back up the trail after stopping to take in the view (and catch our breath), we actually almost walked right by the arch. It was easier to see looking back. I think it can also be seen from the road, but we missed it. Ah...we wanted the hike anyway. Going beyond the arch and up the hill, we could see forever! The views were fantastic, really.

let's see what's up there

there's the Eye of Alabama Arch

the top of the hill

the views from the top

More views from the top...That's Owens Dry Lake

not sure if you can tell what a steep drop off the trail takes....woah....and the gravel is slippery

We could see Owens Dry Lake from there as well, and we could actually see water! This is a very important bird migration area, and the fact that there is so little water affects a lot more than we think.

Owens Dry Lake...I see water down there!

are those little arches?

From this vantage point, we could also see the winding road up the mountain. This road is actually right across from our campground, and we may be traveling up it in a few days. It looks a little scary to me!

we will most likely check out that road up the mountain

a close up

I'm not sure if you can tell, but we stopped our hike here because the hill behind me is quit steep. Ah, for another day. We appreciated the spots of color as we headed back down to our car. Can you see the little spot that is our car? And the views from here? WOW!!!

the trail drops steeply behind me...maybe another day?

pretty

see our car down there....we hiked up a bit of a hill..ahhaha

The Mount Whitney Portal Road goes up the side of the mountain and leads to the portal. That is also for another day. There is so much to see and do here.

Mt. Whitney Portal Rd-up the side of the mountain

Again, savoring the views as we headed back down the trail to our car. Another view of tye Eye of Alabama Arch. Sometimes going down is harder than going up, especially when its a steep grade with loose gravel.