Southwest 2021-1: California: East Side of the Sierras - Alabama Hills

February 21-23, 2021

Mt Whitney, 14,505 feet, highest peak in the continental US, viewed from the Alabama Hills.

    Our first trek in our Promaster Van, which we bought and had converted in Fort Collins, CO, in fall 2019, began Feb 21, 2021, after the world had been in the pandemic for a year. We’d both had our second COVID vaccine two-plus weeks before, and while still masking and social distancing, thought it safe to venture out.

    We live on the west side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Our first destination was the Alabama Hills on the east side, a mere 70 miles from home—as the crow flies, that is, or on foot, as Doug and friends did in 2007. They hiked the High Sierra Trail from Kings Canyon National Park on the west side to Mt Whitney on the east side. By car, it’s 250 miles, south to Bakersfield, east to Tehachapi, north to Lone Pine. 

Red Rock Canyon State Park, a popular camping site along Hwy 395 north of Tehachapi.

Red Rock Canyon.

Red Rock Canyon.

To the east lie the White Mountains, whose layers of wonderful colors change with the light.

Cinder cone from extinct volcano near Fossil Falls.

Owens Lake, drained to supply Los Angeles with water, has been somewhat restored after years of legal wrangling.

Whitney Portal Rd out of Lone Pine leads to the Alabama Hills and a trailhead to Mt Whitney, at 14,505 feet, California’s highest peak.

    If you’ve ever seen an old Western, you’ve seen the Alabama Hills near Lone Pine, CA. The area is bisected by Movie Road, and there’s a Museum of Western Film History in town. Hundreds of movies have been filmed here, especially the Westerns of the 1940s and ‘50s. More recent films include the 2012 Django Unchained and Star Trek V and VII.

The Rock formations of the Alabama Hills provide lots of hiding places for Westerns filmed here and plenty of opportunities for rock climbers.

  We spent two nights tucked in among the boulders. Doug’s iphone 11 camera takes amazing photos at night.

Sunrise in the Alabama Hills

    Regrettably, Marilyn forgot some of her meds, so we got an early start the first morning for the merely 500-mile roundtrip drive home and back with our wonderful pilot, Doug. 

Heading home we drove by solar farms that look like lakes from the distance—they are prevalent along Highway 14.

In the hills near Tehachapi, wind mills increase in number year by year.

 

   As we neared home, the west side of the snow-covered Sierras provided a stunning backdrop. As soon as we pulled in the driveway, all of our neighbors came out to see if we were okay. We are blessed to live where everyone looks out after us when we’re home and our house when we’re gone. We also got an unexpected shower before there would be a dearth of them. 

    We headed back to the east side of the Sierras via Walker Pass (Hwy 178), a winding two-lane road that passes citrus groves before entering Kern Canyon, climbs to Walker Pass at 5,250 feet, and ends up just north of Red Rock Canyon.

It’s a somewhat unnerving road at times through Kern Canyon. 

Walker Pass Road winds along the Kern River past the typical jagged, colorful rock formations of the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Descending to the east side of Walker Pass.

Back at our Alabama Hills campsite. It’s a boondocking area: camp where you like for free.

Alabama Hills and east side of Sierras.

Doug and Mt Whitney along the short walk to Mobius Arch.

Marilyn in Mobius Arch. Mt Whitney in the background. 

    After the short hike, we drove out Movie Road to 395 and north to Bishop.