Southwest 2021-2: CA-East Side of the Sierras: Alabama Hills, Bishop, & Benton Hot Springs

February 23-24, 2021

    After two days in the Alabama Hills, we departed via Movie Road, following it to its northern end at Hwy 395. 

    A few miles north we passed Manzanar National Historic Site, one of numerous internment camps where people of  Japanese descent, most of whom were American citizens, were held during World War II. We have visited before and strongly recommend stopping if you are in the area. It is quite educational. This time, due to covid, we elected to continue north to Bishop.

    We arrived in Bishop just in time for lunch from Erick Schat’s Bakery. We parked, masked up, and walked to the bakery. Despite the restrictions due to covid of the numbers of people allowed inside at one time, we soon had delicious sandwiches for lunch and a loaf of sourdough bread. 

After eating our sandwiches in the park, we were back on the road and driving east on Hwy 6 to a hot tub that awaited us. Benton Hot Springs is only 35 miles up the road, but we do have a picture of the US Rte 6 sign at the other end from a previous trip that included a visit to Provincetown, Massachusetts, at the tip of Cape Cod.

    Benton Hot Spring’s 12 campsites with private hot tubs of varying sizes are somewhat shielded from view. Doug angled the van to block our tub from the exposed side. The hot tub would be ours alone for the next 18 hours. 

    It was quite warm in the sun and a few mosquitos were out, so we unfurled our wonderful Rolef shades on the side and back doors for the first time since their installation last July. We’d originally planned to have the screens made and installed at the Rolef factory in Montreal in spring 2020, but covid of course postponed that trip. 

Rolef screen on back door opening. Our bed is elevated 3 feet, allowing for gobs of storage below, both in the “house” and in the “garage” entered from the back doors. 

    Doug reads and enjoys the views from the tub. He made it a point to be in the hot tub about every 3 hours. 

   We knew it was cold that night but didn’t realize just how cold. In the morning, there was a big chunk of ice in our water jug! 

   After leisurely coffee, a final dip, and packing up the van, we were off to our next destination: Death Valley National Park.