With Shella and Abbie visiting the Philippines, I needed to keep myself occupied back at home. I realized I could meet my friend Tony for some off-roading in Death Valley, then continue solo to finally spend a few days at the Alabama Hills. This is the remote California location where many famous movies have been filmed.
This geologic site lies in the high desert, at the base of Mt. Whitney – the highest mountain peak in the (contiguous) United States.
I was lucky to find a nice, private dispersed camping site. I marveled at the nearby dikes in the boulders. these large “stripes” in the rocks extend hundreds of feet out in perfectly straight lines. Apparently it’s the result of magma filling the cracks in the rocks 150 million years ago.
In mid-April the springtime weather was absolutely perfect. Still cold enough in the mountains for snowy peaks, but just warm enough below for lizards to sun themselves on the rocks around me. I even saw a chuckwalla, though I wasn’t able to get a good photo.
The landscapes here really are otherworldly – it’s no wonder movies like the Lone Ranger and Star Wars used this location for filming.
I enjoyed capturing the ever-changing light on the surroundings as the sun traversed overhead each day. This was a perfect little cove – plenty of light for my solar, but also just enough shielding from the wind.
In the mornings I would wake up in my little camper and start exploring new features and vistas around me.
This place is probably a haven for rock climbers, too.
Desert Wildflowers
One of the best parts of visiting during the spring is the desert bloom. This was a particularly vibrant year in Panamint Valley, and was also impressive here at the Alabama Hills. This is just a fraction of all the color I saw on this trip.
What I didn’t have out here was much phone signal, which mostly was a good thing. However, I did have a friend who lives close by in Lone Pine, so I needed to climb up as high as I could to try and find signal to reach him. Success! Aaron said he would ride his dirt bike out after work to meet me.
As you can see, the late afternoon sunlight up here on the rocks was a nice bonus during this little “mission”.
I worried about him finding the precise location, but he reassured me that his GPS would work just fine. Well, he was right. He brought a friend named Mike along, and the two of them rode all the way into my campsite with no issues at all.
This was just what I was hoping for – old (and new) friends meeting up by the campfire in the rugged wilderness. It was great to see Aaron again, and Mike was quite interesting as well. We had a lot in common, his ears perked up when I told him I hoped to travel south into Central and South America soon.
He had plenty of advice, and I also loved hearing his stories of how he did it all by sailboat!
Well, Aaron and Mike had to get back to Lone Pine before it got too late. As they rode off into the dark, the quiet solitude of this experience washed over me. I cooked dinner on the campfire, with stars blazing overhead. Loved every minute of it.
I enjoyed this place so much. Really can’t wait to bring the family back here next spring – and hope we can make a tradition out of it.
Cheers,
Nathan
