Lone Pine is a small town (pop. about 1600) below Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous U.S. Most people whiz right by it on the way to Mammoth from the L.A. area.

It’s a friendly little town that serves hikers about to summit Mt. Whitney, less adventuresome hikers like myself, horse riders, campers, fishers, etc. Some small hotels and restaurants, most notably The Merry Go Round restaurant.

It’s in the Owens Valley, which is a great place to go if you are interested in geology. You can see volcanic cones, hot springs, alluvial flows, earthquake scarps! There’s a grave on the north side of town from a huge quake that hit there in 1872.

My husband and I recently camped at the Boulder Creek Campground, pictured here from a distance. (We’d walked down the road toward dry Owens Lake in the morning.)